The Beatles, commonly known as the White Album, is usually described online as having its title set in Helvetica. I have not found a single public identification pointing to Akzidenz-Grotesk for the original LP sleeve; the visible consensus instead seems to cite Helvetica, often quite authoritatively. A close comparison of the original embossed lettering, however, suggests that this attribution is likely incorrect.

The type on the original LP sleeve appears to be Akzidenz-Grotesk Medium, specifically the original metal type rather than Neue Haas Grotesk or Helvetica Bold. The closest digital approximation I have found is Akzidenz-Grotesk Old Face Medium, which preserves the older metal-type forms more closely than contemporary Akzidenz-Grotesk or Helvetica cuts. This should not be taken to mean that Akzidenz-Grotesk Old Face itself was used on the sleeve; rather, it is the nearest available digital proxy for comparing the original metal Akzidenz-Grotesk Medium.

The clearest tell is the S, whose angled terminals differ markedly from Helvetica’s more rationalized forms. The proportions of the B, E, A and the lowercase letters in “The” also align much more closely with the older Akzidenz-Grotesk Medium forms than with Helvetica.

One possible reason for the persistent Helvetica attribution is that later formats appear to have changed the lettering. The CD and cassette versions seem to use Helvetica LT 75 Bold, or something very close to it, which may have retroactively shaped assumptions about the original embossed LP cover. Because the LP lettering is white-on-white inkless embossing, its details are easily softened or lost in reproduction; in photographs, the evidence can look like Helvetica at a glance.

Richard Hamilton’s sleeve design reduces the album cover almost to absence: a plain white surface, a serial number, and the band’s name barely present as physical impression rather than printed image. In that context, the older Akzidenz-Grotesk Medium feels especially apt—neutral, industrial, unadorned, and slightly rougher than the smoother Helvetica it has long been mistaken for.

[More info on Discogs]

Fable designed the identity of Unicorn Financial Solutions. From their case study:

Unicorn, otherwise known as Unicorn Financial Solutions, recently underwent a thoughtful rebranding to reflect its core philosophy as a family wealth management office dedicated to offering ‘A Freehold Life For All’. […] The logotype introduces a unique family, Roman Grotesque by Bureau Brut, that mixes sans serif and serif – a representation of the cherished past and nodding towards the modern future. This typeface draws its inspiration from sans serif typefaces with structured design and serif typefaces with calligraphic heritage. It proposes a meeting between these two great typographic categories, neither quite a grotesque, nor a serif typeface, but more a serif grotesque. PT Serif and Fable Type’s Tenet also make up the type usage hierarchy.

A suite of colours was introduced to allow various touchpoints across their marketing, recruitment, and investment efforts to be consistent, intentional, and exuding gravitas. To top it off, we created a variety of icons, illustrations, and stickers to promote fun, engagement, and clarity in both internal and external communications, adding a layer of character and cohesion to the brand system. This cohesive visual language carries through to Unicorn’s website, guidebooks, and social media – ensuring a consistent and recognisable presence at every interaction.

The Chinese typeface used for the business card is yet unidentified.

Front cover of the “Big Box” CD release for the Mac

A fediverse post showing the CD cover for The Incredible Machine 3 prompted me to write this up. The Incredible Machine, often abbreviated TIM, was a 1990s series of puzzle-solving computer games where players create a Rube Goldberg device. In fact, it seems to be responsible for creating the Rube Goldberg genre. The original TIM was published in 1993, and went on to spawn quite a few sequels, spin-offs, ports, and imitators.

TIM 3 is essentially a port of the DOS game TIM 2 to the GUI operating systems, principally Windows and Mac. The box art for TIM 3 uses Lithos and Modula Sans for the title, and Modular Sans for much of the secondary text. Two very iconic 1990s designs by two very iconic 1990s designers: Carol Twombly and Zuzana Licko respectively.

Artwork for the earlier versions relies on the obvious LTypi: ITC Machine. And since this is clearly a 1990s post, I had to show the interior of the manual for TIM 2 which features another landmark of the 1990s: Remedy.

Splashscreen for the original DOS version. Note the wordmark that’s based on modified ITC Machine.

The splashscreen for The Incredible Machine 2 is a much more straightforward LTypI.

Front cover of the manual for The Incredible Machine 2, using ITC Machine.

A right-hand page from the interior of the manual for The Incredible Machine 2, showing typical typography. Remedy is used throughout the manual for titles and subtitles.

Karasek is an Austrian winery whose labels combine expressive illustration with a restrained typographic system. The main information is set in Morion, whose sharp, high-contrast serif forms give the labels a precise, contemporary presence across winery name, varietals, and key descriptors. Supporting details are set in Akzidenz Grotesk, providing a neutral counterpoint and handling dense information efficiently, particularly in the narrow vertical column. The pairing creates a clear hierarchy that balances character and readability.

язык тишины (Yazyk Tishiny, English: “Language of Silence”) was made as a student project at HSE Art and Design School.

We are used to thinking of silence as a lack of sound or image, a kind of “pause” between important events. In my book, the opposite is true: silence is the main character and the active material. It is the moment when the visual noise subsides, and we finally begin to notice the very structure of things: the grain of the film, the rhythm of the grid, or the physics of the paper. It is not “nothing,” but “everything” that we usually don’t have enough time for.

I wanted to understand how silence in art goes from being just an empty space to becoming a powerful tool. In a world where everything is loud and fast-paced, I wanted to find ways to slow down the viewer. My goal was to create a system that would make people stop, look closer, and experience the pause as a full-fledged event.

Source: jellobiafrasays.tumblr.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Barcelona Step By Step by Bert and Frances Strauss

Barcelona pam a pam is a city guide written by Alexandre Cirici Pellicer (1914–1983) and first published in 1971 by Editorial Teide, with photographs by Oriol Maspons (1928–2013) and drawings by the author. Bert and Frances Strauss translated the book to the English, as Barcelona Step By Step (1974). A version in Castilian Spanish, Barcelona paso a paso, followed by 1975.

Source: en.todocoleccion.net Maria28MM (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Barcelona pam a pam (original Catalan version), with Cirici’s name in Akzidenz-Grotesk

Source: srabsenta.blogspot.com Cosas de Absenta (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Barcelona paso a paso (Castilian version), with Cirici’s name in Helvetica

All three editions feature the same cover design by Victor Rahola – with the title set on a curve, in A.M. Cassandre’s Bifur – albeit it with different colors for the hat of the man peering in from above. The interior pages are set in Folio and two typefaces by Simoncini: Karlgeorg Hoefer’s Permanent and Francesco Simoncini’s Aster.

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Title page with Folio halbfett and Permanent

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Table of contents in Permanent. The colophon on the left is set in Monotype Grotesque.

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Folio mager for the chapter title “How To Use This Book”, Aster for the text

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Detail with text set in two weights of Aster

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Chapter opening with the number from Folio’s extrafett and the title in the mager.

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Text is interspersed with bits of history that are presented in a smaller size, also from Permanent.

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Spread from chapter 11 on Antoni Gaudí, with one of the photographs by Maspons. The caption is in Aster Italic.

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Detail with text set in two weights of Permanent

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Glossary of special terms

1977 ad for underwear by Jockey International, Inc., starring a roster of stripped-down jocks – Jim Hart, Denis Potvin, Jo Jo White, Steve Carlton, Pete Rose, Jamaal Wilkes, Jim Palmer, Ken Anderson – and one staple of 1970s typography, ITC Machine.

“The Birthday Cake” is a delicious concept and graphic design for posters (day and night parties), social media, and video to celebrate the first anniversary of the Death Club Tattoo, based in Bassano del Grappa, Italy.

Source: www.antikavion.cz Antikvariát Avion. License: All Rights Reserved.

Zelená kuchyně (1988) by Jan Jeník, Václav Větvička, and Sergej Michajlovič Skornjakov, with illustrations by Edita Plicková

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Czechoslovak publisher Lidové nakladatelství brought out a series of nature books in their Edice Planeta imprint. Zelená kuchyně (“Green kitchen”) is about vegetables and edible plants and Zelení ježci (“Green hedgehogs”) about cacti, while Zelený domov (“Green home”) deals with houseplants and Klenoty přírody (“Jewels of nature”) with minerals.

The cover designs are by Milan Albich (1925–2000), a painter, illustrator, and graphic artist from Krupina, Slovakia. He rendered the titles in ITC Serif Gothic. in all-lowercase letters from the Black weight, likely using the Letraset adaptation for dry transfer lettering. Unlike Mecanorma’s – or the official digitization, for that matter – this version includes the alternate glyphs, see for example the descending forms for z and k, the spurless r, and the tailed t.

Albich must have been fond of this typographic style: he also used it for a catalog of his own drawings and paintings in 1987.

Source: www.etsy.com craftytransfers (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

A sheet of 48pt Serif Gothic Black, issued by Letraset in 1980 as LG3603 in their Letragraphica range. Note the alternates for aefkrstzEL and the pile of combining diacritics at the bottom.

Source: www.modrykonik.sk Modrý koník (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Zelení ježci (1989) by Stanislav Peleška and Valerij Dmitrijevič Lobko, with illustrations by Jiřina Kaplická and František Severa

Source: aukro.cz knihyantikeu (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Zelený domov (1990) by Galina Tavlinova and Jan Dienstbier, with illustrations by Zdeněk Berger

Source: www.knihyuvrany.cz Knihy U Vrány (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Klenoty přírody (1990) by Vladimír Bouška and Vitalij Ippolitovič Sobolevskij, illustrated by Adolf Absolon 

Source: www.ebay.com Epic Rare Books and Collectibles (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Wanted: Dennis the Menace. The other fonts are Antique Tuscan Condensed and Akzidenz-Grotesk Bold.

Hank Ketcham’s Dennis the Menace made its debut as a daily syndicated newspaper comic strip on March 12, 1951. It has subsequently been published in comic book form by various publishers, including Standard/Pines (1953–58), Fawcett Comics (1958–80, and Marvel Comics (1981–82).

Shown here are covers for the mass market paperback collections by Fawcett Crest, published in their Crest Book and Fawcett Gold Medal imprints. The main title is set in Filmotype Accent. Volume titles and secondary text use a variety of typefaces. More often than not, the former is added in the form of hand-lettering.

Source: www.ebay.com Lost Cellar Found (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

In This Corner… Small text is in Venus Extended.

Source: www.ebay.com Tom Ray’s Pop-Culture Roadshow (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Make-Believe Angel. The volume title appears to be lettering. At the very bottom, News Gothic Bold.

Source: www.ebay.com Spook’s Monster Mayhem y Mas (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Rides Again. Accent is here used for the whole tite and for the author’s name.

Source: www.ebay.com Tom Ray’s Pop-Culture Roadshow (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

…Teacher’s Threat

Source: www.ebay.com CarolinasTrader (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Household Hurricane

Source: www.ebay.com SattyFamilyCards (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

…Who Me?

Source: www.ebay.com CollectiblesAgain (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Ambassador of Mischief, featuring all-caps Dom.

Source: www.ebay.com MCL’S Closet Treasures (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Everybody’s Little Helper, again with Dom

Source: www.ebay.com OnTimeBooks (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Dennis the Menace and Poor Ol’ Mr. Wilson

Source: www.ebay.com Tom Ray’s Pop-Culture Roadshow (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Surprise Package

Source: www.ebay.com Shy Girl Thrifts (dited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Short ’n Snappy

Source: www.ebay.com Tom Ray’s Pop-Culture Roadshow (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Dennis the Menace and his Girls

Source: www.ebay.com Tom Ray’s Pop-Culture Roadshow (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Perpetual Motion

Source: www.ebay.com Iris of Versi (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

…Here Comes Trouble

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

All-American Kid

First edition (hardcover) by Bartholomew House, 1967, illustrated by Bill Wenzell. The illustrations on the front of jacket are by Roy E. LaGrone. Secondary typefaces include Craw Clarendon Condensed, Filmotype Harmony (or Photo-Lettering’s copy, Almadine Script), and Century Expanded Italic.

Coffee Tea or Me? was advertised as “the uninhibited memoirs of two airline stewardesses”, and credited to Trudy Baker and Rachel Jones. In fact, it was ghost-written by Donald Bain. The 1967 hardcover dust jacket features Caruso Roxy, set in all caps. The same typeface was also used for the paperback cover, now bigger and in mixed case, as well as for the three sequels published until 1975. In 1973, the book was made into a film.

Caruso Roxy is a typeface that we’ve come to associate with the swinging 60s.

Coffee Tea or Me? The uninhibited memoirs of two airline stewardesses. First Bantam edition (paperback), November 1968 with cover art by Bill Wenzel and small text in all-caps News Gothic.

The Coffee Tea or Me Girls’ ’Round the World Diary. First edition (hardcover) by Grosset & Dunlap, 1970. The multilingual toasts are stereotypically added in more or less fitting typefaces: Peignot (French), Post-Antiqua (Hebrew), Cloister Black (German), Centaur (Spanish), Akzidenz-Grotesk Extended (Scandinavian), Jessen-Schrift (Greek), Americana (English), Mandarin (Japanese), and Century Schoolbook (Italian).

Jacket and cover with spine lettering

The Coffee Tea or Me Girls’ ’Round the World Diary. Paperback edition by Bantam Books, April 1971, with small type in Alternate Gothic.

The Coffee Tea Or Me Girls: Lay it On The Line, Bantam Books, 1973. The fat years are over: the main typeface now is Caruso Roxy’s light weight. Secondary text is in italic caps from Caledonia.

The Coffee Tea Or Me Girls Get Away From It All, Bantam Books, 1975, with Helvetica used for the text in red.

Man of La Mancha is a 1965 musical adaptation of Don Quixote, with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion, and music by Mitch Leigh. The libretto was published by Random House in 1966, featuring an illustratin by Al Hirschfeld and Caruso Roxy for the title. Its amorphous glyphs allowed the jacket designer to knead the words into place, squeezing the second M down to x-height so that the two lines fit snug together.

Detail from the inner flap of the book jacket, with credits in Bodoni

This book written by Maurice Darmon and published by the Bordeaux-based publisher 202 éditions is about the films made by Anne-Marie Miéville between 1976 et 2002. It is the first monograph devoted solely to her own work. As Jean-Luc Godard’s partner since the 1970s, her collaborative work with the filmmaker has been more widely distributed and recognized. Designer Paule Palacios-Dalens used Borges (by Loche, PampaType) for all main texts and titles, and Akzidenz-Grotesk (Berthold, 1898) for pagination and some subtitles. The cover titling is set in Punto (by Arne Freytag, Fontador).

White Fungus is an art magazine and project based in Taichung City, Taiwan.

Founded by brothers Ron and Mark Hanson in Wellington, New Zealand, in 2004, as a quasi-political manifesto, copies of the first issue were produced on a photocopier, wrapped in Christmas paper and hurled anonymously through the entrances of businesses throughout the city. Now a magazine featuring interviews, writing on art, new music, history and politics, White Fungus takes a dialogical approach to the work it covers. The name of the publication comes from a can of “white fungus” the Hansons found in their local supermarket in the industrial zone of Taichung City. Each cover of White Fungus is derived from a scan of the can.

The 18th issue of White Fungus features an 80-page interview with New York poet and novelist Eileen Myles. The conversation traces several chapters of their life, including becoming a poet in 1970s New York, reading at CBGB, and writing the cult classic Chelsea Girls. Myles discusses their mainstream crossover in 2015, their involvement in the hit television show Transparent, overcoming alcoholism, their writing process, and many other topics.

The issue also includes an epic feature on Hilma af Klint and the suppressed occult roots of modernist art. Taipei artist Yao Jui-Chung contributes a photo essay documenting animatronic depictions of the Chinese concept of hell, as seen in Daoist temples in Taiwan and Singapore. Yan Jun reflects on the life of Taiwanese noise music pioneer Dino (Liao Ming-He), who passed away in 2022. Also featured is an interview with artist Pavel Pepperstein on the influence of children’s literature and hallucinogenics in conjuring his surreal futuristic landscapes—a style he calls “psychedelic realism.”

Table of contents, set in Söhne, Sometimes Times and Athelas

Opening spread for an interview with Eileen Myles, set in Bell and Letter Gothic

Slightly modified Corinthia introduces the word “Hell”. The title of the artwork is set in the lower left corner in tiny DF Kai SB.

Opening spread for “Through the Prism of the Looking Glass”, pairing Lo-Res with Snell Roundhand.

Armin Hofmann designed this 127×90 cm poster for a 1961 exhibition at Gewerbemuseum Basel entitled Basel und die Stadtstrassen der Zukunft (“Basel and the urban roads of the future”).

This poster beautifully demonstrates Hofmann’s ability to create effective and powerful images with the simplest elements. Here, Hofmann restricts himself to one typeface and four triangular shapes in one shade of red, yet produces a poster that is at once functional, relevant, and visually striking. The alignment and sizing of the type leads the reader’s eye in a logical order and at a pleasant pace. The negative space around the shapes is dynamic, almost creating an illusion of movement. Despite its abstract nature, the negative space is evocative of the poster’s subject matter (urban roads). Through its contrasting point sizes, alignment, and its relationship to the four shapes, the typography creates a sense of perspective or depth – without ever resorting to overlapping elements. Rather than simply being smaller, text at smaller point sizes appears to be further away.

The powerful effect of the typography is demonstrated further by comparing the poster to the accompanying exhibition booklet that Hofmann also designed, see the website of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich. The shapes and their placement in the frame are the same. The booklet’s title is positioned in a similar place as the poster’s headline. The composition thus remains satisfyingly dynamic (now with the flow of the negative space predominant). However, due to the small size of the cover (20.8×14.8 cm), there is no supplementary text and only one point size is used. Without contrasting typographic sizes, the poster’s incredible sense of depth is lost.

Cover of the mono release, with the number (LM-2896) at the bottom, in Akzidenz-Grotesk

Julian Bream (1933–2020) was an English classical guitarist and lutenist. In the fall of 1965 he recorded an album with his interpretation of the Lute Suites that Johann Sebastian Bach composed in the first half of the 18th century. It was released by RCA Red Seal in 1966.

The uncredited cover designer selected a typeface from the late 19th century. With the exuberance of decorative tendrils, it may still be described as baroque. It’s Nymphic, designed by Herman Ihlenburg and first cast in 1889 by MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan. Or rather, it’s Xenotype 3799, a phototype revival of Nymphic made at Photo-Lettering in the first half of the 1960s. The spacing is decidedly of its time: tight-not-touching – much tighter than what was possible with metal type in previous decades.

[More info on Discogs]

For the stereo release, the number (LSC-2896) was moved to the top, pushing the typographic composition down. “Stereo” is added in all-caps Venus Extended.

A sample of 18 point Nymphic as it was presented in Inland Printer, volume 7, issue 2, from November 1889, here with its lowercase characters and the alternate oversized display caps, or initials. The four arrow-spoked asterisk used on the album cover can be found back as well.

Byte magazine, issue #4, December 1975

Bill Godbout was something of a pioneer in the early microcomputer movement of the 1970s, and his firm Bill Godbout Electronics was a commercial vehicle selling discount and surplus electronics and microcomputer components. Bill Godbout Electronics was a regular advertiser in the early issues of the seminal BYTE magazine. Issue #4 is the first Christmas issue and features a 2-pager from Bill Godbout Electronics that mixes a large number of fonts in a style typical of both this era and this advertiser.

“Bill Godbout Electronics” is in Wexford. I think the “CAVE grafix” is lettering, but the first word may be based on Koloss (see further below). “Wish you a joyous holiday season” and so in is in Davida. “If you are into toyful tinkering” and so on is in outlined Cooper Black.

“Son-of-a Cheap Clock” is in Tonight, and above it “We have a successor to our very popular ‘Cheap Clock Kit’!” is in Script (for the IBM Selectric; see also the body fonts, glossed below). The price, $14.50, is in Umbra. Both Script and Umbra are used on the following page.

Windsor is used for “they also make great gifts” (on the curve) and the following text. “Electronic Projects for Musicians” is Reklameschrift Herold. Below the decorative band, “EROM board special offer” is in Helvetica, outlined and with a South shadow.

“4K x 8 pre-programmed for 8080” is in an outline style of a somewhat Microgramma-like font that I couldn’t identify that is also used on the second page.

On the second page, “Bigger & Better” is in Skin & Bones (using two alternates for G, but not for E). “Pace 16 bit chip set” is in Koloss. “1 Pace 16 bit CPU” and other text on and under the curve is the previously mentioned and unidentified outline Microgramma-lookalike.

“Pace Data Packet” is Advertisers Gothic (using the A without a top flag). “4K x 8 RAM kit” is in Umbra. “EROM board kit” is in Rock Opera. The “8K x 8” and so on again is in Wexford. “There’s more ... We have” is in Monogram.

The body text (and some secondary and subtitle text) is typewritten in a variety of fonts, and I did a much better job of identifying those, all available on the IBM Selectric:

On the first page the text for the clock, starting “BIGGER DIGITS” is in Artisan. “By Craig Anderton” (the author of “Electronic Projects for Musicians”) is in Orator (probably, in any case Orator is used on the next page).

The text for the Craig Anderton blurb is Adjutant, I think. Delegate and Adjutant are very similar with only slight differences in weight and thick/thin contrast, but they have different pitches: Adjutant is 12 characters per inch, and is tighter than Delegate at 10. The text block at the bottom of the first page, starting “By special arrangement”, is in Bookface Academic.

On the second page, below “Pace 16 bit”, the text starting “This chip set gets you into PACE” is in Manifold. The word “PACE” itself is in another font (the Selectric had a feature where you could switch type-balls and still retain the cursor position), possibly Pica. Manifold is again used for the bottom paragraph starting “READOUTS, LEDS, TRANSISTORS”. Below “Pace Data Packet”, “Since we started advertising” is Orator. Below “4K x 8 RAM”, “Note the lower price” looks like Prestige Elite.

Below “EROM BOARD”, the text starting “Now you can stuff up to 8K” initially had me stumped, but I think I have tracked it down. The small caps in place of little letters, made me think of Orator, which it isn’t; the o is distinctly squaroid and reminded me of the output of the IBM lineprinters, such as the 1403. It turns out that the IBM Selectric has a typeball called AN3/360 which the 1972 brochure specifically says matches the AN3 style available on IBM’s lineprinters.

At the bottom of the second page, to the right of the wordmark, the payment and terms text starting “YOU MAY PLACE MASTERCHARGE® OR BANKAMERICARD® ORDERS” is in Script.

Live! At Caesar’s Palace is the debut album by the Checkmates Ltd. It was released on Capitol Records in 1967. The cover shows the band name in purple Smoke, featuring a custom drawn castellated T that alludes to a rook piece.

Wikipedia has the following information about the band:

The Checkmates, Ltd. were an American R&B group from Fort Wayne, Indiana. The group, discovered by Nancy Wilson, was named such because the group included both black and white members, and their various skin tones evoked a chessboard; their one major hit was 1969’s “Black Pearl”, produced by Phil Spector.

The album title is in pink and red caps from Helvetica Black.

[More info on Discogs]

Cover for the 1972 album Euro Jazz by the Václav Zahradník Big Band, released on the Czechoslovakian label Supraphon. Designers Josef Zich and Miloslav Žáček used Juke-Box for a somewhat abstract but striking title treatment, paired with Akzidenz-Grotesk for the artist credits and featured musicians.

[More info on Discogs]

While the title on the front cover is lettering, the blackletter seen on the back and the flap is Deutsche Schrift, used in two weights with both forms for the letter s (see “Ausſtellungshallen”) and the mandatory ligatures for ch, ck, tz. Note that the S in “S-Bahnhof” was added from a bold roman that approximates the logo glyph. Berthold’s Halbfette Lateinisch is a likely source.

A folder advertising Third Class fares on the Berlin S-Bahn to visit the exhibition grounds and Funkturm adjacent to the city's S-Bahn station at Witzleben. The diagram is interesting in that the system’s stations include the Third Class (3. Klasse) fare to Witzleben from the station of origin.

The folder is not dated but there are some clues and others with sharper eyes and better knowledge than me may offer more information! But the station Deutschlandhalle was named as such from Eichkamp in May 1936, and the Nord-Süd links through the city centre are not shown here; the S-Bahn station at Unter den Linden, shown here, opened in 1936 as the provisional terminus (following the catastrophic collapse of the railway excavations in the locality in 1935) and it was 1939 before the S-Bahn through to Potsdamer Platz was opened.

The folder gives other information including the advice that you can travel to the exhibition grounds by S-Bahn (suburban train, that the exhibition halls at the radio tower (Funkturm) are quick and easy to reach from Witzleben S-Bahn station and that you should purchase your return ticket when you travel to the exhibition grounds.

The folder is printed on stout card and, after some discussion with more knowledgable Berliners, it is likely to be original. It shows no ‘reprint’ data and the folds are well worn suggesting some age. The folder also shows both versions of the S-Bahn symbol or logotype; that of the S in a circle and that of the S in a tombstone shape – the latter being the original design by Fritz Rosen in 1930 that was changed to the circle in c.1936. There is also the Adler or eagle symbol used by the Deutsche Reichsbahn.

The station names aren’t typeset, but written by hand, in an inclined Blockschrift (cf. DIN 16). The fare info underneath the S-Bahn “tombstone” appears to be set in Berthold Block and Akzidenz-Grotesk.

The large black heading is written in a simplified textura. Interestingly, the letterforms don’t really follow the model drawn by Friedling in May 1935 for the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft, nor are they particularly close to any of the typefaces of this genre. The F with vertical, descending stem resembles the one in Element, but other details are off.