Looking through my way-back files, I found that I used Letraset’s Pump for a second logo project in the early 1970s. I used Pump because it was an absolute natural for combining the three lowercase initials, c s b. They flow one into the other in a satisfying way. In my mind's eye I saw it further as a three-dimensional tubular metal sculpture set on a patch of lawn in front of the bank, but that was not in the cards.

Front cover, featuring Short's name and the title set in Serendipity (condensed). Author tagline set in Volta (halbfett; Bauer, 1956); “Formerly” tagline set in News Gothic (regular; ATF, 1908). “A Fawcett Gold Medal Book” presumably set in Grotesque #9 (italic; Stephenson Blake, 1949).

Photo-Lettering's Benguiat Serendipity (1965) in rare use – rare compared to its fruitier, more ornamented brethren – on the fourth(?) edition cover of Barren Land Showdown (Fawcett Book #R2177, first published in 1951; originally titled Barren Land Murders) by American western author Luke Short, who might have taken his pen name from the Old West gunfighter.

From the back cover:

A hard-hitting story of the Northwest, where the chill winds couldn't cool hot tempers—where the whole Territory wasn't big enough to hold two men...

The book is set in the Northwest Territories, meaning not Colorado; even so, it still gets by as a western.

Funky Chicken is the debut album release by Chicago-based soul singer, producer/arranger. and saxophone player Willie Henderson (b. 1941), recorded with the Soul Explosions and released in 1970 on Brunswick Records.

The amorphous typeface chosen for the title is Fantasia, drawn by John Theodore for Photo-Lettering by 1969.

[More info on Discogs]

2023 reissue on yellow vinyl by Org Music

The Killing of Idi Amin is the first novel by Fleet Street journalist Leslie Watkins, inspired by his experiences in the crazed dictator’s Uganda where he was covering a minor war. First published in 1976 by Everest Books, this is Avon’s US paperback edition from 1977, featuring two contrasting styles from the Gill Sans family for the title, Kayo and Bold Extra Condensed. The cover artist is unknown. It could be Hector Garrido.

Nestled in Nassau, Bahamas Botanicals is more than a distillery – it’s a tribute to the islands’ lush natural bounty. Since 2008, founders Andy and Juan have turned local plants, herbs and fruits into handcrafted spirits that capture the essence of the Bahamas.

Rooted in generations of Bahamian tradition, the project celebrates native plants long valued for medicine, nourishment, and beauty. By working closely with local farmers and researchers, Bahamas Botanicals transforms this heritage into a source of national pride – much like other countries’ signature spirits. The distillery’s mission extends beyond fine craftsmanship. It’s about empowering local growers, preserving agricultural heritage and building a sustainable future for Bahamian communities and the economy.

Each bottle embodies the islands’ vibrant spirit: sun, soil and sea distilled into a singular Bahamian experience: Bahamian Farming in a Bottle.

Design by Typesense Graphic Design with illustration by Studio Gudulab and Channarong Pherngjanda. Printing by Graficas Vidal & Armadans.

Branding and identity system for Early Works, a product design studio with offices in New York and California, active in the areas of applied AI, adaptive interfaces, digital health, education, and gaming.

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

I Am Somebody is the title of a spoken word album by Reverend Jesse Jackson that was released on Respect, a sublabel of Stax Records. It contains a recital of the poem “I Am – Somebody”. The cover typography by David Krieger of The Graffiteria features Folio in its mager and fett weights.

[More info on Discogs]

Jackson became active in civil rights protests already as a student. In 1960, he was one of the Greenville Eight, a group of African American students that successfully protested the segregated library system in Greenville, South Carolina. Since 1966, he was involved in the Operation Breadbasket movement, a department of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

The album came out in 1971, three years after Martin Luther King Jr. – the SCLC’s first president and a close friend and mentor of Jackson – was assassinated. The same year, the “Country Preacher” broke off from SCLC and formed Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity). In 1996, it merged with the National Rainbow Coalition, another organization founded by Jackson to pursue social justice, civil rights, and political activism, into Rainbow/PUSH. He served as the organization’s head until July 16, 2023.

Jesse Jackson died February 17, 2026, at the age of 84. The New York Times commemorates him as “charismatic champion of civil rights”. RIP.

The quotes on the back cover are set in Helvetica.

The gatefold shows photographs of Jackson together with several of his companions and fellow campaigners, including Martin Luther King Jr., his widow Coretta Scott King, as well as Richard G. Hatcher and Carl Stokes, the first elected African-American mayors of Gary, Indiana, and Cleveland, Ohio, respectively. The liner notes by Rev. G.E. Redic are set in Helvetica, and the credits at the top right in News Gothic.

Oklahoma! is the first musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The original Broadway production opened on March 31, 1943.

This album with “selections from the Theater Guild musical play […] featuring members of the original New York production” recorded 20 and 25 October was first released by Decca in 1943. The 25th anniversary edition from 1968 introduced a new cover design, featuring an illustration by James Alfred Meese and Americana and Folio for the typography. Americana is used with an enlarged initial and exclamation mark. The line at the top – with extrabold caps from Helvetica filled with “lightbulbs” – was added for a 1973 issue, now by MCA Records. The shown copy is from 1980, with unchanged design, apart from the “Platinum Plus” seal at the top right.

[More info on Discogs]

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)

“Hand Me Down World” is song written by Kurt Winter (1946–1997), performed and released in 1970 by Canadian rock band The Guess Who. The colorful sleeve for the Spanish release was designed by Ponce De León.

The richly ornamented capitals they used for the band name were conceived by Jean Midolle and shown under the title Romaine (genre arabesque) in his lettering sampler Spécimen des écritures modernes from around 1835. The version used here probably is the Mecanorma adaptation for dry transfer lettering which was released in 1967, six years after Armin Haab unearthed the alphabet for Lettera 2. Mecanorma also carried a version of Folio, as “Folio-Caravelle”, including the extrafett style seen here.

[More info on Discogs]

This is a Danish single by Billie Davis featuring the two songs “I Can Remember” and “Nobody’s Home to Go Home To”. It was released in 1969 on Decca Records. Her name is in Folio extrafett with both her 2 songs in Compacta Bold

[More info on Discogs]

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.

[More info on Discogs]

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

German DIN A1 (23.25″×33″) poster for the 1971 re-release of For a Few Dollars More. Originally released in 1965 and titled Per qualche dollaro in più, the Spaghetti Western film was directed by Sergio Leone and stars Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef as bounty hunters.

The title is set in Arthur Murawski’s Magnet, an inclined typeface with horizontal contrast and bracketed serifs. Ludwig & Mayer introduced it in 1953, claiming it was closing a market gap for such French Clarendons, or Italiennes, as they were called in German.

Secondary text is in Folio schmalfett, featuring both of its forms for the lowercase a, with and without tail.

City fett and Folio eng for the cover of a book condemning the suffering caused by the Vietnam War, written by Benjamin Spock (1903–1998). The American pediatrician, Olympian athlete, and left-wing political activist co-authored it with Mitchell Zimmerman.

Graphic designer Jan Schaab created a vibrant poster series for the Hamburg community event Helenenviertel Sommerfest, using Carmen is Regular by Céline Hurka and Carmen Dusmet Carrasco as the central voice across three editions.

Playful curves and bold colors define the series, with Carmen is Regular flowing forms capturing the breezy spirit of late summer. From 2022 to 2024, the typeface anchors each layout in vivid color combinations, arranged with a loose, organic rhythm that mirrors the festival’s open, welcoming atmosphere.

Each year introduced a new supporting typeface while keeping Carmen is Regular as the constant:
2022: ITC Bodoni Seventy-Two by Sumner Stone
2023: Aliénor by Anne-Dauphine Borione and Lou Rainaldo
2024: Folio by Konrad F. Bauer and Walter Baum

Through this consistent yet evolving approach, Schaab established a recognizable typographic identity for the festival—radiating lightness, creativity, and warmth year after year.

Céline Hurka developed Carmen is Regular in 2020 in collaboration with her friend and graphic designer Carmen Dusmet Carrasco as a custom font for an initiative at the Royal Academy of Art that supported MFA students to give each other feedback across the departments. The typeface does not follow any systematic approach and was purely drawn from imagination. The two released the typeface a year later via the Solitype fundraiser. The version used in the poster series is said unfinished version. It took another three to four years for Céline to wrap up the project and release it in 2025 as a birthday gift for Carmen in March via her own type foundry. The updated version has 205 ligatures and each customer can request up to five custom ligatures that will be added to the set.

The Helenenviertel Sommerfest in Hamburg-Altona is a free community block party that brings together residents, cultural initiatives, and local venues. It welcomes families, culture enthusiasts, and anyone looking for a lively, creative day.

Activities include a flea market, children’s program, guided tours, live music and dance, exhibitions, film screenings, and a variety of food offerings from street food to waffles and Arabic coffee.

The block party was initiated by the fux cooperative, which transformed a former barracks into a collaborative production space. Today, over 240 people from art, design, culture, education, crafts, and social initiatives work here. The cooperative aims to secure affordable work spaces and support a vibrant local economy.

This Use brings together two fine people who we’ve lost in 2025: Robert Redford died today at the age of 89. The typeface used for James Spada’s book is the solid style of Fat Albert. It was designed by Ray Cruz who passed away on March 26. First published by Citadel Press in 1977, this is the cover of the updated edition from 1984, designed by Angela Arnet.

Berliner Jugendclub e.V. was founded in 1960 as an initiative to provide West Berlin’s youth with age-appropriate venues to meet, party, and enjoy (live) music. The first of these Senatstheken was the jazz-saloon in Steglitz, which was renamed Pop Inn in 1967 (and closed its doors in 2010). It was followed by the Dachluke on Kreuzberg’s Mehringdamm (1961–1988), the Swing-Point in Spandau, and, since 1967, the sloopy at Kurt-Schumacher-Platz in Reinickendorf, the largest of the four.

Around 1968, Jürgen Spohn designed a DIN A1 poster promoting the four youth clubs. The little doll arms waving out of apothecary bottles apparently reference the cover art for the 1965 Beatles album, Help. For the typography, Spohn paired Fette Volta (1956) and Fette Künstler-Schreibschrift (1958).

The second volume of UFO Photographs Around the World was published by UFO Photo Archives in 1985.

Consciously or not, the use of Microgramma for “UFO” apes the style used for the 1969 television series of the same name.

Baron Ironblood

Action Force is an early-1980s, Star Wars-inspired spin off from the popular Action Man dolls, the UK equivalent to America’s GI Joe.

The main fonts used on the brand’s packaging are Glaser Stencil for “Action Force” and Rockwell for the name, with Futura for the age recommendation.

Quite the typographical bounty; the Action Man logo, ported over from the parent line and in use since the late 1960s, is, I think, a patchwork creation using the M and N from Futura Display, the A from, perhaps, Filmotype Mansfield, and the remaining characters from Filmotype Gem?

I haven’t been able to find an exact match so far – perhaps the letterforms were redrafted somewhat during the design process?

The all-caps text inside the starbursts appears to be lettering. Some also are typeset in Dom.

The product line also included various vehicles. The small print on the Skystriker box is Univers Bold Condensed.