Spanish branding studio Wozere created the new identity of Monasterio de San Francisco, a hotel located in Palma del Río near Córdoba and Sevilla.

They chose to gather a palette of textures, soft tones, and memories that guided the creation of a visual universe where the brand’s identity can truly come to life.

The curvy calligraphic logotype in Miss Fajardose is combined with a discreet use of PoW Limerick for the initials, as well as some of its vignettes. The condensed serif is Editorial New.

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

“Call Me”, performed by Blondie and produced by Giorgio Moroder, is the theme from the movie American Gigolo. The 7″ single sleeve uses Kaufmann. Shown here are four variations used across different territories, all on the Chrysalis label, with the Latin American version sung in Spanish (“Llámame”). Was Kaufmann utilised strategically for marketing purposes from its familiarity with the film’s script style logo (in Filmotype Lady) and benefit from the publicity the film was receiving?

[More info on Discogs]

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

The sans on the back cover is ITC Avant Garde Gothic.

License: All Rights Reserved.

Version with Richard Gere, used in the United States and various European countries

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

Argentinian version “en Castellano”, featuring Akzidenz-Grotesk

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

“Versión Español” from Mexico

From June 23rd to 25th, PROSANOVA will enter its seventh round for 2023. Since 2005, this largest and most well-known nationwide event for young contemporary German-language literature has taken place every three years in Hildesheim. More than forty contemporary authors are invited to stage, celebrate, doubt, make visible and, at the same time, experience their writing, their texts and literary methods in Hildesheim. They present their work to a broad audience of specialist visitors from the literary world and Hildesheim citizens in over 50 events, including students and national press representatives. From the festival”s press release:

This year’s edition of PROSANOVA takes place under the motto “Schlechte Wörter” (“Bad Words”). The short prose text by Ilse Aichinger that inspired the title gives us the opportunity to explore the space behind the words and the texts. We embark on a search for a second level of words, for the ambivalence of what is written and for what we actually mean when we say text.

Designed by Vivien Sorrentino and Elfi Handina Murandu and set in Bastardo Grotesk with accents in Monsieur La Doulaise.

Megascope interspersed with Ed’s Market Bold Script

Studio Yukiko has created a playful, energetic, and—dare I say—delicious design for Door Dash’s Secret Menu magazine about local food culture. From Studio Yukiko:

This issue dives deep into Miami’s almighty hustle - A food scene boasting one of the wildest most diverse restaurant cultures in America. It follows stories of taco stands morphing into Michelin starred Italian spots, Black-owned vegan restaurants, reinvented Jewish delis, Cuban and Caribbean stalwarts, and so much more…

“Wild” and “diverse” could also be used to describe the issue’s design and typography. The fonts and layouts are playful, colorful, fun, and varied, with each article spread getting its own special typographic treatment. There is no shortage of sunset-like linear gradients, text effects like outlines and glows, and mixing of typefaces on the same line.

The eclectic design is united by a core palette of typefaces: Megascope is used across the issue for headlines, a callout to Miami’s connection to Art Deco. Random letters are replaced by Ed’s Market (both Script and Slant styles), bringing some movement and dynamism into the static, geometric typeface. Text is set in Surt and ITC Bookman, with Mrs Sheppards appearing in supporting text such as bylines. Jackpot Italic and Middleton Brush are featured on the cover, and Goudy Two Shoes, Compagnon (& Compagnon Bold), Promenades, Pipo, Generation September and Marlfield make special appearances in individual spreads. One of my favorite details is how the page numbers—mostly set in Megascope—become such a dominant part of the layout. A few tiny appearances of other guest typefaces (for photo credits, or a single word here and there) are not mentioned here.

The design team for this project included Sebastien Millot, Michelle Phillips, and Kir Nazarov, with production by Mike Teevee. David Amsden and Erin Ruffin are the editors-in-chief of the magazine. According to Phillips, “for the Miami Issue for Secret Menu, we wanted to bring the instantly recognisable world of Iconic Miami’s Mimo and Art Deco style together with its lax small-town scrappiness by combining a geometric sans (Megascope), with a brush script (Ed’s Market) to really bring out Miami’s almighty food culture scene.”

Cover ft. Jackpot and Middleton Brush for the title

Table of contents with Megascope for page numbers and headlines and Goudy Two Shoes for “Issue 02”. “Buzzworthy” is set in Compagnon Bold.

Text in ITC Bookman and Surt

Megascope with stacked glyphs and integrated into an image. The bold serif used for “Greater Miami” is Marlfield from Eliott Grunewald.

Megascope plus Ed’s Market with added stripes, compare Gadget. (The font used for “El Palacio de los jugos” is Balloon.)

Compagnon Bold with glossy effect

Megascope combined with Pipo Medium (“Flame”)

Megascope with staircase glyphs and Compagnon for captions

Megascope mixed with Ed’s Market Narrow Slant (“MM”) and Slant (“57”)

“The Great” and “Little Havana” are in Promenades.

Megascope with glow effect plus Generation September set on angle

Credits in Mrs Sheppards, text in Surt

The opening lyric, “it feels like a perfect night”. Italic caps from Montserrat in both outline and filled paired with the script font Mr Sheffield.

Taylor Swift is re-recording and re-releasing her back catalogue, branding it “Taylor’s Version”. The iconic Red is no exception. The pop hit-single “22 (Taylor’s Version)” was released as part of Red (Taylor’s Version) on November 12, 2021, with this lyric video.

The graphic style of the video is consistent throughout: Lyrics typeset and animated on a light-pink background with confetti, cheesy aging effects of scratched/worn film-emulsion and caught hairs, and with a deckled frame.

Two fonts are used: One a geometric sans, Montserrat, mostly used in all-caps oblique; the other is the connected script Mr Sheffield – which has not yet featured on Fonts In Use – used in italic.

A variety of treatments are used. The frequent grow/bold/blur effect increases the grey-value of Mr Sheffield and squishes its smaller counters away. There are numerous other effects: combing, scroll/repeat, fade, blur, crop/repeat, wobble, and marquee.

Many lyrics are illustrated with little pencil sketches.

The sans topping and tailing, the script in the middle.

Mr Sheffield used on its own, with tracking that breaks the connections

A frame captured part way through the zoom and blur (compare with previous).

Sometimes the sans lowercase is used, but mostly not.

This is one of those effects where a cropped repeat is added below and removed from the top to give the illusion of movement without any part actually moving. This effect for 22 is used a lot in this video.

“OH YEAH” both scrolls in the foreground and zooms in the background.

The effects get slightly more drunken during the last part of the song, and the 22 wobbles.

TITLE mag is a print publication that creates a community for young creatives to learn new skills, grow through mentorship, and build a strong network in a hybrid digital environment.
This issue involved the work of 111 individuals.

The theme for issue 006 is “Golden Age”. It was released March 26, 2022 out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Representing our interpretations of elegance, nostalgia, romance, and opulence, these pages are filled with expression from young creatives across the country. Our Editor in Chief said it best:

It feels like being draped in expensive silk and wrapped in glistening pearls. It feels like putting on your fanciest clothes and jewelry for a night out with your closest friends. It feels like the warm glowing light that comes bursting through your window on a summer evening. It feels like looking at old photos that transport you back to a completely different time of life. It feels like writing a love letter to someone you know will write one back to you. It feels like the hug that you never want to end. It feels golden.

This issue featured Sloop Script and Argent Pixel CF as the primary fonts for branded content and spreads. The other fonts highlighted in this post are part of the TITLE mag evergreen branding.

The final print issue is 177 pages, with 27 unique team projects. Issue 006 also includes a Digital Extended Edition, with seven additional digital-only projects and extensions of multiple print editorials.

In 2004, Argentinian type foundry Sudtipos released Mrs Sheppards by Alejandro Paul. In the same year, Spiece Graphics issued Kolinsky Sable SG by Jim Spiece. The underlying design is much older, though: It originated with Charles P. Bluemlein (1891–1944), a lettering artist from New York, and is shown in Script and Manuscript Lettering as one of thirty-two script alphabets. This booklet was published by the Higgins Ink Company of Brooklyn in the 1940s, in order to promote their inks. From the book’s introduction (via MyFonts):

For years Mr. Bluemlein would ask friends and acquaintances for their signatures. He carefully studied the most outstanding of these seeking unusual manipulations of the pen and relationship of lines and curves which gave them character. Sometimes a single letter would be the key to a complete alphabet. Mr. Bluemlein interpreted the signatures, changed, organized and embellished them into a series of 32 script alphabets. He did this by projecting the signatures to a large size thus enabling him to pick out the character notes.

The script alphabet titled Mr. Ronald G. Sheppards was made into a typeface long before 2004: Photo-Lettering adopted it for phototypesetting. Their version is called Fourth of July, and is shown in the Alphabet Thesaurus, vol. 1 from 1960. [Edit: it was earlier shown under the name Penobscot Brush Script, see their 1950 catalog.]

It’s probably this version that was used for the cover of the only album release by Nature’s Divine from 1979. The 10-member funk/soul group with roots in Detroit had a Top 10 R&B hit with “I Just Can’t Control Myself”.

[More info on Discogs]

Charles Bluemlein’s script alphabet as shown in the 1944 edition of Script and Manuscript Lettering, titled Mr. Ronald G. Sheppards.

From top to bottom:
1. The album title, probably set in PLINC’s Fourth of July.
2. A resetting using Mrs Sheppards by Sudtipos. Note the curved descender in g.
3. A resetting using Kolinsky Sable Two by Spiece Graphics. This interpretation of Bluemlein’s design takes more liberties. It’s less inclined and dynamic, and has a few unconvincing connections.

Back cover.

From IMDb:

1930’s Hollywood is reevaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane (1941).

David Fincher and Neil Kellerhouse continue their working relationship that in the past saw designs for The Social Network, Gone Girl, and Mindhunter. The main poster is based around a painting by Anna Park. Kellerhouse chose Pacioli for a great degree of Mank’s promotional campaign. The most unexpected use I saw was in the title design for the film, where Pacioli gets a 3-D rendering. The Mank wordmark is probably custom lettering. Reporter is vaguely related.

The approval card is set in caps from Kabel (1927).

The script used in the teaser is Mr Stalwart. This font is based on one of the script alphabets created in the 1930s by Brooklyn-based calligrapher Charles Percy Bluemlein.

On the former site of the Fulton Fish Market, The Fulton is a waterfront tribute to an area chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten fell in love with in his early years.

The branding is an homage to the romantic lyricism of the sea, with fluid wave motifs added to the already elegant Mr Sopkin by Sudtipos and watercolor washes used throughout. Lost Type’s Mort Modern lends a high-end and legible note to the menu and signage system while House Industries’ Chalet Book acts as a more utilitarian sans without compromising personality.

You love the NBA, but you can’t keep up with all the weekly games, stats, rumors, and everything else in between. That’s why THE lazy NBA exists. To bring you the very best of the NBA, directly to your sofa, I mean inbox.

Neue Helvetica is used as the backbone font for this project throughout the website and emails. This font was chosen because every computer, no matter what age, can render and read the font.

Mrs Sheppards and ABC Ginto Nord are used strictly for the logotype. Ginto Nord is the perfect bold type to give that extra punch to the identity, while Mrs Sheppards brings the ideal ‘lazy’ element and graphical detail.

The primary color for this project is orange; however, when Playoffs are active, the color scheme changes to a ‘Playoff Blue.’ And in the NBA Finals, the color scheme transforms, yet again, into a ‘Championship Yellow.’

You can sign up for the email newsletter on thelazynba.com.

For an urban development-related project in Gironde, France, I worked with agency deux degrés and the architects from the Cancan collectif.

One of the peculiarities of this district is its large main road, overloaded with signs. My mission was to think about this ephemeral identity, taking into account the current context for this district: building work and change. Picking up various ideas (from Las Vegas to butcher’s shops), we worked on a French-American mix of signs, colors and typefaces. In order to make an intervention that stayed in touch with the site, we opted for a graphical continuity with the signs already there.

The design resulted in a number of totems that are reminiscent of French Morris columns or even the industrial Derrick columns. These columns are relevant for both motorists and pedestrians, who will find information and street furniture. For the duration of the project (several years) we made signage that recalls the practices of entrepreneurs in the area.

To evoke a set of French-American signs, a multitude of typefaces have been used. Banco (by the great Roger Excoffon) represents traditional French butcher’s shops; Trade Gothic is an American classic; Bello, more spontaneous and warm, represents the city parks; Knockout is impressive with all its various styles; a kind of collective American image is channeled through Emigre’s Base 12 Sans and Serif; Mr Stalwart is reminiscent of the sign painting for shop fronts.

For the duration of the building work (several years) we made a signage that evokes the practices of entrepreneurs in the area.

Photography by John Thornton, model is allegedly Nicky Howarth Dwek.

“Each Cold Classics release features a remastered version of a traditional beer style, paired with an homage to pulp science fiction. Each label in the series will feature a glimpse of a larger storyline, featuring the brewery's primary brand character, Eve, and her accomplices. Eve represents Bottle Logic's can-do attitude, rebellious spirit, and thirst for knowledge (and great beer).” — Emrich Office

Cardon Webb’s covers for this series are inspired by mid-century jazz albums. All the titles are hand lettered except for Going to the Territory which is (and this is only a guess) a modification of Mr Dafoe with Oregano Italic caps. The lettering for excellent Invisible Man cover is inspired by the rarely used but wonderful Linotype Gneisenauette.

These type uses aside, the main reason to celebrate these covers is the lettering, which is pitch perfect. Do not miss the large images of the other books at Webb’s site.

As an educational corporation willing to invest in beautiful things to promote their language courses around the world, EF (Education First) is a typographer’s dream client. Albin Holmqvist was the lucky designer to take on their latest campaign, letting type do the talking in four short films produced by Swedish firm Camp David. The videos romanticize Paris, Barcelona, Beijing, and London in a genuinely sweet way, showcasing their respective languages with simple, pitch-perfect typographic overlays.

Holmqvist made great typeface choices in each of the films, but I think Paris got the best treatment. The opening title (see video above) is set in a very obvious Parisian, but it sets the tone so perfectly.

Patterned after the lettering of an American architect Neutraface isn’t necessarily French, but its quaint italic and deco-inspired lines certainly feel appropriate. Homqvist embellished the face in subsequent titles, adding decorative frames and shadows.

Like we’ve shown before, Brothers is a quintessential vintage sign font. Its chamfered corners are as at home on a baker’s storefront as they are on the butcher’s. For the French shop, though, Holmqvist employed the alternate set of Brothers with its charming kick of the ‘R’ and curved crossbars (see ‘A’).

Contorting type into a predetermined shape, especially with a curve, is a dangerous game. Many of us remember the horrors of Type Twister’s heyday. Professional hand lettering is the way to do this right. But if you’re going to do it with type, you can make distortions less obvious by keeping the curves gentle and using a font that draws less attention to the cap- and baseline. Here, the condensed Regency Gothic withstands the bends well.

Mr. Dafoe, one of the more lively scripts in Alejandro Paul’s Bluemlein Collection, reflects a vibrant produce market. This is how tomatoes were advertised — back when people could use a brush.