Front cover, 10th printing, December 1974

Cooper Black Italic in use for Bantam’s paperback edition of Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 (1965), first published in 1967. Cooper Black Italic is used with a couple of swash caps. Some were included in the metal original, but most of those seen here were added only later, in phototype. While the front cover features two swashy Th ligatures, the back cover has an unligated pair. Furthermore, the glyphs for C and L are different between the two settings of the title.

Blurbs are set in News Gothic and Caledonia. The cover artist is unknown.

Who is Oedipa Maas? And what was she doing when the Paranoids blew out all the lights? What was the strange legacy of Pierce Inverarity that first led her to the world-wide conspiracy known as the Tristero System, and them on into the mystery and enigma of America itself?

Back cover, 10th printing, December 1974

Back and front cover, 1967

Align was modified for the posters and film titles for the movie The Monkey adapted and directed by Osgood Perkins, which is based on a short story by Stephen King.

Since it was a larger movie production there were big cardboard cutouts in conjunction with the film posters at movie theatres.

There has been a reissue/reprint of the original collection of short stories, Skeleton Crew, where the story “The Monkey” originally debuted.

In the title sequence designed by Filmograph, Align is paired with a yet unidentified sans.

Recordando a Arsenio is a compilation album with songs written by Arsenio Rodríguez, released in 1972 by Tico Records, and featuring various Latin artists such as Eddie Palmieri, Joe Cuba, Jimmy Sabater, Cortijo, Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto, and Tony Pabon. Chico Alvarez is credited as the album's designer, with the title being displayed in Davison Fandango, shifting from the uncommonly seen lowercase to capitals.

Below the title, an unidentified typeface is used for the artist names, meanwhile Times New Roman is used for the back.

[More info on Discogs]

From Rockasteria:

Frost was one of the most popular Michigan bands of the late 1960’s. Led by guitarist, singer, and songwriter extraordinaire, Dick Wagner, the group seemed poised to achieve national recognition with a collection of songs that were both heavy and tuneful. But they were saddled with a record company that undercut the band’s recordings with inadequate distribution and a lack of promotion that, as a result, severely hampered the band’s attempts to break big outside of Michigan.

Their debut 1969 album Rock and Roll Music, with art direction credited to Fred Holtz, uses a photograph taken by Andrew C. Pearch with Photo-Lettering’s Doret Shaded for the band name. The shaded all-caps design was drawn by Michael Doret for a Cooper Union class assignment under Robert Haas in 1966 and shown in PLINC's One Line Manual of Styles in 1971. The album name below is in another PLINC typeface that hasn’t been featured here before: Williamson Piper.

The back cover and gatefold use a mix of Helvetica and Alternate Gothic. The Vanguard logo is in Jana.

[More info on Discogs]

Back cover

Gatefold

Detail of Doret Shaded

Лель (Lell, sometimes also transcribed as Lel) was a Soviet brand of musical instruments including analog synthesizers. Its logo is based on Bronisław Zelek’s New Zelek, with widened proportions.

The devices were manufactured at the Lyubertsy musical instrument factory in the Moscow region of the USSR.

The series included the UDS, an electronic drum kit with a synthesizing unit and two drum pads (with a rubber surface) on a stand; the PSR, a digital drum machine; the RC, a digital multi-effects processor; the SM, an electronic percussion instrument; and the DD, a drive distortion pedal.

The labels for the keys and controls use a Cyrillic typeface (or lettering) that appears to be related to Bank Gothic.

The DR-9 uses a logo in letters that resemble the Ustav script used for Church Slavonic (compare Blagovest). Other fonts include bold italic caps from Helvetica and Brush Script.

“Eivets Rednow”, the anadrome of Stevie Wonder, released his self-titled easy listening album specifically on November 20, 1968, on the Gordy record label. An early display of Pinto Flare is used for the artist name, while Helvetica is used for the tracklist. An inclined Benguiat Caslon is shown for “Alfie”. The font used for the word “featuring” above is Bodoni 175 Italic.

[More info on Discogs]

This is the only solo studio album by Japanese drummer Tatsuo Hayashi. The first half of the album contains drum beats, while the latter half includes jazz compositions by him.

The album title and the artist's name at the album cover are set in caps of VGC’s Rusiñol, originally released as Cursiva Rusiñol by F.T. Nacional. The tracklist at the back cover uses Eurostile, and the text below the picture is set in Univers.

Design by Michiko Oshima 大島美智子, with photography by Takumi Uchida 内田 巧.

[More info on Discogs]

This Christmas album was recorded by Don Janse (1929–1999) and his Chorale & Children’s Choir, and released by Pickwick Records in the Mr. Pickwick series in 1973. The illustration is signed “U.M.”

The title, The Little Drummer Boy, is set in Big Fat. The open and shaded sans with counterless caps was released in the early 1970s by Lettergraphics. Its designer is unknown.

[More info on Discogs]

Detail

Joel Santana is a Brazilian football coach and former player. In addition to his merits on and off the field, he became notorious for his poor English language skills, after a video of a post-match interview given during the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup went viral.

Santana embraced and monetized this deficiency as the protagonist of TV commercials for Pepsi and Procter & Gamble. Shown here is one clip from a series for Head & Shoulders shampoo. It features Santana as the host of a “Tálqui Show”, Pelé as his special guest, and Ed Interlock as the font in use.

Ed Interlock (House Industries, 2004) is a revision of Ed Benguiat’s 1960s Newlock for the digital age, drawn by Ken Barber with advanced OpenType code by Tal Leming. It’s used for the clip titles, but also for a light bulb sign and the lettering on the studio band’s bass drum.

The clip was conceived by agency Africa, produced by Delibistrot Films, and directed by Amilcar Oliveira. There are at least two more clips in the series.

In the words of Mike Parker, Ultra Bodoni (1928) is the result of Morris F. Benton working out the dramatics of the English Fat Face, starting from a Bruce Foundry recutting. ATF’s “headline spectacular” is used in roman and italic for an album by Tennessee Ernie Ford (1919–1991) with songs from the American Civil War, released by Capitol Records in 1961. Ford also recorded an album with Songs of the South, with a similar design.

[More info on Discogs]

Front panel of the Roland TR-909, with model number and device name set in Earth.

From Wikipedia:

The Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer, commonly known as the 909, is a drum machine introduced by Roland Corporation in 1983, succeeding the TR-808. It was the first Roland drum machine to use samples for some sounds, and the first with MIDI functionality, allowing it to synchronize with other devices. Though it was a commercial failure, the 909 became influential in the development of electronic dance music genres such as techno, house and acid.

The device name and model number are set in Earth, which is also used on other Roland products released around the mid-1980s. Additional text is set in Helvetica.

The TR-909 was designed by Tadao Kikumoto.

Angle view of the TR-909.

1970 album from American drummer and singer Buddy Miles, issued shortly after his membership in the short-lived Band of Gypsys along with guitarist Jimi Hendrix and bassist Billy Cox. The title cut is considered his best-known tune, and was also performed with Hendrix on the Band of Gypsys album.

The title and artist are set in Caslon Open, with a gold embossed effect on the original album cover. On the back cover, the song titles are likewise set in Caslon Open, with credits in an unidentified serif.

Album design by Richard Germinaro, with art direction from Desmond Strobel and photography by Burnell Caldwell. John Craig consulted on the design.

[More info on Discogs]

Gatefold

Back cover

Alternate cover for the Netherlands issue of the album on Fontana, with artist and title in Windsor Elongated

Front cover proof, with “Excellent!” comment in margin

Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out is a 1970 live album from English rock band The Rolling Stones. Originally slated to be a double album also featuring performances from Ike & Tina Turner and B.B. King at the same 1969 concerts featuring the Stones, it was trimmed to a single LP at the behest of Decca Records.

The album title and artist name are set in Beton, with the track listing and credits on the back cover in Rockwell. Unusually, the front cover photograph includes only drummer Charlie Watts, along with some of the band’s instruments and a donkey.

[More info on Discogs]

Back cover proof

Cover of the original release

Swingin’ New Big Band is a 1966 album from famed drummer Buddy Rich and his big band, recorded live at The Chez in Hollywood, CA.

The artist name and title on the front cover, as well as the track listing on the back cover, are set in Palisade Graphic, with the “Buddy Rich” and track listing text stretched to essentially create an artificial condensed style. The “Recorded ‘Live’ at the Chez” text is set in a thin weight of Eurostile. “Hollywood, California” is added in Univers Condensed.

[More info on Discogs]

For the stereo version, the whole design was shifted to the bottom, as it was commonly done.

Back cover

Futura Black with all-caps Futura for Coast to Coast, the fourth US studio album by the English rock band The Dave Clark Five. Released in 1965, it contains the hit singles “Any Way You Want It” and “Everybody Knows (I Still Love You)”. The band name on the bass drum is in caps from Folio extrafett. Photography by Henry Parker.

[More info on Discogs]

Soul Finger is a 1965 album by drummer Art Blakey, released on the Limelight Label. Design by Jim Schubert, with photography by Bob Prokop. The typeface appears to be Matterhorn Bold by Headliners which also came with an Outline style. Matterhorn is distinguished from similar condensed grotesks by a beardless G and a thin diagonal in N.

[More info on Discogs]

Roots & Herbs is an album by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, recorded in 1961 at the same sessions as The Freedom Rider, but not released until 1970, on the Blue Note label.

The typeface is Milton Glaser’s Baby Teeth, featuring an ampersand that’s different from the one in the original photostat design and also the one in Letraset’s adaptation. Chances are it’s the one included in Photo-Lettering’s version.

[More info on Discogs]

Movie tie-in edition from ca. 1974

When “Rock Around the Clock” returned to the U.S. charts in 1974 after being used as the theme for the movie American Graffiti (1973), Pickwick Records brought out a new pressing of a best-of compilation by Bill Haley and the Comets, featuring a cover design that was already used for their 1970/1971 issue. The same album was first released in 1968 under the title Biggest Hits.

The main typeface is Pink Mouse (PLINC, 1970) by Charles Papirtis, here used in its “E” style, i.e. with contour and drop shadow, in trichromatic lowercase letters. The song titles are in all-caps Futura, likewise set on an angle. The movie tie-in edition adds Frankfurter with Univers.

[More info on Discogs]

An earlier pressing from 1971, without the reference to American Graffiti

Sleeve for “Smalltown Boy”, the debut single by British synth-pop band Bronski Beat (Steve Bronski, Larry Steinbachek, and Jimmy Somerville), released in June 1984. The song was included on their first album, The Age of Consent, which followed in December 1984. Originally released in the UK by Forbidden Fruit / London Records, the image shows the American version by MCA Records, with identical artwork by Gill Whisson. While the band name is shown in Brush Script, with the two words set on oppposing angles, the title appears to be in caps from a phototype version of Times, with a non-standard W. “12″ version” was added in Dom Diagonal.

[More info on Discogs]

Steve Bronski died this week at the age of 61. RIP.

Front cover.

The album art for Weld maybe isn’t the most spectacular, but probably one of the more prominent uses of Beowolf. Beowolf is “the original RandomFont, engineered and imagined by Erik van Blokland and Just van Rossum in 1989.” – LettError. It was released in 1990 with FontShop, laying the foundation for what would soon after become the FontFont library. To quote from a previous contribution by Dan Rhatigan:

In its original version, shown here, [Beowolf] was an exploration of what could be done with the now-deprecated PostScript Type 3 font format, which allowed for extra programming instructions in a font. Each letter shape changed in a random pattern each time it was printed, so that it never, ever looked the same.

Compare the repeating letters to see what this means, for example the four O’s and N’s on the two discs shown below. All these glyphs didn’t really exist as prefabricated letterforms in the font file, only as potential results of the randomization. With the exception of the handwritten title, Beowolf is used for pretty much all the text, from the credits in the inserts to the discs themselves.

The Weld album was designed by Janet Levinson. After a first stint at Chrysalis Records, Levinson served as Art Director for Motown from 1983 to 1986. For the ensuing eleven years, she worked for Warner Records, eventually in the role of Executive Art Director. Since 2007, Levinson is with Chase Design Group.

[More info on Discogs]

Inner side of the insert (Disc One).

Back of the insert, featuring the Crazy Horse stage art by Rebecca Holland.