With an intrigue for a particular niche of old UK hardcore which takes cues from Sheffield bleep ambience, heady rave futurism and soft, almost new age synth pads, Blank Mind presents Lost Paradise: Blissed Out Hardcore 91-94.

This compilation album was released in March 2024 by Blank Mind (London, UK) and is available on Bandcamp. Design by Sam Purcell, founder of Blank Mind. He used the typeface Bertin (Roman Seban, 205TF), Akzidenz-Grotesk (Berthold), Cormorant (Christian Thalmann) and F Grotesk (Radim Peško).

[More info on Discogs]

ToY is the one and only typeface used on the artwork for the sixth album record by Calvin Harris as well as for the accompanying singles, all released by Columbia Records.

[More info on Discogs]

Texas Sun is an album by Khruangbin and Leon Bridges and was released to Bandcamp on February 7, 2020.

The name of the album is set in Expressa Bold, with the text above it in Futura and, for the names of the artists, Futura Extra Bold. Furthermore, it's all in all caps.

On Friday the 13th of February 1970, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, Geezer Butler and Ozzy Osbourne released their first album, the self-titled record Black Sabbath. Just seven quick months later, the band put out their second full-length release, Paranoid in September of the same year. Between these two albums, Black Sabbath had several of their greatest hits of all time, including songs like “Iron Man,” “War Pigs,” “The Wizard,” and “Paranoid” and helped pave the way for the creation of genres like heavy metal, doom metal, stoner rock, and goth.

2020 is a lot of things, but it also celebrates 50 years of Black Sabbath and Paranoid. Here is a bootleg cassette containing both albums in full on their respective side, all dubbed on one 90 minute cassette. Original j-card design from Chaotic No Good, two-color risograph printed by Martian Press.

As mentioned in a previous post on Fonts in Use, in 1972 and '73 the typeface Marvin was used on tour flyers promoting Sabbath’s shows in Germany. Although it may now seem strange to view the band’s name in this flair-filed hippie-invoking font, I’d like to pose this as an accurate depiction of the young band’s psychedelic-induced horror and the distorted blues riffs of their earliest years. Black Sabbath is hippie.

The secondary typeface in this design is a modified version of Bookman Old Style. Since there is no digital version of Marvin available, letters on this design were hand placed and kerned from a photo of the font's type-specimen.

Hong Kong based Studio Mary designed a book for Francis Yu’s study on paintings & ceramics. The sketchy layout captures the working process of the artist.

Lausanne and Domaine Display are used throughout, paired with a yet unidentified typeface for Chinese texts.

You Who Was Myself cover

Julia ‘Juice’ Webster approached me to design the cover for her debut EP You Who Was Myself and two singles. Already making waves as one half of Melbourne electronic duo Hemm, this is Juice’s first solo record. The design uses Neue Helvetica (83 Heavy Extended) in capitals for all typography.

“Lover, I Swear” single cover

EP launch poster

Detail

Facebook Cover

Antiques FSL from Forgotten Shapes’ Affichen-Schriften series in use as part of a window installation of experimental silkscreen posters for the project La mer, on est rentrés dedans conceived and designed by Fanny Myon. The posters and installation were on view at Galérie Surface as part of “Le Mai de la Typo” from May, 2nd to July, 4th 2019.

The design of the final posters was preceded by extensive formal experiments with the help of collages from lasercut forms. Photographs of different paper compositions were the foundation for the digital montage and preparation of the following silkscreens.

Le Bonbon Nuit is a free monthly magazine about music, art and nightlife in Paris. For issue nº98, the magazine’s stalwart typeface selection — Whyte Inktrap from Dinamo and Production Type’s Kessler, both in use since March 2019 — are complemented with headlines set in guest typeface ToY (Out of the Dark).

Poster and flyer for Lingua Ignota’s (Sargent House) concert at Espace B (Paris 19) together with Shantidas for the “Caligula” tour in October 2019.

Gabriel Benderski’s Social Posters event will feature the use of posters as a communicative tool. In it, the emerging Uruguayan graphic designer analyzes how design allows the audience to have a conversation about complex and divisive issues such as peace, tolerance of minorities, or gender equality.

The flyer for the show at the University of Toronto uses Scotch Modern by Nick Shinn which was kindly provided for the design of the invitation.

Hellebore is a collection of writings and essays devoted to British folk horror and the themes that inspire it: folklore, myth, history, archaeology, psychogeography, witches, and the occult.

The first issue of the A5 limited-run magazine edited by Maria J. Pérez Cuervo was published on Samhain 2019 and is dedicated to the topic of human sacrifice. The cover art is Come Unto The Corn by Paul Watson. Additional artwork was provided by Eli John. Hellebore is being art directed by Nathaniel Hébert of Winter-Hébert, who comments:

The masthead was adapted from an Edwardian typeface, Herold AKA “Reklameschrift Herold”. For Hellebore, I gave the letterforms an art-nouveau facelift by way of the 70s.

Reklameschrift Herold was designed by Hermann Hoffmann and first cast by the Berthold type foundry in 1901. The series was later expanded by schmal (compressed), Kontur (outline), and fett (bold) styles. There are a number of digitizations as well as contemporary reinterpretations (see the typeface page for details). In Herold, all the weight is distributed around the top and bottom of the letters, giving it a squeezed, claustrophobic feel.

The Hellebore logo exclusively shows its high-waisted caps. The modifications make it look as if just emerged from a swamp. Hébert increased the flabbiness of Herold’s already wobbly contours, with more pronounced concaves. Most notably, the R became gaunt, exhibiting a smaller eye and a limpish leg.

Herold also appears for headlines, in unmodified (or less heavily modified) form. It’s paired with Berton Hasebe’s Portrait Condensed (Commercial Type, 2013). I’m not saying there’s something inherently eerie about Portrait, but the first documented Use was David Pearson’s cover for the Bonnier Pocket edition of The Shining.

Function Level Marker is the name of a collaboration between Florian von Ameln and Sabrina Zeltner. Their debut vinyl releases are titled “01” (with the red/purple cover) and “02” (lime/pink cover).

Music is written and produced by Florian von Ameln, albums and posters are designed by Sabrina Zeltner. Cover photo by Meike Männel, mastering by Manes at Salz Mastering. Released on 12″ vinyl and digital by Verydeeprecords in 2019.

The artwork pairs Ambiant Sans (Laura Csocsán) with a number of more experimental typefaces: Zorn (also by Laura Csocsán), Sword by Kazuhiro Aihara, 12:51 by Colin Doerffler, and Nostra Stream by Lucas Descroix.

Music video for “Interzone 22”. Video stills at the end of this post.

Text by Meera Theunert, inspired by applicants for a mars mission.

Beaugan is a Japanese sustainable fashion brand specialized in mud-dying as practiced by the people from the Amami Islands for over 1,300 years. By using natural elements, they can keep the Amami’s dyeing technique alIve. Cinematographer Louis Mas directed their last lookbook. Poster design by Soimadou Ibrahim-Aliamane.

The poster typography uses caps from Kessler, with Univers Ultra Condensed for the credits.

Santana’s Acoustic amplifier and sound system backline is seen as Richie Havens performs to 400,000 people at the Woodstock festival in 1969.

Acoustic Control Corporation, started by Steve Marks in 1967, made sound systems, musical instruments amplifiers and a small batch of stringed instruments. The company found great success in the late ’60s and early ’70s, simply because there was a need for loud amplifiers. Acoustic in all its forms has used the Extra Bold weight of Venus Extended as its wordmark, in lowercase letters. In some cases, the largely identical Annonce / Aurora-Grotesk V is used. The latter is distinguished from Venus by horizontal terminals in c or e.

The company is probably best known for the Acoustic 361 bass guitar stack, featuring a solid-state 200-watt power amplifier and a single 18″ Cerwin-Vega loudspeaker, weighing in at around 150 pounds. Famous artists that used Acoustic equipment include Larry Graham (Sly and the Family Stone), Robbie Krieger (The Doors), John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), John McVie (Fleetwood Mac), and Jaco Pastorius. Founder Steve Marks sold the company in the early 80s and the brand went silent for decades.

Acoustic has been brought back two times in the new millennium. Most successfully by Guitar Center in 2007 as Acoustic Amplification, where products are made in China and meant mostly for beginner musicians. The unrelated Acoustic USA was more shortlived but more dedicated to reproducing original ACC amps, built in the USA with endorsers like Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Badge with the logo in lowercase Venus, screwed onto an Acoustic A20.

A promotional poster (or catalog cover?) from June 1971. The typeface used here is Annonce.

Cover of the 1968 catalog. Judging from the c, this is Venus breit fett.

Jaco is considered by many to be one of the best ever bass players. Acoustic amplifiers are just as much connected to his memory as his 1962 Fender Jazz Bass “Bass of Doom.”

Flea, a big fan of Jaco Pastorius, is seen here “planking” on three Acoustic 361 stacks made by the shortlived Acoustic USA.

John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin was one of the original company’s biggest endorsers.

One of John Paul Jones’s Acoustic 361 bass stacks sold for £13,750 at Christie’s auction in 2008.

Product shots of Guitar Center’s Acoustic Amplification.

I was pleasantly surprised (and completely shocked) to find out that Guitar Center’s site for Acoustic Amplifiers uses an Annonce/Venus follower as webfont: It’s Improvenu Wide by Photo-Lettering, which is distinguished from the older bold wide grotesks by its rounded dots. The digital version was made in the 90s by Castcraft.

1 / Shrink and 2 / I Am With You, released on jazz musician Peter Fulda’s own Label 11. Cover design by Philipp Dittmar using Lausanne by Nizar Kazan.

Debut album, 2007.

We Were Promised Jetpacks is an Edinburgh-based indie rock band, formed in the late 2000s. Since their self-published debut record in 2007, the band’s visual identity relies on bold capital letters set in Mário Feliciano’s Flama Semicondensed Black. The first two albums use the Condensed and Ultracondensed styles for additional information.

The original logo design (and first artwork) is the work of Ally Palmer, a partner at Palmer Watson. He is the father of Michael Palmer, the band guitarist, and was himself a prominent member of the Scottish band TV21. From 2009 to 2014, all of WWPJ’s record covers have been designed by DLT.

These Four Walls., 2009.

E Rey Live In Philadelphia, 2014.

“Human Error” / “Ink Slowly Dries”, 2011.

In The Pit Of The Stomach, 2011.

“Medicine”, 2011.

“The Last Place You’ll Look”, 2010.

“It’s Thunder And It’s Lightning” / “Ships With Holes Will Sink”, 2009.

Their latest album The More I Sleep The Less I Dream from 2018 inaugurated a new era for the band (they switched record labels). The record cover got rid of the logotype but still features the distinctive Flama typeface as the band signature. Design by Grace Lawrie.

First use of my first font Louisette for the concert of Harry Merry and Attic Ted, two musicians playing a weird carnival music. I decided to use Louisette, an inverted rounded revival I made this last year inspired by monstruous italians. To support it, I used Zig Zag who could easily fit to my illustration style and add a funny aspect to the poster.

It's been months, even years, that we are talking about her. Between these lives, similar to real multidimensional shows, her poetic flow with a light autotune and her presence full of warmth and energy, Aloïse Sauvage had everything to be part of our hopes for 2019. Today, the young woman from Seine-Et-Marne has just given birth to JIMY, her excellent first EP — lavagueparallelle.com

The design uses two colours and two typeface families: big type in Grandmaster is paired with smaller text in two widths of Surt.

Screen-printed poster for Highgate Continental’s annual Record Store Day party in Perth, Western Australia. The main information uses all caps Neue Haas Grotesk, supported by William Caslon Text. “2019” uses Crayonette DJR.

Artwork for Mosey and Bonita’s “So Damn Funky” single.