“Juvenile” (2017) was The Blaze’s debut single.

I was playing Tame Impala on my phone and, while staring at their great album art, I started wondering why so many artists reach for Eurostile. Admittedly, Tame Impala actually use Microgramma in their title treatment – but since Microgramma is Eurostile's caps-only predecessor (both originated at Nebiolo), it’s close enough to count. That got me thinking about French electro duo The Blaze, who use Eurostile consistently on their album cover art and across the titles of their (genuinely amazing) music videos.

The debut album Dancehall was released in September 2018 on Animal63. Design by Dreams Office with art direction from Manu Barron and photography by James Briandt.

Track list for Dancehall

CD label for Dancehall

The second album Jungle followed in March 2023, again with a cover by Dreams Office. The vinyl version was again released on Animal63, the CD on Believe Digital.

Back cover of Jungle

The latest album, Folk, was recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall and released in July 2025.

Inori Minase’s 5th Anniversary Live, “Starry Wishes”, was a special online concert held on Dec 5, 2020, at Yokohama Arena, celebrating the first five years of her career. It was released on Blu-ray/CD in 2021 with a career-spanning setlist including hits like “Starry Wish”, “Ready Steady Go!” and “BLUE COMPASS”.

“Starry Wishes” is in a version of Gill Sans in which all terminals are marked with dots. The smaller text is set in Seravek.

In 1971, Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaría played the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland. Atlantic Records brought out an album with a live recording of the concert. Haig Adishian used Bifur for the cover, alongside all-caps Kabel and a photo by Tom Hanley.

[More info on Discogs]

From Wikipedia:

At Carnegie Hall is a jazz live album by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. It was recorded at the famed Carnegie Hall in New York City on Friday, February 22, 1963. Critic Thom Jurek described it as “one of the great live jazz albums of the 1960s” […]

The title is rendered in tight-not-touching caps from Fiedler Gothic, a typeface drawn by Hal Fiedler for Photo-Lettering not too long before the album’s release. It’s shown in PLINC’s 1965 catalog in a range of widths and weights (see further below), with various alternates. Its use on this album cover inspired Austrian type designer David Einwaller to draw a digital interpretation which he released in 2020 as Brubeck.

With George Simon’s liner notes printed on the front (in Century Expanded), this album represents an addition to our “text on cover” tag.

Horn/Griner is credited for the cover photo. Steve Horn and Norm Griner started out in 1959 as a graphic design firm and ventured into photography a little later. It’s unclear whether they had a hand in the album’s typography as well. If not, it probably was done in-house at Columbia Records, under the supervision of John Berg who in 1961 was appointed art director for packaging design.

[More info on Discogs]

Fiedler Gothic came in many styles. Shown here is an overview of the Semi-concensed and Expanded widths (in fact, the Condensed and normal weights, photographically extended), each in five weights.

Roc Mitchell’s Dimensia (Alphabet Innovations, 1970), slanted and with a modified s that closes the gap caused by the r, for a live album with folk and gospel music from 1971.

From Jack Ahern’s liner notes:

[More info on Discogs]

An early appearance of Dimensia, used with small cap and lowercase forms for an unicase (or uncial) look, on the cover of a live album recorded by Paddy Noonan and his Grand Band at the John Barleycorn in New York.

Anzeigen-Grotesk got a similar treatment. This typeface didn’t come with small caps. The unicase version is either custom or a phototype extension.

Noonan was an accordionist and a popular figure on the Irish-American entertainment scene. Born in Mallow, County Cork, the long-time resident of Garden City, New York, died in 2020 at the age of 83.

[More info on Discogs]

Tony de Vit’s recording of a gig in Tel Aviv’s Allenby 58 club was the first volume in the Global Underground series. Newcastle-based Boxed issued a total of twenty live DJ mix albums until 2001. Subsequent albums were released by Global Underground Ltd.

The design and artwork is by Jazznetwork, featuring photography by Antonio Petronzio. All text is set in lowercase Amoebia. This grunge-era typeface is an early design by Jens Gehlhaar, made while studying at the Hochschule Niederrhein in Krefeld, Germany. First released in 1993 through Thomas Sokolowski’s Apply, Amoebia was later moved to the designer’s own label Gaga Fonts a.k.a. Radar Design.

When the album came out in 1996, Gehlhaar had already moved to California. Since 2011, he serves as Commercial Director at Logan & Sons in Los Angeles.

[More info on Discogs]

Rosenblum Chicamakomiko in early use for Folksy Nina, released by Colpix Records in 1964. The album by Nina Simone “includes live tracks recorded on April 12, 1963, at Carnegie Hall. The previous album, Nina Simone at Carnegie Hall (1963) uses songs from the same concert.” [Wikipedia]

Chicamakomiko was drawn by Richard Rosenblum and shown by Photo-Lettering in 1964, together with an outlined variant named Rosenblum Glockenheimer. Susana Carvalho digitized and extended the lively design in 2011. First made available from (the now defunct) photolettering.com around 2015, it’s now available from House Industries, as Plinc Chicamakomiko.

Found by John, who is currently tracking down Uses for some of the ten typefaces designed by Rosenblum.

[More info on Discogs]

For the stereo release, the art was moved down to make space for “Stereo” (in Century Expanded Bold) and the catalog number (in News Gothic).

Passport was formed in 1971 as a jazz fusion group led by saxophonist Klaus Doldinger. This album features Brian Auger, Johnny Griffin, Alexis Korner, Volker Kriegel, and Pete York. It was recorded live October 16, 1973, in Düsseldorf, Germany.

The surrealist airbrush art depicts a partly transparent portrait of Doldinger. A hand emerges from the multicolored mountain ranges holding a mirror with a second face wearing clown makeup. It is credited to Wandrey’s Studio, Hamburg.

The album’s title is in Orbit, spiced up with double outlines, vertical gradient fills, and highlights. The names are in Weiss, which has been Passport’s brand typeface since the self-titled debut album.

[More info on Discogs]

Klaus Doldinger passed away 16 October 2025. Rest in peace.

An early use of Ed Benguiat’s appropriately named Jumpy Latin, for an album by the George Wallington Quintet, which at the time included Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean, Art Taylor, and Paul Chambers. It was recorded at New York’s Cafe Bohemia seventy years ago, on September 9, 1955, and released by Progressive Records the following year.

Photography (and cover design?) by Carole Reiff Galletly (1934–1984).

[More info on Discogs]

The second concert by hololive English, “Breaking Dimensions”, was held at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, New York on August 24 and 25, 2024. The lineup consisted of fifteen performers from hololive English’s Myth, Promise, and Advent, as well as four special guests from hololive Japan and hololive Indonesia.

Album cover for The Flowering by the Charles Lloyd Quartet, released in 1971 on Atlantic Records. Designed by prolific album designer Haig Adishian using Davison Fandango Ornamental and a painting by Jacques Richez.

[More info on Discogs]

Live album by free-improvising violinist Leroy Jenkins, recorded on January 11, 1977, and released that same year by Indian Navigation.

[More info on Discogs]

Detail showing the typography

A Night at the Beachcomber by guitar virtuoso John Adomono was recorded at the International Market Place, Honolulu, Hawaii, and released by Decca Records in 1961. From his bio at Discogs:

“John played alone, but most people thought there were five or six players on his records,” remembers Lu Woolley, his promoter and booking agent. “People were absolutely wowed by him. Nobody played like him.”

Adomono’s secret weapon was the Ecco-Fonic, a cutting-edge tape-echo machine. Alongside DeArmond’s Tremolo Control, it was one of the first stand-alone effects for the guitars and Adomono was one of the early testers, promoters, and endorsers.

On the uncredited cover, Adomono’s name is shown in red letters from the fett weight of Volta. The wide Clarendon with the superb figure–ground organization was designed by Konrad F. Bauer and Walter Baum and first cast by Bauer in 1956. The typeface used for “Guitarist fantastique” has German roots, too: it’s Berthold’s Akzidenz-Grotesk, known in the US under the name Standard. The bold condensed style is Akzidenz-Grotesk extra, added to the family by Günter Gerhard Lange in 1958.

[More info on Discogs]

From Wikipedia:

The Rarities is the seventh compilation album by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey, released on October 2, 2020, by Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings. The album coincided with Carey's 2020 memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey, which discussed various songs on the albums, their meanings and stories. The album was released as a part of “#MC30”, a promotional marking campaign which marked the 30th anniversary of Carey’s self-titled debut album.

Cover photography by Naomi Kaltman. The typography in all-caps Friz Quadrata is uncredited.

[More info on Discogs]

Live Wire / Blues Power is a live album by blues guitarist and singer Albert King, released in 1968 on Stax Records. Recorded at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, the album captures King’s signature guitar style and powerful vocals, featuring performances of songs like “Blues Power” and “Watermelon Man”.

The cover design, created by Beverly Parker, features Sans Stencil for the album title. This typeface is a follower of Filmotype Quiet.

[More info on Discogs]

Live is the first live-performance double album by the Butterfield Blues Band, released on the Elektra label in 1970. Robert L. Heimall is credited for the album's photography and art direction.

Lunar Progress, a rare typeface shown in PLINC’s One-Line Manual of Styles, is used for the band name and title. It’s arranged in a way that’s very similar to the one used for presenting the typeface (there as TT 6189) in the Decotypes booklet, see below. Futura is used on the back for the tracklists, credits and personnel.

[More info on Discogs]

Lunar Progress as shown in the One-Line Manual of Styles from 1971

Lunar Progress as shown in the Decotypes booklet from 1970

The legendary jazz pianist’s 1968 concert at Palo Alto High School, recorded by a janitor and shelved for decades, captures some of the fiercest, most spirited versions of his quartet’s core repertoire. The design reflects the raw, unfiltered energy of the live performance, encapsulating both the spontaneity and brilliance of Monk’s playing.

[More info on Discogs]

Album cover

José Afonso, often affectionately called Zeca Afonso, was a pivotal figure in Portuguese music and politics. A singer-songwriter and poet, blending traditional Portuguese folk with innovative and socially engaged compositions. His music was deeply intertwined with political resistance, particularly against the Estado Novo dictatorship (1933–1974). Songs like “Grândola, Vila Morena” became symbols of freedom, with this very song serving as the secret signal for the Carnation Revolution on 25 April 1974, which led to the fall of the regime. Beyond his activism, his work explored themes of justice, solidarity, and the struggles of the working class, making him a timeless reference in both Portuguese cultural heritage and political history.

On the night of January 29, 1983, José Afonso played at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon, in one of his last performances before leaving us, with his final one at the Coliseu do Porto on May 25 of the same year. His legacy has endured since his departure on February 23, 1987. This emblematic concert was immortalized through recording on vinyl/CD and filming by RTP (Portuguese Radio Television).

We were honored with the invitation to redesign the new edition of this legendary record, in an authentic and complete version, now on triple vinyl, meticulously remastered from a careful restoration of multiple audio sources from the concert. This edition remains unedited, preserving the full concert exactly as it was performed.

One of the key aspects of this reissue, compared to the original release from 1983, was acknowledging that during the concert, a large number of musicians and friends of José Afonso took to the stage. With this edition, the family wanted to reflect that and give a sense of the different musical line-ups that performed that night.

Previously unseen colour images from Luís Filipe Rocha’s footage helped bring this vision to life, selected at the Anim/Cinemateca, now featured in this edition. Another key element was the original concert manual containing the concert setlist and the respective musician line-ups. This A4 manual also included heartfelt messages of encouragement written for José Afonso, as he was already in an advanced stage of illness and exhaustion at the time. These are now featured in the vinyl inlays and back cover.

We wanted a refined yet sober typeface, one that wouldn’t overshadow the documentary images while remaining versatile.

José Afonso became the voice of a revolution, with his music forever linked to the Carnation Revolution. We chose to highlight a powerful symbolic moment—a carnation held by Zeca during the concert—placing his name above it as a defining element and drawing over the carnation in red.

The digipack version features a spot varnish on the cover.

[More info on Discogs]

Album cover

Back cover

Open gatefold (inside)

Vinyl Inlays

Vinyl label

Vinyl cover detail

Digipack cover detail

Traumstadt is a live double LP by German prog rock band Hoelderlin. It was recorded on 24 and 25 October 1977 at Opernhaus Wuppertal, in the group’s home town, and released on Spiegelei, Intercord’s dedicated prog rock label.

The cover represents one of the more prominent uses of Erwin Poell’s eponymous display typeface, Poell. It was designed by Ingo Hamacher, following a concept by guitarist Christian von Grumbkow. Poell is used in all caps, featuring its dotted I.

[More info on Discogs]

The labels visualize the name: Spiegelei is German for fried egg. Text is printed in Helvetica.