As we’ve documented before, users of Alphabet Lapidaire Monstre like to reduce the complexity of Jean Midolle’s 1830s piece of lettering. This album cover is another such example: all patterning is gone. So are the names at the bottom. The letterforms were made solid.

What’s left is the original white contour and the south-east shade with the extra split shadow line. That’s arguably still enough ornamentation. The modification also reveals the wonkiness of the underlying design, with a bulky S that feels much bolder than the A. If you’re after something with similar heft but a more balanced color, consider Jim Parkinson’s Sutro Deluxe.

The colorful art for this compilation of compositions by Mozart was provided by Milton Glaser.

[More info on Discogs]

Bach by Eve Mary Grew & Sydney Grew

Two biographies of famous composers published by Collier Books in 1966. For the covers, Seymour Chwast placed Bach’s face in the crown of a tree, and Mozart’s inside a crescent moon. Their names are shown in a chromatic setting of Marble Heart, with Egyptienne Bold Condensed used for the authors.

Mozart by Eric Blom

Fonts from the Flea Market #1385

The cover of this Swiss release of “Mozart’s most beautiful melodies in the sound of the time” combines three typefaces whose names are all prefixed by three letters.

In G.K.W. Computer, they refer to Gustav Kuhle Werbung, a German advertising agency with branches in Berlin and Munich. Their close follower of Moore Computer was distributed by Berthold Fototypes and Zipatone.

The initials in MGB Patrician stand for Don Munson, Lynda Graham, and Ray Barber. Lynda is the widow of Barber who co-designed the typeface together with Munson, then Art Director at Ballantine Books.

Last but not least, the prefix in ITC Garamond denotes the International Typeface Corporation. Founded in New York in 1970, it pioneered the licensing of typeface designs for phototypesetting and dry transfer lettering. ITC originated a number of highly successful releases, including reinterpretations of classic designs, typically with a raised x-height and expanded to a range of weights.

[More info on Discogs]

The brand identity of Ekle was designed by Rob Reuland, using Fabio XM and Rockwell. From the designer’s website:

Ekle is a music academy and community built around lessons for life and creativity rather than technique alone.

Ekle’s logo is composed of simple geometric shapes that can easily disassemble to form a symphony of notes or act as an interactive instrument in an online context. The logo has the potential to change or remain in a state of motion, capturing the energy and excitement of music.

Less than two years after the first Lettera compendium was published in Zürich, Schmalfette Grotesk had already reached New York, as evidenced by its appearance on this LP cover designed by Milton Glaser. It is used here for the title and the conductor’s name (though the latter misses an umlaut on the O), while all secondary information is in News Gothic Condensed.

[More info on Discogs]

Source: www.behance.net 2x4inc. License: All Rights Reserved.

When 2x4inc redesigned the brand identity for the New York City Opera in 2008, they commissioned a custom all-caps typeface named Mortier. The retail version is available from Labor & Wait, now named Obbligato, and amended with a lowercase.

From the case study:

The people's opera: The founding principle of the New York City Opera. A touchstone for a brand strategy that links opera to contemporary culture; a design system that relaunched New York City Opera as a bold platform for creative expression. The provocative logo – a strong statement that sets NYC Opera off from its more staid neighbors – reinforces its mission in the face of adversity. By using contemporary artistic practices to examine enduring political and cultural issues, collaborations with artists such as Nikki S. Lee and Ryan McGinley provide new interpretations of historic themes at events designed to attract new audiences.

Source: www.behance.net 2x4inc. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.behance.net 2x4inc. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.behance.net 2x4inc. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.behance.net 2x4inc. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.behance.net 2x4inc. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.behance.net 2x4inc. License: All Rights Reserved.

In 2001 and 2002, Berlin-based studio Fernkopie designed a series of lovely posters in landscape format for Komische Oper.

The Sinfoniekonzert subseries uses DTL Nobel, the revival of S.H. de Roos’s Nobel by Andrea Fuchs and Fred Smeijers, in regular-wide and condensed widths.

DTL Nobel also appears for the small print on the poster for Rossini’s Der Barbier von Sevilla. The display typefaces are Karolys Italique and tracked out Quigley Wiggly [edit: Filmotype Holly].

Charles Gounod’s Romeo und Julia is presented in Carpenter Script and Foundry Monoline.

In his time as conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1938–1948), Fritz Reiner (1888–1963) made a few recordings with them for Columbia Records. This album with works by Mozart and Bach was released in 1949 by Columbia Masterworks.

Loosely spaced Futura (mostly from the bold weight) is combined with Lydian Italic. The uncredited designer apparently found the design with portraits of the two composers and the type alone too austere, and sprinkled some dots over it.

[More info on Discogs]

New York-based designer Hannah Nathans works with an everchanging selection of typefaces to promote performances from the Riverside Choral Society. Etude by Emily Atwood is used as the typographic voice for Mozart’s Requiem. The one for Bruckner’s No Common Mortal is Right Grotesk by Alex Slobzheninov. The bold condensed sans used for “Beethoven, Brahms, and Thomas” is yet unidentified. All designs are supported by Neue Haas Unica.

Riverside Choral Society is a vital presence in the cultural life of New York City. The group has performed major works by Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Schubert, Haydn, Fauré, Stravinsky, and many others in New York City's most exciting performance venues.

Cover for Sacred Songs, an album by American soprano Barbara Troxell (1916–1984) released by Plymouth Records (P-12-123) in 1952. For the cover design, Otto Rado brings together a choir of angels with Futura Display and Futura Italic.

[More info on Discogs]

An Evening at the Opera with vocal excerpts from Rigoletto (Verdi), Carmen (Bizet), Die Fledermaus (Johann Strauss II), Der Freischütz (Weber), Pagliacci (Leoncavallo), and Cosi fan tutte (Mozart), featuring the solist and orchestra of the European Opera Company.

The cover illustration is by Otto Rado. Greco Adornado (Gans, 1925) is used for most type. It’s supported by caps from Karnak Medium (Ludlow, 1931) for the smallest line. The record was released by Plymouth Records (P-12-81) probably sometime in the 1950s. In addition to the cover in yellow, red, and blue as shown here, there is also a variant in pink, blue, and black.

[More info on Discogs]

Situated in the beautiful Andräviertel, described as the ‘Paris of Salzburg’, between Kapuzinerberg and the Mirabell Palace and gardens, The Mozart has stood the test of time. Since the 1950s, it has hosted guests from all over the world, charmed by its classic reputation and traditional values of hospitality.

Today, its past has become become an important feature of its present and future, with a new look design which blends both its history and tradition, with a more modernist approach, in keeping with the requirements of guests in the 21st century. Like Mozart, whose music has proved timeless, we think we have achieved that, producing a hotel which could be described as a ‘modern classic’.

Mozart’s work was the starting point for diverse graphical approach with a flexible design rhythm, that communicates the hotels classic routes with a modern twist.

The typeface Amen from Hungarumlaut was the perfect match for this project. This modernist typeface with characteristic geometric details felt fresh right from the beginning. As a counterpart to Amen Display we chose a timeless grotesk: Gerstner-Programm from Forgotten Shapes.

See the full project on the Bruch–Idee&Form website.

Letterform Archive tweeted these four amazing magazine advertisements by Paul Rand. They are all from a campaign he made for Westinghouse music-related electronic products in 1972. The ads were shown in Graphis Annual 72/73, (the cover of that annual was designed by Massimo Vignelli).

The ads make good use of four distinct typefaces, giving each ad a playful feel. Each letter is treated as an object and this creates a sense of visual rhythm and suggests sound. The names of the four composers dominate each composition and complement the photos of the products that are grounded in the lower half of the ads. The small ad copy blocks, set in Helvetica, create a visual base for the silhouetted product photos to sit on.

In each case, the choice of type, as well as its treatment echo the specific product advertised. The ad set in Thorowgood Italic (Mozart) mimics the bands of the radio. The French Clarendon ad (Chopin) suggests the flip clock feature and the tuning of the radio dial. The use of Bifur in the third ad (Tchaikovsky) nods to the rotation of the hands of the analog clock. The placement of the letters of Superba in the fourth ad (Brahms) could suggest the spinning of the vinyl record.

You can read more about Rand's work (including for Westinghouse) at Letterform Archive’s news announcement.

Updated: Thanks to Stephen Coles for pointing out that paulrand.design recently posted high-resolution images of the ads, courtesy of the Pittsburgh Symphony Archives. This last one uses Onyx.

Visual identity for the Slovene National Theatre Opera and Ballet in Ljubljana, season 2017/18. The theme of the season was “The game of fate”.

Shown here is a selection of posters for the season’s premieres. Based on the poster visuals, additional promotional materials were realized: a program for all premieres, advertisements for magazines and digital media, etc.

The typography uses Founders Grotesk Condensed in all caps, paired with regular-wide styles from Founders Grotesk.

“M as in #Midolle, #Monstre and #Mozart” — ellmer.stefan

Thanks, Stefan, for pointing me to this early cover design by Ivan Chermayeff — maybe his first? — created in his mid twenties for a recording of Mozart’s Violin Concertos No. 3 in G major (K. 216) and No. 4 in D major (K. 218), played by violinist Manoug Parikian with the Hamburg Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Walter Goehr.

The image above shows the German release by Musical Masterpiece Society (MMS-2092, no date). The giant M is an adaptation of a glyph included in Jean Midolle’s Alphabet Lapidaire Monstre from 1835. Technically, this is not a font in use, but rather lettering based on a piece of lettering (although the ALM has been made into a film font at some point). Learn more about the alphabet lithographs of Jean Midolle in Dan Reynolds’s article for the Letterform Archive.

The text appears to be in Photo-Lettering’s Roman Compressed No. 3, a narrow Modern/Scotch whose exact origins have yet to be determined. Dennis Ortiz-Lopez offers a digital version as OL Roman Compressed.

Shown below is the French version of the record, released by Guilde Internationale du Disque in 1958. It has basically the same design, but in more restrained colors. Curiously, Chermayeff’s first name here is missing from his signature.

For comparison: The M from Midolle’s original alphabet. The bottom third of each letter shows surnames of famous writers and musicians which begin with the letter: M as in Mozart and Meierbeer. Courtesy of Letterform Archive.

Book series with quick introductions into the works of Nietzsche, Mozart, Dostoyefski, Kafka. Doğan Kitap, 2013–14

Just one more use of Record Gothic [update: as noted in the comments, it’s actually News Gothic] — I saw the other posts, and realized it was used on a book I’m reading now.

In 1993, Theater St. Gallen was one of the first clients of TGG. The logo is set in TheSans. “The dot in the design is used to show the meeting point of theatre and concert.”

Twenty years after the initial corporate design, TGG still is responsible for the visual identity of the theater/symphony orchestra. For the typography of the current season, they chose Guardian Egyptian Headline and Simplon BP.