Takako Mamiya's first and only studio album was released in 1982 by Kitty Records. It did not receive much attention initially, but has gained popularity in recent years thanks to the city-pop boom and to YouTube's algorithm.

The typeface used for the album title is Ultra Bodoni Italic by ATF, while the artist’s name is set in the most condensed variant of Lenox Hill by Photo-Lettering, titled Lenox Hill Triple Condensed, with the only numbered weight being number 3. The typeface has a similar structure to Filmotype Galaxy/Gable but a different letter a.

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Specimen from Photo-Lettering’s One Line Manual of Styles in 1971 (p. 108). The letter a matches the one used in the album art.

The title of this 1968 album by Brenda Lee is written in West Italiano. Her name is set in Murray Hill Expanded 10, while the song list underneath is set using Venus Condensed

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In 1931, Les Editions Guérinet in Paris brought out a book titled Publicité Vignettes Lettres Chiffres Monogrammes (“Advertising, Vignettes, Letters, Numerals, Monograms”). One of the alphabets reproduced in it is titled “variante de la ‘Boule’ en moderne” and credited to lettering artist A. Bardi. Sometime between 1950 and 1960, Photo-Lettering in New York turned it into a typeface named Halloween (shout-out to Jay Mellor for finding the source).

In 1967, the Halloween typeface was used for Houdini’s Magic Kit. This beautifully designed paper assembly kit was issued by Platt & Munk, a publisher of children’s books, jigsaw puzzles and educational materials, probably best known for The Little Engine That Could. The box set includes a magician’s wand and a forty-eight page instruction book and allows for 75 different magic tricks.

The other typefaces on the box lid are from Photo-Lettering’s library, too: the sans-serif caps used for the words “Amazing” and “Delightful” in the ribbons are from Ventura. The numerals for “75” belong to Xenotype 3471, PLINC’s adaptation of Neptun. Last but not least, the rounded sans is the Shaded A style of Republic, a family that appeared already in PLINC’s 979 Basic Alphabets catalog from 1946.

See the Peculiar Manicule for more images of the kit.

A. Bardi’s “variante de la ‘Boule’ en moderne” as shown in Publicité Vignettes Lettres Chiffres Monogrammes

The contents of the kit

The cover of the instruction booklet pairs Halloween with a hand-drawn bottom-heavy serif of condensed proportions.

The titles on the sheet are in bichromatic Graphique, with instructions set in News Gothic.

“Magic Mask” is free-form lettering, patterned after Kalligraphia.

Eduard Ege’s eponymous Ege-Schrift was first cast by Genzsch & Heyse around 1923. In 1926, the foundry added a solid version, Basalt, which in 1934 was supplemented by a lowercase.

The diagonally hatched caps of the original design can here be seen on the dust jacket for The Temptation of Anthony, a novel in verse accompanied by other poems, written by Isidor Schneider (1896–1977). This is the first edition published by Boni & Liveright in 1928.

This is the 1972 paperback edition of André Breton's Manifestoes of Surrealism. I believe the interior to be the same as the hardcover, but I don't know for sure. (As with the hardcover, the book design is credited to Quentin Fiore.)

The cover uses skewed Helvetica Compressed [see comments] for the author's name, and Inserat-Grotesk for the book title. The decorative dingbat is picked up from the hardcover design, and skewed to match the new type. Also, like the hardcover, note the unusual solution for the accent on the E in André, this time using a line parallel to the top bar of the E.

The interior of the book is notable for its use of a different text face for each section.

The title page spread uses Sans Shaded for the title and Anzeigen Grotesk for the author's name. The translator credits are in Bodoni Italic, and the publisher names are in Helvetica Medium.

The copyright page is in Times New Roman Italic, and the table of contents is in Helvetica.

The section openers are set in Bodoni Bold.

The texts are set in a mix of Baskerville, Century Expanded, Helvetica, and Bodoni Bold.

Within the first manifesto is “Poem,” randomly assembled from headlines and scraps of headlines, reset in many typefaces, including Cheltenham, Baskerville, Vulcan Bold Italic (see Greco, Latin Bold and Latin Wide, Windsor Bold, Beton Bold, and Clarendon.

Ditto Inc, founded in 1910 and later a division of Bell & Howell, Inc., manufactured duplication equipment, such as spirit duplicators. Ditto machines became so popular in American offices and schools it became a generic noun/verb — one would “ditto” something to make a copy.

This 1958 redesign of the Ditto logo, using Bulletin Typewriter almost directly, is credited in Barbara Baer Capitman’s American Trademark Designs, (Dover, 1976) to Morton Goldsholl of Morton Goldholl Associates (though this book often attributes work to firm owners rather than specific designers). The straight double-quotes ("), as seen on a typewriter and common shorthand for repetition, were used in the logo and as a pattern motif for packaging.

Ditto direct process fluid tin, undated.

Design for Ditto direct process fluid tin, 1961.

Ditto masterset packaging, undated.

Ad for Ditto duplication machine, 1965.

A small leaflet detailing the many ways you could save into National Savings, the Government backed scheme that included the old Post Office Savings Bank, National Savings Certificates and the wartime Defence Bonds. The very ‘of its day’ graphic design includes the Max Gill designed GPO logo with his brother, Eric’s, typeface in the circle.

The main typeface is the 1922/3 Ege-Schrift, designed for Genzsch & Heyse by Eduard Ege, and the 1934/5 Gillies Gothic, for Bauer by William Gillies. “Post Office” is likely lettering.

Source: www.ebay.ie License: All Rights Reserved.

Gill Sans with Futura-like alternates

The Hotel Goldener Hirsch in Rothenburg, Germany apparently used these luggage labels over a long period of time. There are at least three versions – all undated – which can be distinguished by small differences. The most obvious one is the small type used for crediting the artist responsible for the woodcut. There is 1) Jessen-Schrift, 2) Gill Sans (shown above), and 3) Bodoni-Kursiv, although not necessarily in this chronological order.

The woodcut showing the “Golden Stag” stays the same. So does the larger type. It’s Rudolf Koch’s Neuland (16pt, with an alternate C?), paired with the hatched Ege-Schrift by Eduard Ege. The two all-caps typefaces were both released in 1923. In version 1, the word “HOTEL” is set with tighter spacing, and the Rothenburg skyline with the coat of arms are better defined. The other two versions appear to differ in the same way for these details.

Willi Foerster (stylized: Fœrster) was a local graphic artist and painter who lived from 1892 to 1965. From 1908 to 1910, he studied under Otto Ludwig Naegele in Munich.

Source: www.hotel-goldener-hirsch.de License: All Rights Reserved.

Designed by Rudolf Koch from 1924 on, Jessen-Schrift was released by Gebr. Klingspor in 1930.

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An unidentified version of Bodoni-Kursiv. Judging from W and t, it might be Schriftguss AG’s cut from 1928.

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Another undated luggage label for the same hotel, using three sizes of the Neuland series (14, 20, 10pt).

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Republic is a very early Photo-Lettering release that continued to appear in catalogs until at least 1982, but isn’t well known today because it didn’t make it into an ITC release, or digital fonts. The large family is quite similar to VAG Rounded but beat it by at least 30 years.

Despite its long life, there aren’t many examples of Republic out there, so it was exciting to find it on this Columbia Records sleeve. The designer, Ron Coro, was a big fan of soft, geometric sans serifs. Besides Republic he used Chwast Blimp multiple times and drew his own rounded sans, Coro Moon.