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The “Pussy Wagon” is a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck that features in Quentin Tarantino’s 2003 film Kill Bill: Volume 1. The pink lettering on its rear – replicated in the keyring pendant – is in a groovy 1960s style that, among other things, was used for cheesy pulp fiction with sexist tropes.

In an act of reframing through affirmation that’s typical of Tarantino, the bright yellow vehicle with the tacky name (and matching license plate) serves Uma Thurman as Beatrix “the Bride” Kiddo to launch her “roaring rampage of revenge” against the men (and women) who did her wrong.

The font in use probably is Action Is, an all-caps freebie from 1998. It was drawn by Jeff Levine based on an application of either Caruso Roxy or its close follower Holiday. The Identifont blog has the font’s origin story:

While working in the recording industry for Steve Alaimo, former singer and co-host of the 1960s TV show Where the Action Is, Jeff noticed an interesting typeface spelling out the show’s title on a photo album Steve kept from those years. Tracing the letters which existed on that page, and creating his own characters for those that were missing, the font was digitized by Brad Nelson of Brain Eaters Fonts and released as freeware under the name Action Is.

The iconic prop was subsequently produced as fan item, in the form of stickers, patches, keyring pendant, model cars, and more.

It has also been quoted more than once: in Tarantino’s Death Proof from 2007, a 1972 Ford Mustang is labeled “Lil’ Pussy Wagon”. The car again serves women to take revenge on a misogynistic murderer. And in 2009, the original Pussy Wagon made a cameo in the music video for Lady Gaga’s 2009 song “Telephone” featuring Beyoncé.

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Quentin Tarantino used to drive the Pussy Wagon himself. Via the Quentin Tarantino Fan Club: “The thing about the Pussy Wagon is, whenever I drove it on the freeway, everyone recognized it’s me. Everyone recognized the Pussy Wagon. And then it would be a chain, because people would drive alongside me and try to talk to me.”

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Embroidered iron-on/sew-on patch

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Box for a Pussy Wagon truck replica in the scale of 1:32

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Mary Elizabeth Winstead in her role as Lee Montgomery, sitting on the “Lil’ Pussy Wagon” in the second segment of Death Proof (2007)

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Stills from the music video to “Telephone”: Lady Gaga leaves prison …

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… and dances with Beyoncé in front of the Pussy Wagon.

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RCA Records UK, known for its diverse roster of groundbreaking artists, faced the challenge of modernising its digital presence to match its contemporary identity. We collaborated closely with RCA and their design team, developing a concept that embraced energetic layouts and variable fonts to inject a youthful, modern feel into the website. This bold redesign seeks to capture the essence of RCA’s vibrant and cutting-edge artist community and enhances the way fans interact with their favourite artists.

Essence, the renowned lifestyle, fashion, and beauty magazine for African-American women, is set to celebrate its 55th anniversary in 2025. In anticipation of this milestone, the iconic magazine has revived its logo and refreshed the overall design, choosing Rizoma as the brand’s new typeface. The new design features Rizoma L for headlines, Rizoma S for running text, and Söhne (with Breit and Mono) and Clarendon Graphic for captions and smaller entries.

For the logo, Corey Stokes resurrected the original from 1970, which appears to be based on Helvetica. From an article about the redesign by Fast Company:

Stokes’ team made a few minor adjustments to the logo—tweaking the kerning to give the letterforms more room to breathe, and boosting the curvature of the bowls in the S’s and C—but otherwise, it’s all there as it was in 1970.

Senior Vice President, Creative: Corey Stokes
Design Director: Anthony Bryant
Art Director: Sabla Stays
Senior Designer: Sophia Little
Visuals Director: Michael Quinn

The logo of Essence GU (Girls United) is based on Digestive.

A graphic track list released for Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album alternates between Resistenza’s handwritten uppercase Sandwich Marker and Linotype’s Anzeigen-Grotesk. Beyonce name is set in Rise Bold, with squeezed letterforms. Tri Kuncoro’s slab serif is similar to the one used on the ribbon worn by Beyoncé on the album’s front cover.

[More info on Discogs]

Poster made as a personal project to commemorate the release of Beyoncé’s album Act II: Cowboy Carter. The design is inspired by Chitlin’ Circuit posters. Printed copies are available from my print store.

A Creative Partner is an inclusive boutique management agency based in Los Angeles, New York, and Paris. Their self-designed website was developed by TOOSOON using Waldenburg Fett Schmal and Schwer Schmal and Times New Roman.

Harper’s Bazaar is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Since its debut in 1867, as the U.S.’s first fashion magazine, its pages have been home to talent such as the founding editor, author and translator Mary Louise Booth, as well as numerous fashion editors, photographers, illustrators and writers.

When the magazine was redesigned in early 2021, STUDIO 191’s Laura Genninger followed the path of Alexey Brodovitch, the original Art Director of the magazine who notoriously started the trend associating Modern typefaces (also know as Didot/Bodoni, or Didone) to luxury and high-end fashion, by choosing NewParis as the main titling face. For the body text it was complemented by SangBleu OG Serif. An unidentified grotesk [probably Helvetica Now, see comments] is completing the trio.

NewParis and SangBleu OG Serif are available from Swiss Typefaces.

Front cover

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Destiny’s Child used Digital Sans (a version of Sol) as their primary typeface. It appears on the cover of their second studio album, The Writing’s on the Wall (1999) as well as on various related releases.

For the third single “Say My Name” from October 1999, it was paired with another, rather obscure typeface. Like Digital Sans, it’s a monolinear sans of light weight, and has a similar s with three horizontal segments. While Digital Sans is built around a square, this other typeface has circular forms for a b c d e g o p q. Its name is Dana Line, designed by Doug Olena and released on his Keystrokes label in 1997. It’s now available as part of the Fonts For Design Art Deco Collection.

In 2021, Rolling Stone placed the song at number 285 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

[More info on Discogs]

Compact disc with track names set in Dana Line

“Say My Name” CD maxi single insert back and disc

“Say My Name” CD maxi single back cover

“Say My Name” 12″ vinyl back cover, with track names set in Dana Line

“Say My Name” 12″ picture disk back cover detail, with track names set in Digital Sans

“Say My Name” House Remixes 12″ promo, 2000

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The most prominent use of Motter Femina in recent years probably is the cover for “Crazy in Love”, the lead single from Beyoncé’s debut solo studio album Dangerously in Love from 2003, featuring Jay-Z. It became a number-one hit in the United States and the UK.

Femina underwent a treatment of highlights and shadows, giving it a somewhat three-dimensional look.

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DVD cover

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CD cover

The BET Awards were established in 2001 by the Black Entertainment Television network to celebrate African Americans and other American minorities in music, acting, sports, and other fields of entertainment over the past year. The awards are presented annually, and are broadcast live on BET. The annual presentation ceremony features performances by artists, and some of the awards of more popular interest are presented in a televised ceremony. — Wikipedia

For the visual identity of the famed award's 2019 ceremony, Sibling Rivalry Studio decided to pair two contrasting display typefaces, Brik and Grandmaster, both distributed by The Designers Foundry.

It is a particularly well-suited use of the extra-condensed Grandmaster, as the typeface was partly inspired by hip-hop (for its name as well as for its design), a music genre that is central to the BET Awards.

NewParis typeface in use on the cover of L'Officiel magazine in March 2011.

NewParis collections are available from Swiss Typefaces.

Branding for the MTV Video Music Awards 2016, conceived by the great designers of London-based Studio Moross.

Elephant in use for Rolling Stone USA, Mexico and Japan, from 2004 and 2008. Rolling Stone is a magazine that gets through a lot of typefaces in a constantly changing format. The Ramones cover shows a — hopefully — one-off use of faux small caps. Elephant Medium and Black weights were used for several issues of the US and Japanese editions. The front cover type on two of the Japanese edition covers looks like it was overprinted — maybe the layout allowed for different languages to be printed?

Other Alias typefaces used by Rolling Stone include Metsys and August.