Reissue by Great Tracks / Sony Japan (MHJL-151)

Pacific is an album featuring instrumental compositions by three great names of Japanese jazz and funk; Haruomi Hosono 細野晴臣, Shigeru Suzuki 鈴木 茂, and Tatsuro Yamashita 山下達郎. It’s a summer-themed album with titles reminding of the ocean: “Coral Reef”, “Nostalgia Island“, “Cosmic Surfin’”, …

The design of the cover by Tsuguya Inoue 井上嗣也 is simple: a photo taken by Shimpei Asai in helicopter view and a title without particular design in italic Futura Condensed. We find several times the design of Pacific often at the top of the visuals and in big sizes.

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Reissue by Victory from 2017 (V25AH426)

Reissue by Victory from 2017 (V25AH426)

Back cover of the reissue by Victory from 2017 (V25AH426)

Source: seikosha.stores.jp Seikosha Books. License: All Rights Reserved.

Cover for a booklet compiled on the occasion of a concert of Haruomi Hosono & Tokyo Shyness held at the Rankin Chapel of the Seinan Gakuin University in Fukuoka, Japan, on April 21, 2006.

Designer Takashi Okada 岡田崇 built a wall of type, using a single typeface in a single size, in all caps, with every other pair of lines shown upside down. The bold roman caps with flowing Art Nouveau elements come from Titania, a typeface cast by the Swiss Haas foundry some time before 1906. There are numerous freebie digitizations under various names.

The booklet was edited by Masayuki Kawakatsu 川勝正幸 and Kosuke Ide 井出幸亮. It has 88 pages measuring 148×210mm and was published by Li’l Daisy.

Source: lildaisy.theshop.jp Li’l Daisy. License: All Rights Reserved.

Fictional poster for the soundtrack to Night on the Galactic Railroad (銀河鉄道の夜), a 1985 anime film adaptation of the classic Japanese fantasy novel by Kenji Miyazawa written around 1927. The film score was composed by YMO member Haruomi Hosono. The album was released as Ñokto de la Galaksia Fervojo, which is the Esperanto translation of the title.

Fictional poster for Haruomi Hosono’s 1984 album Haruomi Hosono Presents Making Of Non-Standard Music. As Hauruomi Hosono is an eclectic artist, that was a reason to use a large number of sources and typefaces.

Cover of the original CD release by Elektra / Akashic Records (Japan, 1997)

“GBI (German Bold Italic)” is a 1997 song by Japanese American music producer Towa Tei. It features vocals from Australian singer Kylie Minogue, who co-wrote the song with Tei, and from Japanese musician Haruomi Hosono. It is the lead single from Tei’s second studio album, Sound Museum (1997). The song is a “minimalist” house-techno track, with lyrics written from the point of view of a typeface called “German Bold Italic”.

The typeface was actually made, and is used in the cover art. It was designed by Tei’s long-time collaborator designing team, Tycoon Graphics for Graphickers. The font file was included in the data track of the Sound Museum CD as a bonus feature, and was available for download on Tei’s and Minogue’s official website. It can still be found in the archived version of the latter.

What follows is an excerpt from the lyrics, which might help you appreciate the typeface if you can’t listen to the song right now.

(Hello) My name is German Bold Italic
I am a typeface
Which you have never heard before
Which you have never seen before
I can compliment you well
Especially in red
Extremely in green
Maybe in blue (blue, blue)
You will like my sense of style (×4)
Gut ja! Ow!
[…]

I fit like a glove
Let me adorn you
The bold design of you
One, two, three!

Cover for the first CD by Arthrob (UK, 1998) including the Sharp Boys remix

Cover for the second CD by Arthrob (UK, 1998) including remixes by DJ Krust and Shy FX

MC cover by Arthrob (UK, 1998) with a mini specimen on the back