Album cover (front)

From Discogs:

IFA Wartburg is a Swedish band founded in 1984 by Nils Lundwall and Magnus Michaeli in Upplands Väsby, near Stockholm. They played characters, exaggerated Germans named Heinz Klinger and Rolf Kempinski respectively.
The lyrics, sung in learned (and, at times, broken) German, were largely inspired by the socialist era of East Germany and the USSR, though they were often silly or humorous in nature.

Shown here is IFA Wartburg’s only full-length album, Im Dienste des Sozialismus (“In the service of socialism”), released in 1998 by Plattenmeister. The uncredited design features two weights from Berthold’s Block family, the schwer (“heavy”) and the schmal (“narrow”).

[More info on Discogs]

CD label ft. the national emblem of East Germany

Metallica’s debut studio album was released on July 25, 1983. The cover art by Shari and Harold Risch features the shadow of a hand letting go of a bloodied hammer. The title is set in red caps from ITC Serif Gothic’s Black weight featuring its alternate E.

[More info on Discogs]

Logo officially used until 2001

The Do it Center store concept and identity was drafted for Fort Wayne, Indiana-based hardware distributor Hardware Wholesalers, Inc. (HWI) by legendary Canadian retail branding firm Don Watt + Associates, and finalized in September 1980. A trademark for this logo was filed in October 1980, but the first store to test this branding wouldn’t be opened until sometime in 1981, to warm reception.

All aspects of the store, from its advertising to signage to store brands, were drenched in a sea of red-orange and yellow and a copious amount of tightly-kerned ITC American Typewriter Condensed Bold. Most of the subtle curves in the original typeface were smoothed out and straightened for ease of use across both print media and physical signage. The mostly-lowercase treatment of the warm-colored and bold, soft-edged text conveys reliability in an inviting and approachable manner.

Watt and his firm were still riding out the success of their identity package for The Home Depot from the year prior, which also included a prominent red-orange hue and bold, rounded font (in that case, Stencil).

Following HWI’s merger with Minnesota-based hardware store franchiser Our Own Hardware in 1998, the combined entity (named Do it Best Corp. after their premium store brand of home improvement products) looked to modernize. Between 1998 and 2001 much of the company’s identity was overhauled, instead using a modified Goudy Old Style over American Typewriter.

Due to the independent nature of these stores, there remain a decent amount of locations that still display this era’s signage both inside and outside.

Proofs sheet of various print sizes

Excerpt from vehicle identification graphics ordering form

Wagner Do it Center in Peru, Illinois. This location would close in 1994.

In 1979, an independent hardware company in Río Abajo, Panama, was the first international member to join the HWI co-op. They would be the first outside the United States to receive Do it Center franchising rights in the 1980s.

Spread from a corporate brochure highlighting Do It Center’s private label products, which also used ITC American Typewriter for the packaging

Typical Do it Center interior in 1982. Upper section of price signage held individual characters (white on transparent plastic) to spell out whichever item was on display, though these are not used in this photo.

Signage and other supplemental materials

Tobar’s Smiler Giggle Stick is a squeaker powered hammer. The hammer itself has a smiley face on its head and makes sound with a donut-shaped squeaker that enables the hammer to make giggling sound when shaken.

The point-of-sale packaging used by Hawkin’s Bazaar features two fonts: Jim Parkinson’s Showcard Gothic (1992) with contour for the name, and Jakob Fischer’s Geek a byte (2003) for “Give him a wiggle and hear him giggle”.

WHUISA (West Ham United Independent Supporters Association) are the independent democratic voice of West Ham supporters.

WHUISA is a democratic, independent, not-for-profit organisation run by fans for fans. Our purpose is to enable supporters to join together and strengthen their influence over the club. (...) The current incarnation of WHUISA was founded in January 2017 with membership charged at the price of a pint. From the outset our aim was to establish a non-club owned voice for fans to give honest input into how the club is run. We have always maintained we want to engage positively with the club while being independent: “A critical friend”. — whuisa.org

The logo is based around giving the supporters a voice, hence the speech bubble, and obviously the Hammers are known for their ‘bubbles’.

Gotham was used primarily as the brand needed to feel confident and also easily legible in places. The lowercase was chosen to feel more approachable and conversational, as the brand is all about discussion and community.

Gone To My Head was released in 1972 on Mercury Records. It’s the debut album by Andy Bown who later joined Status Quo. Design by John Youssi, with cover Illustration by Doug Taylor and art direction by Des Strobel. The artist’s name is in a film typeface named Horse Tank. The lowercase-only bold oblique face with tiny counters and thin stems here appears with an outlined drop shadow. The album title shows lettering based on Mistral.

Horse Tank was designed by Joe Taylor for Lettergraphics and is shown in their 1968 catalog. It was also carried by FotoStar. Castcraft’s 1978 Encyclopedia lists the face with the alias Ifitz. In 2015, Nick Curtis made a digital revival named Feedbag NF.

Spotted by Ken Barber in the Sweet Sweet Music exhibit at the Herb Lubalin Study Center.

The 8-track cartridge packaging features a bicolor use of Yagi Double. Like Horse Tank, the Yagi series was available from Robert Trogman’s FotoStar.