1977 ad for underwear by Jockey International, Inc., starring a roster of stripped-down jocks – Jim Hart, Denis Potvin, Jo Jo White, Steve Carlton, Pete Rose, Jamaal Wilkes, Jim Palmer, Ken Anderson – and one staple of 1970s typography, ITC Machine.

Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu is an orchestra based in Lyon, France. Created by Franck-Emmanuel Comte in 1992, the ensemble has gained widespread recognition for its 70 to 90 annual performances, making it one of the leading players on the European baroque stage.

Their main actions defend the originality and specificity of baroque manuscripts kept in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region's libraries, testifying their close link with baroque Italy. They aim to make classical music accessible for all through collaborations, intergenerational events and partnerships with local associations.

Caruso Roxanna with slightly widened letterforms used in an advertisement for a Charlie Chocks Beach Poncho amidst a bunch of lettering. The ad appeared in various booklets by Gold Key Comics published in 1970, including Moby Duck, New Terrytoons, Bugs Bunny, and Daffy Duck. Charlie Chocks was a brand of fruit-flavored vitamins.

This two-page advertisement for Jose Cuervo tequila was published in the March 1995 issue of The Face magazine.

The text “drink Cuervo Gold today” combines Fobia with the Little Creatures variant of FF Priska Serif. On the second page, the text “Because tomorrow..?” is in a version of Courier.

The words “Gold Tequila” and the small legal text on the first page use the normal style of FF Priska Serif.

Byte magazine, issue #4, December 1975

Bill Godbout was something of a pioneer in the early microcomputer movement of the 1970s, and his firm Bill Godbout Electronics was a commercial vehicle selling discount and surplus electronics and microcomputer components. Bill Godbout Electronics was a regular advertiser in the early issues of the seminal BYTE magazine. Issue #4 is the first Christmas issue and features a 2-pager from Bill Godbout Electronics that mixes a large number of fonts in a style typical of both this era and this advertiser.

“Bill Godbout Electronics” is in Wexford. I think the “CAVE grafix” is lettering, but the first word may be based on Koloss (see further below). “Wish you a joyous holiday season” and so in is in Davida. “If you are into toyful tinkering” and so on is in outlined Cooper Black.

“Son-of-a Cheap Clock” is in Tonight, and above it “We have a successor to our very popular ‘Cheap Clock Kit’!” is in Script (for the IBM Selectric; see also the body fonts, glossed below). The price, $14.50, is in Umbra. Both Script and Umbra are used on the following page.

Windsor is used for “they also make great gifts” (on the curve) and the following text. “Electronic Projects for Musicians” is Reklameschrift Herold. Below the decorative band, “EROM board special offer” is in Helvetica, outlined and with a South shadow.

“4K x 8 pre-programmed for 8080” is in an outline style of a somewhat Microgramma-like font that I couldn’t identify that is also used on the second page.

On the second page, “Bigger & Better” is in Skin & Bones (using two alternates for G, but not for E). “Pace 16 bit chip set” is in Koloss. “1 Pace 16 bit CPU” and other text on and under the curve is the previously mentioned and unidentified outline Microgramma-lookalike.

“Pace Data Packet” is Advertisers Gothic (using the A without a top flag). “4K x 8 RAM kit” is in Umbra. “EROM board kit” is in Rock Opera. The “8K x 8” and so on again is in Wexford. “There’s more ... We have” is in Monogram.

The body text (and some secondary and subtitle text) is typewritten in a variety of fonts, and I did a much better job of identifying those, all available on the IBM Selectric:

On the first page the text for the clock, starting “BIGGER DIGITS” is in Artisan. “By Craig Anderton” (the author of “Electronic Projects for Musicians”) is in Orator (probably, in any case Orator is used on the next page).

The text for the Craig Anderton blurb is Adjutant, I think. Delegate and Adjutant are very similar with only slight differences in weight and thick/thin contrast, but they have different pitches: Adjutant is 12 characters per inch, and is tighter than Delegate at 10. The text block at the bottom of the first page, starting “By special arrangement”, is in Bookface Academic.

On the second page, below “Pace 16 bit”, the text starting “This chip set gets you into PACE” is in Manifold. The word “PACE” itself is in another font (the Selectric had a feature where you could switch type-balls and still retain the cursor position), possibly Pica. Manifold is again used for the bottom paragraph starting “READOUTS, LEDS, TRANSISTORS”. Below “Pace Data Packet”, “Since we started advertising” is Orator. Below “4K x 8 RAM”, “Note the lower price” looks like Prestige Elite.

Below “EROM BOARD”, the text starting “Now you can stuff up to 8K” initially had me stumped, but I think I have tracked it down. The small caps in place of little letters, made me think of Orator, which it isn’t; the o is distinctly squaroid and reminded me of the output of the IBM lineprinters, such as the 1403. It turns out that the IBM Selectric has a typeball called AN3/360 which the 1972 brochure specifically says matches the AN3 style available on IBM’s lineprinters.

At the bottom of the second page, to the right of the wordmark, the payment and terms text starting “YOU MAY PLACE MASTERCHARGE® OR BANKAMERICARD® ORDERS” is in Script.

“More TR7”

1977 ads for the Triumph TR7, a sports car that was manufactured by British Leyland in Speke, Liverpool. The headlines are set in tight-not-touching caps from Harry.

“TR7. The shape of things to come at a price you can afford today”

After being inspired by the film Marty Supreme, I decided to add a few items of my own creation to the world this movie created. These would have been celebrity endorsed and promotional items existing after Marty’s rise to fame.

This ad for Palmolive soap was published in the February 1928 issue of Photoplay magazine.

The tagline “Soap From Trees” is in Goudy Open. “Nature’s Gift to Beauty” is in ATF Garamond Italic, using the alternate swash N. Goudy Oldstyle is used for the body text. The subheadings use Cloister Italic.

ATF Garamond is also used for “Palmolive Radio Hour” and the following paragraph. The small text at the bottom right is in Goudy Italic.

From Wikipedia:

River Raid is a 1982 shoot ’em up video game developed and published by Activision for the Atari 2600, designed by Carol Shaw. […] River Raid was the top-selling Activision game of 1983 and the second best-selling game for the Atari 2600 in 1983, only being beaten by Ms. Pac-Man. Shaw responded to the sales stating “I knew it was a good game, but I didn’t expect to hit number one. Of course I was happy when it did!” The Atari version sold almost one million copy in total by 1984, making it one of the best-selling video game at that point.

The headline typeface in this ad from a 1984 issue of the British Crash magazine is Conference. The bold spurless sans with the characteristic pointed e was designed by Martin Wait and released by Letraset in 1978. Despite being available in digital form, it hasn’t come up on Fonts In Use before.

On the back cover of the Society of Industrial Artists (SIA) Journal, no. 47 from October 1955, the Council of Industrial Design advertised the Design Centre for British Industries, to be opened at 28 Haymarket SW1 in the spring of 1956. From the University of Brighton Design Archives (via Jisc):

On 26 April 1956 Prince Philip opened the “Design Centre for British Industries” in London. This represented the end of a long fought campaign by the Council of Industrial Design, which desired a shop window to promote its own activities in support of British industry, and marked a triumph for all those who had advocated the need for a permanent display of British manufactured products in the nation’s capital. The building in Haymarket became the Council’s new home and was managed between 1956 and 1966 by Major General J M (Jack) Benoy, who joined the body in 1949. A vibrant programme of exhibitions took place in the display space downstairs, while in the offices above plans were made for exhibitions around the country and overseas.

The pink manicules are from Chap-Book Directors, which is part of a series of decorative dingbats and woodcut-style illustrations designed by Will H. Bradley for ATF’s The American Chap-Book periodicals, promoted for use with his Bewick Roman.

This specific manicule with the big frilly cuff is arguably the most prominent glyph from this series. Nick – founder of and top contributor to the Flickr Manicule group – pointed out that it has been adopted and used in various contexts, see the comments to a previous Use.

This ad by the Advertising Typographers Association (ATA) appeared in U&lc magazine, vol. 11, no. 2, from August 1984. It makes fun of ads that use typefaces which had long fallen out of fashion.

Some people seem to think it’s still the Nineteen-Sixties. So they’re still using the same typefaces that were stylish back then. Typefaces like Bikini Beach Bold. Goudy A Go-Go. And Psychedelic Italic.

At the member shops of the ATA, we'll set your ad in any style of type you choose. (Including the styles mentioned above.) And naturally, we’ll set it exactly the way you want it. Down to the letter.

But we’re also willing to do one thing more. If you ask, we’re willing to suggest typefaces that we consider the most appropriate. The most aesthetically pleasing. And the last likely to become “dated.”

At the ATA, you see, we believe your print work reflects upon us as well as yourself. And we don’t want anyone—tomorrow or twenty years from tomorrow—to treat your ads like relics from another era, set in Bikini Beach Bold.

The bouncy face with nested letter pairs that’s here dubbed “Bikini Beach Bold” is actually named Safari Bold (Headliners, 1960). I wonder which typefaces hide behind the other monikers. “Goudy A Go-Go” might refer to Goudy Fancy. And “Psychedelic Italic” is probably meant to conjure up Smoke or something in that vein.

Ready, set, skate! Joe Nicholson’s Prosper is used for this December 2001 advert from J.C. Penney. One of many followers of the Bauhaus genre. (See specimen below.) Followed by Neue Helvetica, set for the clothing details and pricing below the tagline.

Glyph set for one of the 48 styles of Prosper

Front cover

Whip-Smart is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Liz Phair, released in 1994. The design is credited to Liz Phair and Mark O (Ohe).

On the front and back covers, the artist’s name and the album title use a distorted version of Typo Upright. Quartet is used on the spine, for the track listings on the back cover and on the disc label, and in promotional material. The credits are printed on the tray insert using all-lowercase Matrix Script.

[More info on Discogs]

Back cover

CD label

CD tray insert

Magazine ad

Promotional poster

An advert for advertising; and one that links together three important names in the history of UK advertising as well as contemporary German design. It appears in the April 1928 issue of the noted German graphic design magazine Gebrauchsgrafik and was issued by the Berlin office of the noted London based advertising agency of W.S. Crawford. The company was founded by William Crawford in 1914 and for much of its existence was based in High Holborn; its later HQ building with a striking stainless steel facade survives close to Holborn Tube Station. During the 1920s and ’30s they maintained an office in Berlin and this speaks of the ready acceptance of continental practises and movements, such as the Bauhaus, on Crawford’s approach to business for their clients.

One of the names most associated with the company at this time, and for the next two decades, was that of Ashley Havinden who had joined as a trainee in 1922 and who by 1929 was artistic director. Interestingly, the lettering in this advert slightly echoes lettering designed by Havinden for the important client of Chrysler Cars and that was later issued by Monotype as a commercial typeface. It appears that here the German typeface Neuland, by Rudolf Koch and first issued in 1923, is used. Crawford’s were using the typeface in adverts from c.1927.

The advert itself is by Edward McKnight Kauffer who by this date was one of the most successful designers and artists at work in advertising. American born but since WW1 based in London, McKnight Kauffer’s early break had come with commissions for Frank Pick at the London Underground Group and he became one of the more influential ‘advertising artists’ in the 1920s and ’30s. This advert, in German, is very similar in style to a series of contemporary Crawford’s adverts in British advertising journals.

The main text, roughly translated, reads:

The Stronghold of Advertising. Hard. Crawford works hard in Berlin. Thinking. Planning. Drawing. Writing. Creating tirelessly. And chimneys smoke day and night. In the Ruhr area. In Upper Silesia. Sirens roar through the ports. Swing wheels churn. Hammers bang. And drills screech day and night. In the factories. Reconstruction! Reconstruction!! They all help. They all create. For Germany’s prosperity.

It is interesting to see this take on the period when Germany's industries and its economy in genral, were desperately attempting to revitalise in the era of post-war calamity, reperations and political instability.

The main title is “The Stronghold of Advertising”. The graphics suggest industry, coke ovens or blast furnaces, against a background of towering chimneys in smoky shades of black and grey.

Inside back cover advert for Repton 2 from Superior Software.

Repton was a hugely successful and influential game on the BBC Micro, and spawned a host of sequels and knock-offs, including an open-world game with end-user created content. In a discussion of it in the book Acorn – A World in Pixels (in an article titled “The Making of Repton”) I find Chris Payne, marketing manager for Repton 2, to be one of us: he is quoted as saying “I used to sit in bed at night browsing through books of typefaces [...] and came across a newish typeface called Dave, so I asked Mike Ellis to use it for the strap line at the top of the Repton 2 advert.”

Interesting, as I had not heard of a typeface called Dave, so I went looking for the Repton materials. Time passes and it becomes hard to determine exactly which advert Chris Payne was referring to, but I note the Repton 2 advert in Micro User #36 does have a strapline... in a font i don’t recognise.

“Repton” is in the instantly recognisable Baby Teeth, which is also used for the earlier Repton, and the later Reptons. The 2 is in an airbrushed version of Quicksilver.

The Superior Software wordmark and “Acorn Electron / BBC Micro” are in ITC Bauhaus.

The body and much of the secondary text is set (tight-not-touching) in, well, I want to say ITC Avant Garde Gothic, and the £ sign very much wants me to say that, but the numeral 1 does not. An alternate from E+F?

Repton is the name of the character you play, and the average internet consensus seems to be that Repton is a lizard. Repton is also a village in Derbyshire and a school, but those are apparently unrelated.

The unfolded inlay (front) for the cassette version of Repton 2 (for the BBC Model B and Electron). Blue Ribbon (wordmark in Edda) was a budget label, publishing jointly with Superior Software. Because this is the budget release, this is likely a few years after the original 1985 release.

A striking print ad for the Dick Smith CAT, published in the May 1984 release of the magazine Electronics Australia. The Dick Smith CAT was an Apple II clone created by retailer Dick Smith, a chain of Australian electronics retail stores.

The headline “Only $699!” uses Helvetica Inserat, catching the viewer’s eye with bright red, emboldened text that leaps out from the page. Helvetica Inserat was designed by Arthur Ritzel and was first released in 1966 or 1969 by Stempel.

The slogan “Our CAT eats Apples!” uses Times New Roman. Times New Roman was designed by Stanley Morison and Victor Lardent, and was first released in 1931 by Monotype.

The mail-in information header and form use Helvetica. Helvetica was designed by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann, and was first released in 1957 by Haas under the name Neue Haas Grotesk.

A magazine ad for Intergraph’s ExtremeZ graphics workstation, published in Macromedia Connections Volume 8 (Winter/Spring 1998).

The slogan “As Extreme As You Want To Be!” uses Treefrog. The rest of the text uses ITC Officina Sans.

This 1921 ad for etching materials uses multiple typefaces by celebrated designer Otto Hupp. Not only does it feature the striking and unusual Keilschrift, but also two weights of his text face, Hupp-Antiqua. At first I thought the interchangeable Hupp-Unziale with its bar-topped A was also shown here, but then I realized I was looking at an umlaut in “Ätze” (acid).

Ad in LIFE magazine, October 11, 1968

New imaginative styles by Peter Max. Three wild designs to choose from. Repeat alarm wakes you – lets you snooze – then awakes you again. Daring and decorative – great gift.

Every time I come across a Peter Max work, whether it’s a pair of jeans (ad) or the cover of his own magazine—my eyes literally overdose on all the colors and swirling forms. Peter Max is not just another “hippie” artist, rather he’s a kind, caring and loving person who’s influenced a whole generation of artists and people abroad. Even if his name has never crossed your eyes or ears, you’ve probably seen his art somewhere. So many others around the world admire Max and his artwork, although these days it absolutely breaks my heart to see how others treat him in his current state.

Let's move on to something lighter… literally!

From 1968 to 1970, Peter Max was commissioned to design clocks and a poster for General Electric. The poster, advertising some absolutely wonderful wall clocks is set in Millstein Orientale for “New from General Electric” and below, with some Helvetica for the tinier text.

Moving on to the 1970 Snooz-Alarm clocks advertisement which shows Norton Futuramic, a Photo-Lettering face that was issued in the 1940s, paired with Obese E, a Psychedelitype (link two) released in 1967—note that this wouldn’t be the first or last time Obese would be used in Max’s work. Jefferson Aeroplane appears for the Symmetry clock, and Davison Arabesque for the Spectrum clock. Aura is just Futuramic, repeated, and below the three is presented in Futura for the price and bold words, Bodoni for the quoted text.

The actual Symmetry clock uses an illustrated form of Obese, Spectrum uses Art Nouveau-esque numericals not unlike Benguiat Laurent, and the Aura clock uses custom numerals not specific to any phototype… but still looks rad anyway!

Ad in Courier Journal, March 22, 1970

Symmetry

Spectrum

Aura (black version)

Flower Girl

An ad for the READaTHON, an event organized by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to raise money while also encouraging children to read. This ad was published in Disney Adventures magazine in January 1998.