Splendour Festival is Nottinghamshire’s biggest festival. Set in Wollaton Hall & Deer Park, there are five stages of music that spans all genres; from fast-rising stars to world-class performers, and musical icons.

Newly for 2025, Alias Elephant is used for logotype and headline text. It’s supported by Brandon Grotesque.

A safety campaign for Transport for London, designed to spotlight potential hazards across the network. Led by Ali Augur at VCCP London, the design and art direction made the most of short, punchy headlines within a portrait format. To emphasise impact, Obviously was used for its variable weights. The font is robust even when skewed or angled, always holding its strength and clarity.

Illustrator Andrew Hudson was brought on board to create the textured and colourful visuals that run throughout the campaign, adding depth and personality to the message.

From Wikipedia:

“You Wouldn’t Steal a Car” is the first sentence and commonly used name of a public service announcement that debuted on July 12, 2004 in cinemas, and July 27 on home media, which was part of the anti-copyright infringement campaign “Piracy. It’s a crime.” It was a co-production between the Federation Against Copyright Theft and the Motion Picture Association of America (now the MPA) in cooperation with the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, and appeared in theaters internationally from 2004 until 2008, and on many commercial DVDs during the same period as an ad preceding the main menu, as either an unskippable or skippable video.

The announcement depicts either a teenage girl trying to illegally download a movie or two women attempting to buy DVDs from a bootlegger interwoven with clips of a man committing theft of various objects, and equates these crimes to the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyrighted materials, such as films. The girl ultimately aborts said download and the couple choose not to purchase any of the bootleg DVD copies. According to the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, the announcement was unsuccessful, and was largely a source of ridicule. Likewise, a 2022 behavioral economics paper published in The Information Society found the PSAs may, in fact, have increased piracy rates. By 2009, over 100 parodies of the announcement had been created.

The intertitles use FF Confidential. On the computer screen, the text “FEATURE FILMS” is in Serpentine, “DOWNLOAD CANCELED” is in Compacta, and the remaining text in what appears to be Univers.

A decent example of Miller & Richard's Grotesque No. 4 Italic, which, for all its quirks, looks perfectly at home on a no-nonsense government notice. I particularly like the flinching f, echoed in Fred Smeijers’ vintage-inspired Ludwig, which uses it—quite pragmatically—in ligatures.

The other typefaces are mysteries to me, and I would appreciate any help in identifying them—especially the interloping 3s in “30th SEPTEMBER” and “3 a.m.” and the O in “On and after,” which differs a bit from the others.

Ludwig Black and Black Italic by Fred Smeijers. The f flinches à la Grotesque No. 4 Italic to make way for l, f, t, and i, but stands (or leans) straight next to o. (The second f in “off” flinches in solidarity with the first, I suppose.)

“It Looks Just As Stupid When You Do It.” poster (17½″×25″). This trademarked slogan was first used in August 1990. The “Youth Against Tobacco” text appears to be done by hand.

This anti-smoking campaign was developed in 1990 by Minneapolis-based agency Martin Williams for the Minnesota Department of Health.

Wendy Solie Hansen takes credit for the art direction, with copywriting by Lyle Wedemeyer and photography by Rick Dublin of Dublin Productions. In a feature in Print Casebooks 9, Teresa Reese writes:

For the copy line, […] Hansen chose Caslon Antique because it reminded her of smoke, “kind of wavy and jagged and not clean-looking.”

The small print sometimes is in Helvetica (or similar), but that varies between the various printings.

These two posters are dated 1989. Left: “If You Smoke, You Might As Well Start The Day With A Mouthful of This.” poster (17½″×25″). Hansen comments:

“Once we decided to go with a Scope look-alike,” she reports, “we tried to make it as close as possible

without getting into legal trouble. We changed the shape of the label somewhat but used the same typeface, Optima Medium […].”

Right: “If You Smoke, Your Expensive Perfume Won’t Smell So Expensive.” poster (17½″×25″). The label text uses Helvetica.

“Butts Are Gross.” poster (17½″×25″). This printing includes the logo of the American Cancer Society. This trademarked slogan was likewise first used in August 1990.

“Butts Are Gross.” poster variant in landscape format (13″×30″)

Keep tramways [American English: streetcar tracks] clear

This poster from 1967 by Amsterdam’s traffic police was designed by advertising agency Hou Maet, featuring an anthromorphic tram and Adrian Frutiger’s Univers in all-lowercase letters. Printed by Stadsdrukkerij Amsterdam.

Via Tim Boric’s Flickr photostream. Peter Eijkman recalls that these were also used as rear window decals. Henk Gralman has a photo from 1967 showing such an application. On the design with the red hands, he comments:

Some naughty and creative minds interpreted this as somebody being run over by a tram, which is somewhat the message, in a roundabout way. These notices could be seen on trams in Amsterdam and Rotterdam and some Belgium tram cities.

A sign as seen in the streets of Amsterdam, June 3rd, 1967

Police chief Van der Molen in front of a new information sign at the approach road Sloterweg in Amsterdam, August 27th, 1965. In this version, the message doesn’t use any type, but is lettering, and in all caps, featuring a compact IJ digraph.

Mukta is used for the Covid pandemic campaign across the state of Maharashtra as well as for the infographics by the Prime Minister’s Office in Hindi language.

Had a glass? Get yourself a ride!

This Dutch road safety poster from 1967 on the “don’t drink & drive” theme was issued by the Verbond voor Veilig Verkeer (later merged into Veilig Verkeer Nederland – VVN). The designer is unknown (the signature reads PRI, or PRJ [see comments]).

There were several poster variants in this campaign; an earlier version had the more formal “u” instead of “je”, and by the time a later version was printed, the “Glaasje op?” bit had become so well known that this line of text was omitted.

Awareness was further increased by the fact that Amsterdam singer Sjakie Schram scored a hit with the slogan in 1966; the lyrics were written by Veronica DJ Joost den Draaijer (real name: Willem van Kooten).

A delightful deviation from your average transit signage featuring Emigre's Suburban. Signs are pretty small and hang overhead in “Quiet Cars” aboard NJ Transit. If not for the social media logos it would be difficult to tell this wasn’t left over from the 90s!

A late work by Polish-French poster artist Roman Cieślewicz (1930–1996), using all-caps Schmale Block for the appeal “Amis! Protégez!” (“Friends! Protect!”). The poster was commissioned by Bruno Ughetto of Artis, Paris, for the Images pour la lutte contre le Sida (“Images for the fight against AIDS) campaign and printed by Graficaza in an edition of 1,000 copies. It’s included in the collections of the Centre Pompidou and the Stedelijk Museum. If you want one, too, there’s currently a copy on sale at Place des Arts.

PSA by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in collaboration with Ad Council:

Be a player. Encourage your kids to get out and play. It’s good for them, good for you and just good fun. So grab a jump rope. Turn a cartwheel. Dance. Wiggle. Shake a tail feather. As long as you’re moving, you’re a player, too. Find lots of easy ways to get active at www.SmallStep.gov.

Interstate is used in this advertisement, featuring its bold, regular, and light weights.

“Collect non-metallic waste!” The message on the back of this pocket mirror calls on the citizens of the GDR to preserve valuable materials, probably to be picked up by the Pioneers to be sent for recycling.

The brush script is Impuls. It was designed by Paul Zimmermann in 1954, i.e. already after the division of Germany, and first cast by Ludwig Wagner before the Leipzig foundry was nationalized and merged into VEB Typoart in Dresden. The typeface was continued by Typoart in East Germany, but also by the Johannes Wagner in the West. It came with a number of alternates and ligatures. This application has both forms for the ch digraph, once with a descending h and once without. There were also ligatures for ff and ll, but those weren’t used here.

In 1998, posters appeared all over New York City’s subways and buses, reading:

77% of anti-abortion leaders are men. 100% of them will never be pregnant.
It’s your body. It’s your decision. The Pro-Choice Public Education Project. It’s pro-choice or no choice.
1(888) 253-CHOICE or www.protectchoice.org

The design was unmistakably leaning on the work of artist Barbara Kruger, using her signature style of text set in Futura Bold Italic, white in red bands on black-and-white photographs. It’s not an actual work by Kruger, though. The campaign was devised by Abi Aron Spencer and Aaron Eiseman, then senior art directors at DeVito/Verdi, along with copywriter David Brenner and art director Rob Carducci, and was commissioned by the Pro-Choice Public Education Project. Kruger endorsed the message, having previously spoken out against anti-abortion laws herself. Most prominently, she produced Untitled (Your body is a battleground) for the Women’s March on Washington in support of reproductive freedom in 1989.

From Katherine Diekmann’s contribution to the Barbara Kruger monograph (MIT Press, 1999):

[…] the body remains a battleground, to paraphrase one of Kruger’s better-known sayings, especially since right-wing infiltrations into a woman’s right to choose gain ground by the day, and no one seems to notice. For that reason, Kruger allowed a campaign by the Pro-Choice Public Education Project to adopt her style in a 1998 ad campaign for abortion rights. The images were basically Kruger clones, right down to the red-and-white slanted slogans, although they lacked Kruger’s punch and precision (“Think you can do whatever you want with your body? Think again’’). Whatever the impact of the campaign, it also revealed how inimitable Kruger’s work truly is. By agreeing to let herself be copied for a cause, Kruger displayed yet another of her facets – call it Barbara Kruger, Anti-Author. She’ll always permit her visual methods to be borrowed in service of an important issue, without fussing over ownership.

You can read more about the campaign in Paula Span’s article for the Washington Post from 1998.

Square variant with a different crop and what appears to be a mirrored version of the photo

A silence sign, ubiquitous in hospitals and clinics in Spain from the late 1960s to the late 1980s. The text, which uses Baby Teeth, says Por favor (Spanish for “please”). Nurses stopped using the uniform that appears in the photo in the 1980s. The sign was (also) produced in the form of a postcard.

A copy that has lost its colors of the years, hanging on a tiled wall.

Poster advertising the “AHA formula“ of distancing, hygiene, and masks.

The Bundesministerium für Gesundheit (German Federal Ministry of Health) uses Stabil Grotesk for its information campaign Zusammen gegen Corona (“Together against corona”) on issues related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Christian Jánský’s Stabil Grotesk (Kometa Typefaces, 2019) in used in its Bold weight for headlines on posters, in online graphics, and brochures. It’s combined with the government’s custom typeface BundesSans. The latter is also used for the campaign website, zusammengegencorona.de, together with its seriffed companion BundesSerif.

Cover and interior page of an English-language information booklet.

Campaign poster.

Campaign poster.

Cover of a brochure with (mainly) pictorial information.

Spread with an infographic on how to behave when symptoms show.

Spread with an infographic on side effects of getting vaccinated.

Campaign website with BundesSans for headings and BundesSerif for text.

PSA on the eve of the US General Election on November 2nd 2020.

Source: www.yesmagazine.org Marty Melville, AFP via Getty Images. License: All Rights Reserved.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at a press conference about COVID-19 held at the New Zealand Parliament in Wellington on June 8, 2020.

Omnes is the typeface chosen for the New Zealand Government’s “Unite against COVID-19” campaign.

With a total number of less than 2,000 cases with no more than 66 being currently active (as of 28 October 2020), New Zealand has been widely praised internationally for its quick and tough action over the virus. A central element of the national approach to the pandemic is an ongoing campaign with public service announcements.

The Omnes typeface by Darden Studio is used throughout. While yellow diagonal stripes signal a state of emergency, the approachable sans serif conveys the textual information in a way that is both clear and humane.

Source: covid19.govt.nz License: All Rights Reserved.

The campaign is titled “Mā tātau katoa e ārai atu te” in Māori …

Source: covid19.govt.nz License: All Rights Reserved.

… and “Unite against COVID-19” in English.

License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: commons.wikimedia.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: covid19.govt.nz License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: covid19.govt.nz License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.ecowatch.com Hagen Hopkins / Getty Images. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.facebook.com License: All Rights Reserved.

License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.facebook.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Photo: H James Lucas. License: Public Domain.

A LinkNYC kiosk with messaging in English

NYC Census 2020 is a temporary agency within the New York City Mayor’s office dedicated to ensuring a fair and accurate count of everyone living in the five boroughs. The U.S. Census routinely undercounts Black and immigrant communities, especially when those communities have a disproportionate number of members living in homes without a legal address (such as a basement apartment), so in 2019, NYC Census 2020 and numerous partner organizations made extensive plans for in-person outreach to these “Hard-To-Count” communities. The need for social distancing in the wake of COVID-19’s spread forced a reorientation from in-person outreach to messaging in the form of web ads, sharable social media content, television spots, in-business posters, and outdoor ads.

Photo: H James Lucas. License: Public Domain.

A LinkNYC kiosk with messaging in Spanish

One such channel was LinkNYC, a system of hundreds of sidewalk kiosks across all boroughs that display news, history facts, and advertisements (and provide free wi-fi and charging). The campaign for these 15-second spots needed to be bold and direct, imparting vital information to passersby. The type needed to convey urgency without wholly departing from governmental propriety. Designer H James Lucas selected Bild, a typeface still under development by David Jonathan Ross. Bild’s Black Compressed face was released through Ross’s Font of the Month Club in 2017, and the range of widths was expanded in 2019. But it was the introduction of new weights in the June 2020 club release that gave the family the range the campaign required.

David was a generous partner in the project, providing a font for Condensed Light and later updating it (overnight!) to include the diacritics needed for Spanish and Haitian Creole versions. He also initiated the process of finding suitable Devanagari and Bengali counterparts, a process which led to the selection of Indian Type Foundry’s Akhand.

Many of the neighborhoods targeted by the LinkNYC messaging showed promising upticks in self-response, so the campaign was adapted for large-scale projection in Manhattan and neighborhood-specific web banners reaching New Yorkers across all boroughs.

Photo: H James Lucas. License: Public Domain.

A LinkNYC kiosk with messaging in Nepali

License: Public Domain.

A LinkNYC kiosk with messaging in Bengali

Photo: H James Lucas. License: Public Domain.

A LinkNYC kiosk illustrates the current response rate of the Morningside Heights neighborhood

License: Public Domain.

Projection onto a building at Bowery and Houston

Photo: H James Lucas. License: Public Domain.

Two of hundreds of neighborhood-specific web ads

Photo: H James Lucas. License: Public Domain.

The apron and rag seem to suggest an alternate ending where E.T. gives up on trying to leave Earth and gets into bartending.

A 1982 bar poster produced by Coors, in which lovable alien E.T. The Extraterrestrial leverages his famous catchphrase to encourage patrons not to drive home drunk.

While information about this poster's designer (or design process) is hard to come by, it's worth noting that Coors beer is featured in the film; specifically in the pivotal scene where E.T.—blasted in the middle of the day after finding a pack of Banquets in the fridge—has the idea to "phone home" that drives the rest of the movie.

ITC's Italia Bold is used for the entire poster, including the tiny copyright info at the bottom. It's a very classy early-80s pick that somehow seems perfect for a poster featuring both a cozy-looking wood-paneled bar interior and a space alien.

This 2018 article by Kyle Kastranec makes no guesses as to the poster's designer or origins, but does contain a highly enjoyable recap of the movie scene.

If you have to stay in the house to avoid capture by scary government agents, there's nothing wrong with knocking back some cold ones.

Released without fanfare to a limited number of public officials in 1976, Protect and Survive was intended as an instruction manual for the public on what to do should nuclear attack take place in the UK.

The booklet was prepared by the UK's Central Office of Information - the government's in-house communications agency - as part of a wider campaign, which included television and radio broadcasts and newspaper inserts.

Under pressure from the media, the British government hastily made a new edition of the booklet available for sale in 1980. Presented outside of its intended context, the booklet quickly became the object of public ridicule (including artistic treatment) and impacted the efficacy of future public information campaigns of this type. A pdf of the full booklet is available from the Wilson Center.

The images shown here are from the 1980 edition. The original 1976 edition is identical, though, in terms of typography.