Front cover of book 1, The Invasion

Animorphs is a series of young adult science fiction novels created by K.A. Applegate and published by Scholastic from 1996 to 2001. The cover illustrations are by Peter Bollinger (book 1), Tim O'Brien (book 2), and David B. Mattingly (books 3 to 54).

The Animorphs logo uses stretched Ramiz. Eurostile is used for the title, author’s name, and tagline on the front cover. The blurb on the back cover also uses Eurostile, except for an initial capital from Ramiz. The interior uses Trade Gothic, with Ramiz for chapter headings and the first capital of each chapter.

Later printings may have a promotion for the TV series adaptation (which aired from 1998 to 2000) on the front cover. One version has the text “Watch Animorphs on Nickelodeon” in Template Gothic Bold and Escalido Gothico, and “TV” in Graham Bold; another has “Watch Animorphs on TV” in Eurostile, Ramiz, Template Gothic and Escalido.

Front cover of book 2, The Visitor

Back cover of book 44, The Unexpected

Book 1, page 1

Front cover of book 21, The Threat, including a TV promotion at the top right

Detail

Front cover of book 49, The Diversion, including a TV promotion at the bottom left

ITC Ronda Light with several of its many alternates – spurless r, two-story a, and round y – for a book about nursing birds back to health. From the inner flap:

Long before bird-watching became fashionable, the author was a devoted healer of birds and spent much of her adolescence warding off thoughtless children who annoyed them. The subject of several favorable advance reviews, this illustrated book recounts her varied and touching adventures as a caretaker for wounded and abandoned birds.

The official digital version covers only one of three original weights. The alternate r and y were made the default forms. There are no alternates.

Title page

One of a series of film posters celebrating British film in collaboration with a London Film festival, the font is Alte Haas Grotesk (2007), a softly rounded version of Helvetica, which gives the aesthetic of an old school textbook in keeping with the films narrative.

Ad for Falcon, a typeface by William Addison Dwiggins (1880–1956), in Communication Arts, June 1962.

falcon will fly

Falcon is a soaring new body face. No need to speak of its obvious glories—you’re looking at them (in ten point). Now fix your eye on the excellent italic: FALCON will fly. Ever see a finer machine-face italic? Neither have the readers of those award winners you’ve got tucked away in your mind. Next one that comes to reality, call your type shop. Specify Falcon. Accept no substitutes. Falcon comes in six to twelve point. There is a splendid complement of accents, ligatures and long descenders. Fly with Falcon.

Falcon was conceived in the late 1930s as a “sharp finished oldstyle”, initially under the working title named Cambridge, and developed in the 1940s. It was released posthumously in 1961, with oldstyle figures and roman small caps. See Bruce Kennett’s 2017 talk about WAD’s Linotype releases for more information.

The Mergenthaler logo appears to be based on Trade Gothic Bold.

Poster in use on the French poster for Kes. An early success by English filmmaker Ken Loach, the drama is about fifteen-year old Billy Casper (David Bradley), a boy from a poor South Yorkshire community who spends his free time caring for and training his kestrel. Kes was first screened 14 November 1969 in London, and released in late March 1970 nationwide. This French poster is undated. Mecanorma added Poster to their range of typefaces shortly before, and showed it in an advert fom September 1969.

Designers Jouineau Bourduge (Guy Bourduge and Guy Jouineau) constructed a powerful yet fragile layout, combining photography with other elements. They put the title in giant caps at the top of the poster, just above the setting sun – the only colored element – which contains a description set in center-aligned Cooper Black*. This circle is pierced by Billy’s stretched arm, with his fist holding on to a cord attached to Kes. The credits at the bottom are set in Egizio or similar.

*) Cooper Black was popularized in France by phototype company Hollenstein around 1968, see their American Type Shop specimen.

[More info on IMDb]

Limited edition (400 copies) of The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961). Published by Arion Press, San Francisco 1983. Illustrated with photographs of Sam Spade’s San Francisco. Original morocco backed cloth, morocco onlay to covers, slipcase, invitation card for publication party laid in.

The types are Bodoni semibold and Corvinus medium. Monotype composition is by Mackenzie-Harris. The ultranarrow sans used on the spine appears to be Baucher Gothic with a modified M.

Stevenson, G. B. (1969). Birds. New York: Golden Press

Based on the 1922 Klingspor model by German designer Rudolf Koch, this hand-drawn quill roman has an informal and curiously delicate appearance. The typeface was known in Germany as Koch-Antiqua and in the rest of Europe as Locarno. Eve, as it was called in the United States, continues to enjoy great popularity in advertising and book publishing circles.

Wikipedia:

Bryan Ferry’s girlfriend (and soon to be wife) Lucy Helmore appeared on the album cover […] wearing a medieval helmet with a falcon perched on her gloved hand, evoking King Arthur’s last journey to the mysterious land of Avalon.

Eve is one of my favourites by the master Rudolf Koch. I found this by accident — I’m not into Roxy Music, but a fan of Rudolf Koch for sure!

The inner sleeve was designed by Peter Saville.

Movie poster by Hans Hillmann for the German screening of The Maltese Falcon by Neue Filmkunst Walter Kirchner, featuring the not commonly seen Kabel Condensed. Last week, Hillmann passed away at the age of 88. Fontblog has posted an obituary (in German).

The original title of Falken (“Falcons”) is Bring up the Bodies. It’s the second volume of Mantel’s trilogy about Thomas Cromwell (c. 1485–1540). Leslie Usherwood named his 1981 typeface design Caxton after William Caxton, who is believed to be England’s first printer (c. 1421–1491).

The decorated blackletter F is taken from Barock-Initialen, available as digital font from Gerhard Helzel (not to be confused with Dieter Steffmann’s unrelated font of the same name).