The Muppet Show Book was published in 1978 by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. The book adapts material from the first two seasons of The Muppet Show, with illustrations by Tudor Banus.

The main text font used throughout the book is ITC Souvenir. The characters’ names and initials are each set in a unique font, see the image captions for details. A few minor characters’ names are in ITC Souvenir.

“Introduction” is in the roman style of Bookman Swash. The character-specific fonts are Art Gothic for Kermit the Frog; Sweetheart for Miss Piggy; Yagi Link Double for Sgt. Floyd Pepper; Benguiat Laurent (with Psychemat effect) for Dr. Teeth [edit: rather Bullseye, a copy of PLINC Capricorn, see comments]; ITC Neon for Zoot; Crayonette for Janice; and Shatter for Animal.

Second page of the introduction, ft. Interline for Statler & Waldorf (without the pattern fill in Statler’s case); Scorpio/Hoopla for Fozzie Bear; and Burst Caps for Crazy Harry. The sound effects (“BANG”, “HA HA HA …”) are in caps from Caslon No. 471/540 or similar.

ITC Bookman Demi with swash caps

“THE NEW GO-FER” is in Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed.

An outline version of Cooper Black is used for Scooter and Hobo for George the Janitor.

Reward poster for Kid Fozzie, ft. Figaro

The typeface chosen for Rowlf is Reklameschrift Secession.

Moore Computer features for Kermit’s robot doppelgänger.

“GONZO THE GREAT” uses more of the aforementioned Caslon caps. The character font is Lydia.

Sam the Eagle is presented in a chromatic setting of Stripes Caps.

Cloud Bank for Dr. Julius Strangepork and Countdown for Captain Link Hogthrob

The initial I is from Thunderbird.

The initial S is unidentified.

Microgramma Condensed is used for Nigel

The formal script used for “The Lives and Loves of Gonzo the Great” is Typo Script Extended.

Round Rosie is the font used for Vincent Price’s initials … 

… and Smoke is the one chosen for Uncle Deadly.

Dr. Bunsen Honeydew is set in Gemini.

Filmotype Pixie was spec’d for Hilda.

Another Bookman Swash

Manuscript Capitals for “Bein’ Green”

The P from Mira identifies Koozebanian Phoob.

Chianti is used for Robin.

Kermit the Pig is in an unidentified font similar to Rubens and Duerer.

Playbill is used for J.P. Grosse. On this page, the o’s in Scooter’s name are altered to look like his glasses.

Front cover

Wasp is a science fiction novel by British author Eric Frank Russell, originally published in 1957. The edition here was published in 1971 by Bantam Books. The cover artwork is by Gene Szafran.

The title and author’s name use Benguiat Laurent with a Psychemat effect. Anzeigen-Grotesk is used for the words “SCIENCE FICTION BY” and the tagline on the back cover. The tagline on the front cover, and the synopsis on the back cover, use News Gothic Condensed.

[More info on ISFDB]

Back cover

Rufus Thomas Live: Doing the Push & Pull at P.J.'s is the first live album by R&B/funk musician, WDIA radio DJ, and eternal teenager in spirit Rufus Thomas, released in 1970 on Stax Records. The cover was designed by Lee Lebowitz at Think Ink under the supervision of Larry Shaw, with photography by Memphis radio personality and photographer Mark Stansbury.

“RUFUS THOMAS LIVE” is set in Jefferson Aeroplane from Photo-Lettering (a distorted and extended version of PLINC Capricorn), with “LIVE” in yellow, overlaid by a circular pattern which appears to be one of a series of pattern effects offered by Photo-Lettering Inc. under the name “Psychemat”. “DOING THE PUSH & PULL AT P.J.’s” is set in Trade Gothic Extended Light. The text on the back cover is set in two weights of Helvetica.

[More info on Discogs]

Close-up of liner notes by WDIA DJ and Thomas' high school history teacher Nat D. Williams on back cover.

Rimsky-Korsakoff’s Greatest Hits, recorded by various orchestras and released by RCA Red Seal Records in 1972.

The bottom-heavy title typeface is PLINC’s Village which was first shown in their Psychedelitypes catalog from 1968. The letterforms are spiced up with a swirling pattern fill, a special effect technique that was named “Psychemat”. Various treatments were showcased in the same booklet, see the image below. The one used for the album cover, psm-5, is demo’d with the very same typeface, and almost the same color.

The cover illustration is by Gerry Gersten (1927–2017). The Cooper Union alumni (1950) gained “international acclaim as a caricaturist, drawing hundreds of illustrations for The New York Times, New York Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek, Esquire, Playboy, Rolling Stone and MAD.” [obituary]

Spread from Photo-Lettering’s Psychedelitypes catalog with a demonstration of various “Psychemats”.

© 1968 Photo-Lettering, Inc. Digital capture: Letterform Archive. License: All Rights Reserved.

“Murrayhill 2-2346” was Photo-Lettering’s telephone exchange number. The address is set in Top Billing.

In celebration of Ed Benguiat’s 90th birthday (born October 27, 1927), here’s one of my favorites of his designs. The cover doesn’t include his typefaces – the titling face is Dave Davison’s Arabesque – but it does feature a wonderful “Kaleidograph” (see below) of Benguiat’s groovy ’60s lettering.

Source: letterformarchive.org © 1968 Photo-Lettering, Inc. Digital capture: Letterform Archive. License: All Rights Reserved.

Fillmore posters by Wes Wilson and Victor Moscoso, 1967. Their lettering was a clear inspiration for the Pyschedelitypes series.

The Pschedelitypes collection is one of many themed brochures published by Photo-Lettering, Inc. (PLINC) in the 1960s and ’70s. This booklet was issued soon after the dawn of the Psychedelia music/art movement, showing new typefaces that capitalize on the lettering styles most famously seen in rock posters by San Francisco artists like Wes Wilson and Victor Moscoso.

Besides the typefaces, Psychedelitypes showcases a variety of far-out effects that PLINC offered to lettering clients, such as swirling and radial pattern fills (Psychemats), distortion lenses, and kaleidoscopic (Kaleidograph) layouts.

© 1968 Photo-Lettering, Inc. Digital capture: Letterform Archive. License: All Rights Reserved.

“Specimen lines on these pages illustrate typical applications of Photo-Lettering’s new Psychemat technique.”

© 1968 Photo-Lettering, Inc. Digital capture: Letterform Archive. License: All Rights Reserved.

A page demonstrating the “Kaleidograph”, a technique that was likely used for the cover design. On the right are samples of typefaces that would later be known as Village (outline/shadow version), Davison Arabesque, and Scorpio.

The images in this entry were shot by Letterform Archive using their high-fidelity digital capture standards and served here at a reasonable web resolution. For more type samples from Psychedelitypes, see this set of basic scans.