Pony Scouts is a series of ten books written by Catherine Hapka and illustrated by Anne Kennedy. It was published between 2009 and 2014 by HarperCollins in the Level 2 tier of the I Can Read! library.

Titles are set in Nick Shinn’s FF Fontesque Sans, with shadow effect, while the Pony Scouts logo uses Leticea Bumstead by Phoenix Woodrow. The “I Can Read!” series title is in Horley Old Style, integrated into a curved ribbon, with Gill Sans used for “reading with help”.

Chwast Art Tone in early use and in all lowercase letters for a comedy album released in 1967 by Fontana Records. Johnny Melfi, Dorothy Van(n) and Jim Evering take “a comical look at your horoscope”. The design is by Kerig Pope (b. 1935).

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Cover and spine of the hardback edition with gold foil stamping, 29.7×25.6 cm

For me, Monoline Script will always be linked to its prominent use for the comprehensive Martin Parr monograph:

This encyclopaedia of Martin Parr covers his long career as an image maker and has an insightful text written by longstanding friend and colleague, Val Williams. The book was produced to accompany his retrospective exhibition at the Barbican in London, which then toured over ten more venues. A detailed analysis of Parr’s development and career shows how he became a passionate collector of ephemera. Published by Phaidon Press Limited, London, 2002. Text by Val Williams. Designed by UNA (London) Designers.

With the spine lettering featuring the artist’s name in big pink script letters against a purple background, the book stands out from every shelf. I treated myself with a copy after attending a presentation held by Parr at a photography conference in Berlin in the early 2000s. I immediately fell in love with his keen eye for fellow human beings and their quirks.

Martin Parr sadly died on 6 December 2025 at his home in Bristol, England. In his obituary for the Guardian, Charles Darwent described him as a “photographer whose unblinking eye documented the human subject as a birdwatcher might, via plumage, habitat and diet.”

Works by Parr and such that are related to him and his foundation came up on Fonts In Use before. His Boring Postcards even inspired a set of Uses with generic tourism postcards from the mid-20th century.

Cover of the softback edition (2003) with silver (?) foil stamping. The text typeface is another creation by the English Monotype Corporation: Plantin. The heavy wedge-tailed rightwards arrow (➽) looks like it’s taken from ITC Zapf Dingbats, cf. the 1978 promotional booklet.

The same typeface combination was used for a free gallery guide with postcards published on the occasion of Parr’s retrospective exhibition Photographic Works 1971–2000 at London’s Barbican Gallery in 2002.

The cover for the second edition from 2014 adopts the colors of the gallery guide (see above) and foregoes the foil stamping.

Last words – the last utterance of a person before their death. That which a person leaves behind for posterity in the face of their death.

Last words – the final sentence of a book before its end. That which the narrator leaves behind for readers in the face of their ‘death‘.

Letzte Worte (“Last words”) is a collection of the respective last sentence from 45 books. Cautiously arranged in sequence, each sentence stands on its own, yet when read together, new stories can arise.

Headlines are shown in all-caps Latin Bold. Some of the lines including “Travel wise – always travel by coach” are drawn by hand, though: zoom in to see small differences between repeating letters. The italic red caps appear to be from Miller & Richard’s Grotesque No. 4.

A rather fine and complex folding map giving details of the many express motor coach routes operated in England and Wales by the ‘principal’ bus and coach companies, a list of which appears at the base of the map. The folder gives information as to express services, coach holidays, chartering, sightseeing and coach-air services and is illustrated by images of suitably express coaches and happy passengers. The folder was issued at a time of great popularity for both express coach services and coach holidays – post-war years that still saw relatively low car ownership but with increasing wages and disposable income and before the onset of cheaper overseas holidays.

Amongst the photos I can make out a BMMO Midland Red motorway coach, passing what looks like a Bristol, and various vehicles that look to be both East Kent and Maidstone & District. The list of companies, organised geographically, contain some well known and often much missed names. Oddly the ‘Scottish’ connection points potential passengers to the Scottish Tourist Board and not the Scottish Bus Group.

The rather stylish graphics and map are signed “Reitz” who is an artist/designer I can find little about although they did similar maps and publicity for British Rail at the time.

Northern section of the map. Labels use Futura Condensed.

Southern section of the map. The list of principle bus and coach companies of Britain is set in two weight from Monotype Grotesque.

Plantin is used for the body text.

All-caps Flash for the poster signed by D. Wust-Calame, printing: Imprimerie du «Journal de Genève»

Drawing is a common practice in the field of botany to visually describe a plant. Allowing interpretation, even cheating, a drawer dare said, scientific illustration has didactical advantages over photography. From 1960, when Charles Baehni was director of the institution, and during more than 30 years, the Botanical Garden of Geneva in Switzerland employed a dedicated team of women for the task. Their names appear vertically, often along the stem of each illustrated plant: Line Guibentif, Saskia Pernin-Wikström, Suzanne Van Hove, Danielle Wüst-Calame.

Housed by the lake, on the first floor of the historical building called La Console, the “atelier de dessin et décoration” comprised a complementary team dedicated to decoration (advertising or graphic design nowadays).

The series of posters entitled “Tulipes” announces most likely outdoor “exhibitions” of the tulip flower in bold colours with various typefaces leading to a striking effect. Showcased below, these posters symbolise the porosity of practices, the warmth as well as importance of drawing by hand, from that era.

To conclude, when I was conducting my research for proper dates and names, working in this very institution as an in-house typographer, I spotted this remark in one article by Line Guibentif from 1984: “Made with simplicity and economy of means botanical illustration should be as easy to read as clearly typeset text.” (translated from French by the author).

Acknowledgments: Samuel Anderegg, Pierre Boillat, Patrick Bungener, Martin Callmander, Sylvie Dunant, Mona Mahmoudian, Raoul Palese, Nathalie Rasolofo, Rodolphe Spichiger, Gisèle Visinand

Letraset’s Desdemona for a poster signed “SaskiaW”. Note that the 9 is an upside-down 6.

All-lowercase Baskerville Old Face

All-lowercase Monotype Grotesque and Helvetica for a poster signed “Line G.”, printing: Imprimerie du Journal de Genève

Hand-rendered (?) Cooper Black with non-standard forms for U (inspired by ITC Souvenir?) and P. “Rocailles” is shown in an unidentified wide slab serif. Volta fett with a trimmed R leg and unbracketed serifs would come close [see also the comments]. This poster is signed “SaskiaW” and was printed by imprimeries populaires. Smaller text is in Helvetica.

Zipper and Helvetica for a poster signed “SaskiaW”, printing: Imprimerie du «Journal de Genève»

Artistik for a poster signed “D. Wust-Calame”, printing: Imprimerie du Journal de Genève

More Helvetica, including stacked glyphs for the months for a poster signed “D. Calame”, printing: Blanc-Wittwer SA (not part of the Tulipes series, provided here as a bonus for the eyes)

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by Bart Solenthaler and tagged with “safari”. License: All Rights Reserved.

From Wikipedia:

Brain Damage is a 1988 American comedy horror film written and directed by Frank Henenlotter. It stars Rick Hearst in his debut acting role as Brian, a young man who becomes acquainted with a talking parasite known as Aylmer (voiced by John Zacherle) that injects him with an addictive fluid that causes euphoric hallucinations; in return, Aylmer demands that Brian allow him to feed on the brains of other humans.

The movie logo in red animated caps with irregular counters is based on a typeface that was almost thirty years old at that point: it’s the boldest weight of Safari, released around 1960 by Headliners. In 1963, the Medium weight was used on the cover of Where the Wild Things Are.

Source: vhsrevival.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Movie poster with a 1986 copyright notice. The wide sans used for the tagline “Inside everyone’s head lurks an Elmer” and the credit was identified as Antique Olive large, see the comments.

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

Movie poster by Manson International, featuring Rockwell Bold in all caps for secondary type including the tagline “Now you’re really out of your mind.”

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

Arrow Video Blu-ray cover

License: All Rights Reserved.

Small type is in Helvetica Black.

The cover photo of the Golden Gate Bridge is by Joe Norton.

A classic Columbia Records LP cover for Tony Bennett’s 1962 album I Left My Heart in San Francisco, featuring Normande Italic.

The design uses the high-contrast fat face for all text on the front cover, from the city name to the song titles, echoing 19th‑century display types.

The images show different pressings and crops of the sleeve, all retaining the same typographic hierarchy.

[More info on Discogs]

Title and artist’s name are shown in three lines of alternating colors. The colors are echoed in the slashes that separate the song names. Note also the sign painters’ quotes.

The back cover of this US pressing pairs Univers Italic for the bigger lines with Akzidenz-Grotesk a.k.a. Standard for the liner notes and track listing.

The back cover of the British release uses Gill Sans Italic and Monotype Grotesque. It was printed and made by the E.J. Day Group, London.

The names are set in a different, older sans of German origin: it’s Akzidenz-Grotesk mager. Peter Trunk’s name lacks an R.

Folio breithalbfett in use with its biform alternates for an album by the Klaus Doldinger Quartet featuring Attila Zoller. Released in 1965 on EmArcy Records, it shows influences from Latin music which the group had gained on their tour through South America.

Klaus Doldinger died this week at the age of 89. Outside jazz circles, the saxophonist and composer is best known for the film scores to Das Boot (1981) and The NeverEnding Story (1984). In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, his musical theme for Tatort can still be heard regularly on television – first aired in 1970, the crime series is the longest-running German-language TV drama.

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Track list, credits and liner notes on the back cover are set in different styles from Monotype Grotesque.

IF is a contemporary arts and literature magazine. This special issue – No. 58 – on the Actoral cultural center in Marseille features contributions by Madison Byroft, Felix Touzalin, Alexandre Gouttard, Perez Sound, Terraja Tatu, Studio Prouvost Social Club, Alberto Cortes Ruiz, Anne James Chaton, Liliane Giraudon, Kubra Khademi, and Martin Mongin.

The magazine was edited by Hubert Colas, designed by Clément Wibaut, and printed at Media Graphic Rennes.

The cover of IDEA no. 411 embodies the theme of the special feature on Arabic calligraphy and typography. White text is set in the 29LT Ada Flat font from 29LT, and the emerald blue typographic elements were designed by Tarek Atrissi. Additionally used fonts include Univers and Plantin. The Mincho used for Japanese text is yet unidentified.

Pet Shop Boys, actually. is the second studio album by British duo Pet Shop Boys. The LP cover, designed by Mark Farrow and pairing a typically tongue-in-cheek portrait (shot by photographer Cindy Palmano) of band members Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant with restrained typography in Bembo, perfectly encapsulated Pet Shop Boys’ detached and ironic attitude towards pop stardom in this early phase of their career.

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Main poster

Pacella Vega, a bold, heavy serif designed by Vincent Pacella, was the main title font for Sydney Pollack’s 1972 revisionist Western, Jeremiah Johnson, starring Robert Redford. Supporting titling uses ITC Avant Garde Gothic. The credits look to be set in Grotesque Light 126.

Alternate poster

Lobby card with set photography

Omdat het anders niet bestaat is the new novel by A.J. Maren. The book cover pairs all-caps Akzidenz-Grotesk with Plantin.

The publication Streitsache Straßennamen (“Street names in dispute”) documents the process of renaming streets in Darmstadt between 2013 and 2022. Over the course of 219 pages, it details the debates, decision-making processes, and the work of experts who critically examined the biographies of controversial street namesakes from the National Socialist era. The book also includes content from the exhibition of the same name, shown in 2021 at the Justus-Liebig-Haus, as well as transcripts of lectures presented during a symposium held online on June 1, 2021. Designed by Florian Schimanski, the publication is an important contribution to the ongoing reflection on the city’s history and how it is commemorated today.

The book is set in HAL Timezone, Tor grotesk, and Monotype Grotesque. Produced in collaboration with Büro für Erinnerungskultur and edited by Stadtarchiv Darmstadt, it is printed on Circle Offset and Circle Silk paper. It measures 170×210 mm, and is published in an edition of 1,000 copies.

From Studio Asensó:

To mark the centenary of Gustave Fayet's birth, a number of exhibitions are taking place across France – in Béziers, Narbonne, Arles, Villeneuve-lez-Avignon and Paris at the Fondation Louis Vuitton (2026). An immersion in the vibrant world of this multi-faceted artist: painter, publisher, bibliophile and great lover of illustrated books. The Musée d'Art Gustave Fayet Association is celebrating this richness through a collection of previously unpublished works, the common thread running through this cultural season.

The book cover and headlines are set in Monotype Plantin, using its regular and Italic styles. Massilia by Blaze Type forms the backbone of the book’s interior typography. Used for titles and chapter openers, the typeface structures the reading flow with clarity and rhythm. Inspired by Marseille’s signage and Mediterranean graphic vernacular, Massilia finds here a context where its bold yet warm tone can fully express itself. Deep-blue full-page spreads act as visual pauses throughout the book.

Here’s the very first issue of the Plakat broadside series from Openings Press in Gloucestershire, England. Openings “aim[ed] to produce a series that is a complete integration of graphics and texts, ie. not an illustrated poem or a captioned drawing." This one’s got one of Dom Sylvester Houédard’s typestracts—concrete poems created on his Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriter, here accompanied by two weights of Monotype Grotesque, all set without caps. It’s the most striking example of graphic work by a Benedictine monk that we’ve ever seen.