Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

January 1990, ft. an unidentified rounded sans

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

February 1990 ft. Italia Bold

C82 is the website of Nicholas Rougeux, a Chicago-based designer and data artist. One of the many great things one can find on C82 is his collection of train tickets sold by Metra. Every month, the commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area releases a new ticket design. In 2004, Nick started collecting. Over the years, and with the help from other ephemera enthusiasts as well as of Metra, the archive considerably grew in size. At the time of writing, it includes an impressive 1,395 tickets, spanning more than fifty years of commuter history.

This post highlights the monthly tickets from 1990 and 1991. In a recent blog update, Nick comments:

In the early 90s, ticket designs varied significantly with new typography and visual styles appearing each month. I can’t say these are some of my favorites but I recognize that this may have been in an effort to curb counterfeiting. However, I do enjoy some of the typography from the 1990s tickets. I owe a big thanks to fellow collector John for these and others.

Each of the tickets features a different typeface. Many of the chosen fonts stem from the libraries of ITC (Korinna, Quorum, Serif Gothic, Zapf Chancery, …) and Letraset (Caxton, Italia, Romic (Letraset), …). There are also classics that go back to the era of foundry type, like Beton, City, or Optima, and Monotype originals like Albertus and Plantin. The typographic smorgasbord is completed by designs as diverse as Moderne Schwabacher, a turn-of-the-century blackletter; Salut, an upright script first cast by Gebr. Klingspor in the 1930s; and Checkmate, a futuristic sans with chamfered corners, dreamt up at Schaedler in the 1970s – all of which were either used still as phototype, or in the form of early digitizations.

For the year 1990, all abbreviated month names are shown in vertically stretched letterforms. The source of the stacked numerals (“90”) was identified by Quinn as City Bold, see comments. The bitmap caps (“D/A”) are likely custom. While the spelled-out month names and the ticket numbers are similar to OCR-B, the specific font appears to be a proprietary design with some differences, probably from a specialized printing machine.

The Metra logo seen on the depicted train as well as on some of the tickets is Crillee. See also the dedicated post about it.

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

March 1990 ft. Macbeth

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

April 1990 ft. City Bold

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

May 1990 ft. Checkmate

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

June 1990 ft. Roberta

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

July 1990 ft. what appears to be a version of Filmotype Amber (or a similar face)

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

August 1990 ft. Salut

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

September 1990 ft. Moderne Schwabacher a.k.a. Chalet Text

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

October 1990 ft. Clarendon Condensed

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

November 1990 ft. Beton Bold Condensed

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

January 1991 ft. ITC Quorum Bold

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

February 1991 ft. ITC Kabel Ultra

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

March 1991 ft. ITC Serif Gothic Heavy with the pointed forms for M and A that were omitted from the digital version. “March 1991” uses ITC Korinna and Times New Roman.

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

April 1991 ft. a bold variant of Plantin

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

May 1991 ft. a bold variant of Albertus

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

June 1991 ft. Caxton Bold

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

July 1991 ft. Optima Bold

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

August ft. ITC Cheltenham Bold

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

September 1991 ft. ITC Zapf Chancery Bold with the alternate swash caps

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

October 1991 ft. a bold variant of Century Oldstyle

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

November 1991 ft. Romic (Letraset) Bold

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

December 1991 ft. ITC Berkeley Oldstyle

Cover of the 1987 Japanese release for the MSX2. The game's title is set in Checkmate.

From Wikipedia:

Metal Gear is an action-adventure stealth video game developed and published by Konami for the MSX2. It was released for the system in Japan and parts of Europe in 1987. Considered the game to popularize the stealth game genre, it was the first video game to be fully developed by Hideo Kojima, who would go on to direct most of the games in the Metal Gear series. A reworked port of the game was released for the Famicom a few months later, which later saw release in international markets for the NES over the following two years; this version was developed without Kojima's involvement and features drastically altered level designs, among other changes.

Players control Solid Snake, a rookie recruit of the elite special forces unit FOXHOUND, who is depicted on the cover as looking a lot like another 80's action hero.

The game's title is set in Checkmate slanted in a faux italic and likely inspired by another Snake. The M has been resized to create a faux small caps and the leg of the R has been hyper-extended below the baseline. The cover illustration also incorporates some hand lettered Data 70. Snake's mission is set in Courier. Type used for the Japanese text is currently unidentified [edit: it’s Ishii Gothic].

Additional text on the print ad for the North American release on the NES is set in Frutiger.

Designer/s currently unknown.

Cover of the 1988 North American release for the NES. The game's title is set in Checkmate.

Print ad from 1989 promoting the North American release on NES. The game's title and ad headline are set in Checkmate. Additional text is set in Frutiger.

All-caps Cucumber (Schaedler, 1968) for the paperback cover of Out from Ganymede, a collection of science fiction short stories by Barry N. Malzberg, published by Warner Paperback Library in December 1974. The art is by Ken Longtemps. From the back:

Can man cope with the future shock of Other Worlds? Can he counter an ultimatum posed by Martians? Can he handle the gift of the power to control others through mind-domination? Can he face an eternity of programmed conflict? With an understanding of human limitations and [and] an unlimited imagination, Barry Malzberg probes the imponderable future …

[More info on ISFDB]

U.S. half sheet (22″×28″).

Plaza Suite is a comedy movie, directed by Arthur Hiller and based on Neil Simon’s play by the same name. Released by Paramount Pictures in 1971, it came with various (international) poster variants. The main posters used Marvin with initial swash caps. The artwork for the vertical posters was done by Robert McGinnis, and the grotesks are Helvetica for the tag line and Venus for credits. The horizontal poster seems to use artwork from another artist.

[More info on IMDb]

U.S. one sheet (27″×41″).

Insert (14″×36″)

In The Space and Adelaide Flowers are two albums released January 8th, 2021 by Idiosyncratic Mushroom. The latter is a more folkier record, taking influence from 1960s psychedelic rock such as Jefferson Airplane, Joni Mitchell, CSNY, and The Beatles during their psychedelic moment and when George delved into sitar.

“Holidays” (No. 329) ft. Aesthetic. Having been issued by the Dickinson Type Foundery in 1882, the Victorian face with the ornate caps is the oldest one in the mix. In 1980, it was available from Photo-Lettering, Facsimile Fonts, VGC, and others.

Covers for various clip books of line art issued in 1980 by Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio, Pleasantville, New Jersey.

The booklets from this volume exemplify the dominance of ITC for display typography in the United States in this period. There are nine different typefaces from the library of the International Typeface Corporation, including less common ones such as ITC Uptight Neon (1970) and ITC Quorum (1977).

Letraset (the company that would acquire ITC in 1986) was also influential: There are two originals by the British manufacturer of dry transfer lettering sheets, Compacta (1963) and Cathedral (1978). Many other faces were available from Letraset (as well as from various phototype providers), too, among them revivals like Harrington, Tintoretto, Dynamo, and Peignot, or adaptations of designs that originated in phototype like Tonight, Yagi Double, Checkmate.

Exclusive designs by Photo-Lettering are less frequent than in the late 1960s and 1970s. They are still represented by Benguiat Caslon and Hasler Circus. Filmotype faces – which used to be omnipresent on Volk booklets in the 1950s and 1960s – have largely disappeared, with the exception of Filmotype Quiet (1954), a stencil design that by 1980 had been copied by PLINC, VGC, and others.

All covers feature the logo designed by Herb Lubalin and introduced in 1976, here with the subline in caps from Kabel Black.

See the previous post about the clip books issued in 1955 for more information on Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio.

“Wedding” (No. 328) ft. partly overlapping caps from Harrington. The typeface was first issued by John Haddon & Co. in 1899.

“Graphic Arts” (No. 331) ft. Benguiat Caslon. Because nothing says Graphic Arts like overlapping swash caps.

“Birthday” (No. 332) ft. skewed caps (a contra-rotalic?) from Compacta on candles. Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Religion” (No. 334) ft. Cathedral for a cover on a cover.

“Winter” (No. 335) ft. the snow-capped letters of Igloo.

“Show Biz” (No. 336) ft. stacked glyphs from Tonight.

“Occupations” (No. 338) ft. Yagi Double.

“Communications” (No. 340) ft. ITC Benguiat Bold Condensed Italic (1979) and the comeback of the landscape format which would become the standard in subsequent years. The Volk logo is now shown in reverse on a black triangle. “Clip Book of Line Art” is set in ITC Avant Garde Gothic.

“Fitness” (No. 748) with caps from ITC Uptight Neon, set on a curve.

“Marine” (No. 749) ft. Filmotype Quiet. Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Summer” (No. 750) ft. ITC Bauhaus Outline with the alternate M, filled with sunbeams.

“Tourism” (No. 751) ft. ITC Bauhaus.

“Couples” (No. 752) ft. tightly spaced caps from Benguiat Caslon, here just with a single swash O and no overlaps. Primary Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Executives” (No. 754) ft. Peignot and a border full of handshakes.

“Family” (No. 755) ft. Times New Roman.

“Autumn” (No. 756) ft. ITC Serif Gothic.

“Homemaker” (No. 757) ft. Circus.

“Education” (No. 758) ft. Atrax with middle dot (·), apostrophe (’), and mid-word linebreaks.

“Christmas” (No. 760) ft. Tintoretto, a typeface that was not made to be used in all caps, as the letter I shows: The J-like form works OK in initial form, but sticks out like a sore thumb in the middle of a word.

“Energy” (No. 762) ft. stacked caps from Dynamo.

“Transportation” (No. 763) ft. caps from Wedge Bold by Lettergraphics [edit: it appears to have originated at VGC, see comments], which is Egyptienne Bold Condensed Bold Condensed customized with triangles cut from the letterforms.

“Insurance” (No. 764) ft. Compacta Bold Italic in lowercase, with an omitted i dot.

“Senior Citizens” (No. 765) ft. all-caps ITC Souvenir with initial and terminal swash forms.

“Crowds” (No. 766) ft. ITC Bauhaus.

“Human Relations” (No. 767), again with oblique Compacta in all lowercase and no i dot.

“Money” (No. 769) ft. Molé Foliate. Primary Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Circus-Fair” (No. 770) ft. Hasler Circus.

“Spring & Summer Sports” (No. 771) ft. ITC Lubalin Graph and its sans-serif sibling ITC Avant Garde Gothic.

“Drop-Ins” (No. G111) ft. Pabst Extra Bold Condensed. The logo of the Grafika subseries is in ITC Fat Face with ligatures for ra and fi, accompanied by Kabel Light with omitted tittles.

“The Gals” (No. G112) ft. ITC Newtext and a rare photographic cover.

“The Guys” (No. G114) with tightly spaced City caps.

“Contests” (No. G116) ft. ITC Quorum.

“Printed Forms” (No. G117) ft. overlapping caps with swash initials from ITC Bookman Outline. “We’re moving” is in an unidentified (homemade?) variation on the Electric Circus theme, see also Electus.

“Gimmicks” (No. G119) ft. a fairy tale castle à la Neuschwanstein and caps from Checkmate.

On Friday the 13th of February 1970, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, Geezer Butler and Ozzy Osbourne released their first album, the self-titled record Black Sabbath. Just seven quick months later, the band put out their second full-length release, Paranoid in September of the same year. Between these two albums, Black Sabbath had several of their greatest hits of all time, including songs like “Iron Man,” “War Pigs,” “The Wizard,” and “Paranoid” and helped pave the way for the creation of genres like heavy metal, doom metal, stoner rock, and goth.

2020 is a lot of things, but it also celebrates 50 years of Black Sabbath and Paranoid. Here is a bootleg cassette containing both albums in full on their respective side, all dubbed on one 90 minute cassette. Original j-card design from Chaotic No Good, two-color risograph printed by Martian Press.

As mentioned in a previous post on Fonts in Use, in 1972 and '73 the typeface Marvin was used on tour flyers promoting Sabbath’s shows in Germany. Although it may now seem strange to view the band’s name in this flair-filed hippie-invoking font, I’d like to pose this as an accurate depiction of the young band’s psychedelic-induced horror and the distorted blues riffs of their earliest years. Black Sabbath is hippie.

The secondary typeface in this design is a modified version of Bookman Old Style. Since there is no digital version of Marvin available, letters on this design were hand placed and kerned from a photo of the font's type-specimen.

“Birthday” (No. 307). Illustration by Tom Sawyer. The typeface is Davison Dimensional.

Covers for various clip books of line art issued in 1978 by Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio, Pleasantville, New Jersey. Each booklet features another face for the cover, typically in an attempt to echo the topic in the typeface choice, see e.g. the graphic Futura Black for “Graphic Arts”, the 19th-century Bracelet for “Western”, or the engraved Bond Shaded for “Money”. This volume uses Kabel Black for the bottom line, framing the logo designed by Herb Lubalin in 1976. The heavy border with rounded (and sometimes inset) corners was introduced in 1976, too, but wasn’t seen on most issues from 1977.

See the previous post about the clip books issued in 1955 for more information on Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio.

“Wedding” (No. 304) ft. Tintoretto.

“Holidays” (No. 305) ft. Caslon Antique.

“Homes-Buildings” (No. 306) ft. caps from Compacta set on an arc. The fanning suggests this was set with phototype, as ooposed to dry transfer lettering.

“Graphic Arts” (No. 308) ft. Futura Black.

“Expressions” (No. 309) ft. Archie in all caps.

“Religion” (No. 310) with what looks like some sort of Normande Italic. Berthold’s phototype version comes close except for the n.

“Winter” (No. 311) ft. Goudy Heavyface in italic all caps.

“Occupations” (No. 314) ft. Dynamo. Originally issued in 1930, this design was revived and extended at Letraset in the late 1970s.

“Spring” (No. 315) ft. Mania. Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Marine” (No. 700) ft. Tip-Top.

“Western” (No. 701) ft. Romantiques No. 5 / Bracelet. This ornamented Tuscan originated in the 19th century. It was available for dry-transfer lettering from Mecanorma (as Tuscan Ornate) amd Letraset (as Romantiques No. 5).

“Executives” (No. 704) ft. Columna Solid.

“Tourism” (No. 705) ft. Solemnis. Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Couples” (No. 706) ft. Yagi Double.

“Safety” (No. 707) ft. caps from Compacta Outline.

“Christmas” (No. 712) ft. the ornate Green Buzzard.

“Transportation” (No. 715) ft. Compacta Italic.

“Family” (No. 716) ft. Benguiat Caslon with swash alternates.

“Landmarks” (No. 717) ft. Saphir.

“Environment” (No. 718) ft. all-lowercase Charter Oak, tightly spaced.

“Money” (No. 719) ft. a version of Bond Shaded, probably Bond Shaded. Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Children” (No. 720) ft. all-caps Mistral.

“Groups” (No. 721) ft. a bunch of people pointing at tightly spaced caps from ITC Zapf Book Heavy.

“Circus/Fair” (No. 722) ft. West Barnum Ultra.

“Contests” (No. G86) ft. more Benguiat Caslon, this time in all caps. The logo of the Grafika subseries is in ITC Fat Face with ligatures for ra and fi, accompanied by Kabel Light with omitted tittles.

“Design Devices” (No. G87) ft. Harlow, a Letraset release from 1977. “ZAP” is probably custom lettering.

“Something Extra” (No. G89) ft. Slim Dandy, a variation of the Mansard theme, by Lettergraphics.

“Lankies” (No. G90) ft. Churchward Design Sparkly.

“Symbols” (No. G91) ft. Cucumber

“Printed Forms” (No. G93) ft. Gonzales Jeanette with Akzidenz-Grotesk Condensed and Windsor.

“Big & Strong” (No. G94) ft. Atlas and more Mania, set on a curve.

“Announcers” (No. G95), again with Slim Dandy.

“The Wedding” (No. 268) ft. Bookman Swash Bold in all caps italics with three swash alternates.

Covers for various clip books of line art issued in 1975 by Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio, Pleasantville, New Jersey. See the previous post about the clip books issued in 1955 for more information on Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio.

In most issues from this volume, “Clip Book of Line Art” is set in a light weight of ITC Avant Garde Gothic, with alternates for A and e.

While Volk predominantly used phototype styles from Filmotype’s library in the late 1950s and early 1960s, they had switched to Photo-Lettering (and later ITC) by the end of the 1960s. The covers in this post also feature a number of faces that originated elsewhere. Burko was issued by Headliners (and copied by Facsimile Fonts as part of the Blippo series). Checkmate started out at Schaedler (and was adopted by Photo-Lettering). Yagi Double is a Facsimile Fonts creation. Their Bob Trogman claims credit for Uncle Bill. Zipper and Premier Shaded are Letraset originals. Archie and Rock Opera may have been created at Lettergraphics (the latter is a derivative of Letraset’s Frankfurter).

Or did Volk maybe tap into Formatt’s library of faces for dry-transfer lettering? Their catalog no. 5 from 1974 shows several of the styles used on these covers, including Rock Opera, Tip Top, Eurostile, Uncle Bill (as Brother Bill), Checkmate (as Tournament), Copperplate (as Broker Shaded), Archie (as Chuckle), Yagi Double (as Circuit Double), and Titan.

“Holidays” (No. 269) ft. Benguiat Caslon.

“Entertainment” (No. 271) ft. ITC Neon, set on a curve.

“Telephones” (No. 272) ft. Cooper Black Italic with swash caps and Folio with biform alternates.

“Occupations” (No. 273) ft. Eurostile Bold Extended and Akzidenz-Grotesk.

“Winter” (No. 274) with one of the adaptations of Mexico Olympic, probably Hotline by Lettergraphics.

“Men” (No. 276) ft. Checkmate.

“Spring” (No. 279) ft. Saphir.

“Holidays” (No. 277) ft. Archie.

“Circus-Fair” (No. 628) ft. West Barnum Ultra.

“Spring & Summer Sports” (No. 629) ft. more Eurostile Bold Extended.

“The Farm” (No. 630) ft. ITC Busorama with its alternate glyphs.

“Summer” (No. 631) ft. caps from Tip-Top.

“Medicine” (No. 632) ft. Columna.

“Media” (No. 635) ft. Burko.

“Homemaker” (No. 637) ft. Zipper.

“Human Relations” (No. 638) ft. Columna Solid with what looks to be a customized R, or maybe an alternate that was exclusive to some (VGC’s?) phototype version. Bauer’s original (open) Columna has two forms for this letter, none of which matches the one seen here.

“Fall & Winter Sports” (No. 639) ft. Revue with EndcapS.

“Christmas” (No. 640) ft. American Uncial Initials for “Christmas”, with the text version used for the line below. [Thanks, Bryson!]

“Crowds” (No. 643) ft. Premier Shaded.

“Couples” (No. 644) ft. Yagi Double.

“Safety” (No. 645) ft. Stencil (Ludlow).

“Teens” (No. 647) ft. Rock Opera AKA Shady Deal, a copy of Frankfurter with a line pattern fill.

“Groups” (No. 648) ft. Uncle Bill.

“Industry” (No. 649) ft. Blippo Black.

“Children” (No. 650) ft. Davida.

“Borders” (No. G60) ft. Orbit Shaded. The logo of the Grafika subseries is in ITC Fat Face. The script appears to be lettering.

“Pointers” (No. G53) ft. Novel Gothic with arrows.

“Conrad Zilch” (No. G51) ft. Banco …

… accompanied by “Cora Zilch” (No. G56).

“Design Devices” (No. G54) ft. Titan, a Baby Teeth follower of unclear origin.

“Money” (No. G59) ft. Bond Shaded AKA Bond Shaded.

“Contests” (No. G61) ft. Orbit Rimmed.

“Spring” (No. 291), ft. all-caps Benguiat Caslon with swash alternates, set on an angle. The small type in the arrows is in reversed Helvetica caps.

Covers for various clip books of line art issued in 1976 by Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio, Pleasantville, New Jersey. This year marked their silver anniversary, see the “Spring” booklet above, indicating that the company was established in 1951. The celebration continued in the following year, see the covers from 1977. According to Bart Solenthaler, Volk went out of business sometime in the 1980s.

See the previous post about the clip books issued in 1955 for more information on Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio.

Coinciding with the silver anniversary, Volk introduced a new logo, featuring rounded sans-serif letterforms. The right arm of V extends to a hand holding a pencil and drawing on the o, turning it into a globe. The Herb Lubalin Study Center points out that this logo was designed by Herb Lubalin – “not his greatest logo, but charming”.

“Vote” (No. 280) ft. Pacella Monitor. The new Volk logo here is framed by tightly spaced caps from Kabel Light.

“Holidays” (No. 281) ft. ITC American Typewriter.

“Homes – Buildings” (No. 282) ft. Bronstein Bold. Like Letraset’s Lazybones, this bold script by FotoStar/Facsimile Fonts is a close follower of PLINC’s West Cooper Nouveau Swash Swash Bold.

“Birthday” (No. 284) ft. Davida.

“Expressions” (No. 285). ft. Bookman Swash Bold Italic with alternates.

“Religion” (No. 286) ft. Pretorian.

“Winter” (No. 287) ft. Norton Chocolate Frosted, a snow-capped variant of S.E. Norton’s series of bold grotesque caps for Photo-Lettering.

“Holidays” (No. 289) ft. Advertisers Gothic.

“Men” (No. 290) ft. Buxom, again by FotoStar/Facsimile Fonts, a copy of Baby Fat, distinguished by less deep notches in M and N.

“Marine” (No. 652) ft. Bobo Bold.

“Summer” (No. 655) ft. Abbey Scroll.

“Old Fashioned” (No. 656) ft. Romantiques No. 5 / Bracelet.

“Crime” (No. 658), with Gill Kayo caps set on a circle.

“Transportation” (No. 659) ft. Dynamo.

“Autumn” (No. 660) ft. Hobo.

“Do-It-Yourself” (No. 661) ft. ITC Ronda.

“Insurance” (No. 662) ft. Microcircus.

“Fall & Winter Sports” (No. 663) ft. Kabel Black.

“Christmas” (No. 664) ft. Tintoretto. The hooked I reveals that this face was not intended for all-caps settings.

“Menu” (No. 665), ft. Bookman Italic in all caps, with an initial swash M.

“Homemaker” (No. 666) ft. Wexford.

“Senior Citizens” (No. 667) ft. caps from Eurostile Light Extended.

“Save!” (No. 669) ft. Mania.

“Executives” (No. 670) ft. Hess Neobold.

“Family” (No. 671) ft. more Benguiat Caslon.

“Crowds” (No. 672) ft. Banco.

“Mail” (No. 673) ft. Buster.

“Circus-Fair” (No. 674) ft. Filmotype Van Horn.

“Spring & Summer Sports” (No. 675) ft. Eurostile Bold Extended in all caps.

“The Little Patriot” (No. G62) ft. Caslon Antique. The logo of the Grafika subseries is in ITC Fat Face with ligatures for ra and fi, accompanied by Kabel Light with omitted tittles.

“Sly Sayings” (No. G63) ft. Paprika.

“Animal Clichés” (No. G64) ft. Thalia.

“Trivia” (No. G65) ft. Advertisers Gothic.

“Villains” (No. G67), ft. a money-grabbing octopus and Bob Quinzel’s Cucumber typeface.

“Printed Forms” (No. G69) ft. Futura Black, ITC Avant Garde Gothic (with alternates), Cooper Black, and Windsor.

“Drop-Ins” (No. G68) ft. Davida complete with its ornaments.

“Time” (No. G70), ft. Optex and Cooper Black.

“Impact!” (No. G71), featuring a version of the triline face designed by Lance Wyman for the 1968 Mexico Olympics, see Mexico Olympic. This is probably Photo-Lettering’s adaptation that went under the name Olympic, or the Lettergraphics version known as Hotline. Note how the type echoes the vibration caused by the jackhammer.

“Cartouches” (No. G72) ft. Arnold Böcklin in all caps.

“Ad Animals” (No. G76) ft. more Thalia.

A rare cover in color, celebrating the United States Bicentennial. “The King-Size Clip Book of Bicentennial Art Volk Corporation” appears to use lettering, or heavily modified type. Several details like the swash caps for G and Z suggest that a version of Cloister (Bold) Italic was involved. Other glyphs don’t match a showing of the Monotype cut, and might come from different sources.

I’m In Your Mind Fuzz (2014) album artwork. Album title set in Checkmate, name of band based on the same typeface.

About King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, from Gregory Heaney, AllMusic.com:

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard's sense of unfettered sonic exploration makes it easy to mistake them for a long-forgotten relic of the psych explosion of the '60s. With a far-out sound that, at times, feels barely held together, King Gizzard evoke the eclectic rock experimentation of Frank Zappa's early work with the Mothers of Invention, the anything-goes feeling of the Flaming Lips, and the demented glee of a random obscure '60s group plucked from a Pebbles compilation as they follow their musical flights of fancy wherever they might lead. King Gizzard's prolific nature led them to release albums at a frenetic pace, and their intense desire to seek out new sounds and follow new paths -- from expansive jazz-rock (2015's Quarters) to semi-acoustic ballads (the same year's Paper Mâché Dream Balloon), and from sci-fi prog (2017's Murder of the Universe) to trippy garage rock (2014's I'm in Your Mind Fuzz) -- meant that every one of their multitude of releases sounded different from the last, and each one was worth checking out. Some of their albums, especially Nonagon Infinity from 2016, stand shoulder to shoulder with the best psychedelic rock ever made.

Their album art, merchandise, music videos, and other promotional material are created by Melbourne-based visual mastermind Jason Galea. Galea makes extensive use of various Victorian, Art Nouveau, and 1960s/70s-era typefaces alongside bubbly hand lettering to create a unique visual identity for each album.

Nonagon Infinity (2016) album artwork. Lettering based on Checkmate.

Flying Microtonal Banana (2017) album cover. Name of band set in Davida (with alternate A); unknown whether title of album is type or custom lettering. All other text set in Times New Roman Bold.

“Han-Tyumi and the Murder of the Universe” music video, from Murder of the Universe (2017). Typeset in Roberta.

“The Lord of Lightning vs. Balrog” music video, from Murder of the Universe (2017). Typeset in Roberta.

“Trapdoor” single artwork, from Paper Mâché Dream Balloon (2015). Typeset in DeVinne Ornamental.

Paper Mâché Dream Balloon (2015)​​​​​​​ album artwork. Title of album and tracklist set in Robur. The band name appears to be hand-lettered in a style similar to West Bubble Gum or Churchward Marianna.

“Trapdoor” music video, from Paper Mâché Dream Balloon (2015). Typeset in Robur.

“How to Gut a Fishie” promotional video for Fishing for Fishies (2019). Typeset in Robur.

“Planet B” music video, from Infest the Rats’ Nest (2019). Typeset in Helvetica Black.

“Self-Immolate” music video, from Infest the Rats’ Nest (2019). Typeset in Helvetica Black.

“Organ Farmer” music video, from Infest the Rats’ Nest (2019). Typeset in Helvetica Black.

Parents of Earth, are your children fully immunized?
Make sure – call your doctor or health department today. And may the Force be with you.

Via Darran Anderson (@Oniropolis):

Meanwhile, in 1979... Issued by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare / Public Health Service / Centre for Disease Control.

Designed by Bob Quinzel for Schaedler, Marvin is a simple bold condensed all-caps sans with two twists: 1. It’s bottom-heavy. 2. It comes with lots of swash alternates. The latter are so striking that the unusual weight distribution can go almost unnoticed. This public service announcement is a rare example of Marvin used without any swashes.

Checkmate used in tightly spaced caps, with a double hyphen, an overlapping AL pair, and a nested I. The top serif in I has been trimmed.

The debut novel by Michael Reaves was produced by Byron Preiss, a Tempo Star Book, and distributed by Ace Books. The cover painting is credited to Kenneth Smith and the book design to Byron Preiss. Chances are that the cover typography was provided by Ace Books’ art department, though. Interior illustrations (not shown) by Terry Austin.

Note that the blurb on the front is by Theodore Sturgeon, whose own Case and the Dreamer (Signet, 1974) uses Checkmate on the cover, too.

The face is unfamiliar, but it’s always me.

Fonts In Use readers be like: “The face is familiar! That’s another fairly early Use of Checkmate.” Here it’s used for the author name (mixed case) and the title (all caps), stacked and justified. The notch in U has been closed, for a firmer baseline.

Flux was published in June 1974 as part of Ron Goulart’s Barnum System series. Cover art by Jack Gaughan.

Checkmate, by Bob Quinzel for phototype studio Schaedler, is a fairly unusual typeface with an uncertain date of origin, other than its appearance in a 1976 Lettergraphics catalog. This use for a 1974 sci-fi paperback tells us it’s at least older than that specimen. The typeface is well suited for tight-and-touching spacing, as is demonstrated here.

[More info on ISFDB]

The Yamaha SDS 100 Series of guitar pedals was released in 1988 starting with separate 15 different effects. All pedals feature Checkmate and Helvetica. They all show Yamaha’s 1967 logo (without the tuning forks). Bass pedals used Breite fette Information as a prefix. The exterior packaging/boxes and pamphlets also seem to feature either Poster Gothic or Bank Gothic.

The typeface on the sleeve of Al Green’s third studio album Gets Next to You from 1971 is named Marvin. Here it’s used with swashes and a long shade.

Marvin was designed by Bob Quinzel for Schaedler, a phototype and lettering studio in New York. Among the other typefaces that originated at Schaedler are the Alpha series (Hiroshi Yamashita, 1970), Loose New Roman (John N. Schaedler with Ray Cruz, late 1960s), and Tabasco/Paprika (early 1970s).

Marvin is shown in their 1968 catalog (kudos to Ray Cruz for sharing!) and was advertised the same year. It thus came a tad earlier than the other Marvin which was designed by Mick Chave for Face Photosetting London in 1969. Schaedler’s Marvin doesn’t have a lowercase, but it includes one to two swash alternates for most of its menhir-shaped letters. The catalog shows an outlined variant dubbed Marvin’s Ghost. As with most faces from the phototype era, there are numerous copies and clones of Marvin. Its aliases include “Berger” and “Basso”. I’m not aware of a proper digitization.

These posters advertise shows from the 1972–73 world tour to support the Volume 4 album. From what I can tell, this design only appeared on German posters, though the wordmark was later used for commemorative merchandise like t-shirts.

Doesn’t Marvin seem quite warm and cuddly for a heavy metal band?

The cover for the Dutch 1976 reissue of Mason Williams’ instrumental piece Classical Gas (1968) features Permanent Headline and Cucumber.

Source: www.lerepairedesmotards.com © MASH-ROOM Co., Ltd. / Kodansha Ltd. License: All Rights Reserved.

Cover of the paperback collection vol. 1, displaying the famous Akira logotype. First printing: Sep. 21, 1984.

Akira (Japanese: アキラ), often stylized as AKIRA, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Katsuhiro Otomo. Set in a post-apocalyptic Neo-Tokyo, the work uses conventions of the cyberpunk genre to detail a saga of turmoil. Initially serialized in the pages of Young Magazine from 1982 until 1990, the work was collected into six volumes by its publisher Kodansha. The work was first published in an English-language version by the Marvel Comics imprint Epic Comics, one of the first manga works to be translated in its entirety. [Wikipedia]

It is now widely recognized that Akira had a huge impact on kids and readers from all around the world in the 1980s and ’90s – and I’m no exception! I’ve always been fascinated not only by the story and Otomo’s incredible drawings but also by all the graphic material surrounding the project and contributing to the Neo-Tokyo universe. One mystery remained unsolved, though: to identify the Akira typeface.

What most of us know as the Akira logo is actually the title on the cover of the paperback collection published by Kodansha from 1984. At the time, the design was astounding. The B5 format with yellow page edges (a color rarely used at the time), and a cover entirely in English, turned the book into a sensational subject that was considered groundbreaking.

I didn’t use the English and Chinese and whatever else on the cover because I was thinking about global distribution. I did it because I had this incredible enthusiasm to just try to make something new. [Otomo in Akira Club]

© MASH-ROOM Co., Ltd. / Kodansha Ltd. License: All Rights Reserved.

Several cover attempts by Otomo and his team. Note the futuristic typefaces used for the title.

Otomo and his design office, Pencil Studio, did a lot of research regarding the cover design and also tried out futuristic typefaces such as Checkmate and Earth. In Akira Club, Otomo mentions:

It took me a lot of time before I was finally able to settle the design. I wanted it to be really packed with stuff and make it feel like you couldn't really tell what country it came from. Due to repeated trial and error, it finally ended up going on sale behind schedule.

Otomo eventually settled on condensed sans-serif capitals to give the title a majestic, yet simple and slightly coarse image and “an air of American comics”. It is unclear if Otomo used a trimmed Impact, or something close, like Schmalfette Grotesk. In the Akira Club book (see below), the caption stated that it’s “Impact with the top and bottom cut.” (translation was double-checked by Akira Yoshino) but it doesn't seem to fit, especially the K and R. Impact Condensed is a bit closer but is still not a perfect match. Geoffrey Lee, the designer of Impact, had recognized that Impact was inspired by Schmalfette. On Typophile, he wrote:

I remember that period well, when many of us admired the vitality and colour of what we knew only as Schmalfette, and used it by old-fashioned cut and paste. Use was limited as it was never made in metal as far as I know, and existed then in capitals and numerals only.
Later someone added (or found) a lowercase for its new existence. I personally find the style lacks the attractive feel of the caps.

Source: harveyjames.tumblr.com © James Harvey. License: All Rights Reserved.

In 2013, James Harvey, the creator of Bartkira, an Akira spoof with The Simpsons characters, made a post about what he thought was the right typeface used for the logo: Haettenschweiler which is also derived from Schmalfette Grotesk.

The most likely answer is that the logo is hand-drawn, based on Schmalfette. (On the Web, some folks have stated that it’s a condensed weight of Rhode, which is close, but that typeface was released years after the manga).

Other typefaces on the cover are Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed (author’s name, publisher, and price) and Dynamo for the number of the volume. The text on the cover flaps is set in Helvetica Inserat.

But before the paperback collection, during the course of AKIRA serialization in Young Magazine, Otomo already experimented with a number of different typefaces for the title logo, including both Latin letters and Japanese katakana.

Source: www.myconfinedspace.com © MASH-ROOM Co., Ltd. / Kodansha Ltd. License: All Rights Reserved.

A diagram showing the various typefaces used for the AKIRA logo, included in the Akira Club book.

The first one, going from issue 1 to 35, used “a bold textbook typeface for photo-typesetting. The キ was made larger so that there is a balance between the three letters.” Akira Yoshino identified it as 石井太教科書体 BTA (Ishii Futo Kyokashotai) from the Shaken (写研) foundry, which was specialized in phototypesetting.

Then, on the cover of issue 36, the title is set in Latin letters from Broadway. Broadway was immediately replaced by ITC Busorama (issues 37 to 48), “which is reminiscent of the New York skyscrapers built in the 20s and 30s”. From issue 49 to 71, the title is again rendered in Japanese katakana. The calligraphic lettering has been done by Hiroshi Hirata, another manga artist. For the last batch of issues, going from 72 to 120, Otomo eventually chose a bold weight of Futura. In Akira Club, he said:

We had finally found the title style that suited Akira’s story.

© MASH-ROOM Co., Ltd. / Kodansha Ltd. License: All Rights Reserved.

The titles of the first issues were set in 石井太教科書体 BTA which can be seen on page 5 of that document.

© MASH-ROOM Co., Ltd. / Kodansha Ltd. License: All Rights Reserved.

Switching to ITC Busorama, Otomo also included his name in the title because it seemed more convenient. Note issue 36, the only one set with Broadway.

© MASH-ROOM Co., Ltd. / Kodansha Ltd. License: All Rights Reserved.

All the tests on this page have been done by Hiroshi Hirata, but it was Otomo who decided on the final form of the calligraphic title that fit the spirit of Akira better.

© MASH-ROOM Co., Ltd. / Kodansha Ltd. License: All Rights Reserved.

“I wanted the title to be written with a brush because I wanted to have a more dynamic logo. I also realized that turning the title to put it horizontally gave the impression of it being written in Roman letters. The title of number 54 has this form for that reason. [Otomo in Akira Club]”

License: All Rights Reserved.

When switching to Futura, Otomo decided to remove the H from his surname because he did not like it.

Source: fr.pinterest.com © MASH-ROOM Co., Ltd. / Kodansha Ltd. License: All Rights Reserved.

Original lettering style in the Japanese edition.

The speech balloons were initially mostly hand-lettered, but recent translations have used digital typefaces to achieve the job (see below).

© MASH-ROOM Co., Ltd. / Kodansha Ltd. License: All Rights Reserved.

The first foreign edition was the US one, made by Epic Comics from 1988. In addition to the translation, panels were mirrored and it was colorized by Steve Oliff (through his company Olyoptics) and hand-lettered by Michael Higgins, to match American comics standards of that time. Read more about the process and workflow of the translation in The Task of Manga Translation: Akira in the West by M. de la Iglesia.

Source: consequentialart.wordpress.com © Epic Comics/Kodansha Ltd. License: All Rights Reserved.

A page frome the Epic Comics edition.

Source: www.otakia.com © MASH-ROOM Co., Ltd. / Kodansha Ltd. License: All Rights Reserved.

Subsequent foreign editions (German, French, Italian, and Spanish ones) were published from 1991, based on Epic Comics’ work. Here’s a panel from the French edition, obviously hand-lettered.

Source: www.mangareader.net © Dark Horse/Kodansha Ltd. License: All Rights Reserved.

The English Dark Horse edition published in 2001 went back to the original reading order and black and white drawings. It uses Jim Lee by Comicraft (released in 1998) as the dialogue typeface.

Source: www.20minutes.fr © MASH-ROOM Co., Ltd. / Kodansha Ltd./Glénat. License: All Rights Reserved.

The recent French “perfect edition” by Glénat uses Alter Ego from Blambot for dialogues.

There’s a lot more that could be said regarding typefaces and Akira, but I’ll save the movie for the next article. Feel free to comment and add pieces of information that I didn’t find. I’d like to thank Akira Yoshino for his help with this contribution.