Front cover, featuring the firemen with their instruments. Group name set in Tuscan Egyptian (Vanderburgh-Wells, 1877); album title and catalog number set in Karnak (Black Condensed; Ludlow, 1936). “GOOD TIME JAZZ” set in a yet-unidentified ornamental Tuscan typeface – seems to be a more decorative version of Tuscan Ornamented #3 (Figgins, c.1846). “Trade Mark Reg.” set in a generic Scotch typeface.

Goes South! is the fifth album from the Firehouse Five Plus Two after their four-part Story series, first released in 1954 as an EP by Contemporary Records through its Good Time Jazz imprint. As well as showcasing the seven firemen and their musical talents as they travel the hallowed ragtime lands of Dixie, the album features Walt Kelly’s famed Southern swamplander Pogo Possum on the back cover as an unofficial member.

The songs on the album – all of which are now in the public domain – are led by Disney lead animator Ward Kimball (trombone and siren) alongside fellow Disneyites Frank Thomas (lead animator; piano), George Probert (assistant director; clarinet, ocarina and soprano sax), Danny Alguire (assistant director; cornet), Harper Goff (production designer; banjo – second recording session only) and Jimmy MacDonald (sound effects supervisor; drums – third recording session only); they are joined by Dick Roberts (banjo – first and third recording sessions), Ed Penner (tuba) and Monte Mountjoy (drums – first two recording sessions).

[More info on Discogs]

Back cover, featuring Assistant Fire Chief Pogo charming a hose snake using a clarinet (illustrated by Walt Kelly). “WHY POGO DOES NOT ENDORSE THIS ALBUM” set in P.T. Barnum (ATF, 1933); “By A Tinwhistler’s Mother” set in Alternate Gothic (No. 1; ATF, 1903). Kelly’s essay set in Times New Roman (roman and italic; Monotype, 1932). Liner notes, track listing and credits – as well as other indicia – set in ATF Garamond.

Front cover, featuring Allegro (import revision; Ludwig & Mayer, 1936) for Berry’s name and the album title. “With” set in News Gothic (regular; ATF, 1908) or a follower. Catalog number (bold) and “Hi—Fidelity¬ (regular) set in Spartan (Linotype) or similar.

Still of Berry with his guitar taken from his performance in the independent film Rock, Rock, Rock! (1956).

After School Session is rockman Chuck Berry’s debut LP on Chess Records, the label’s second after the compilation/soundtrack album for the film Rock, Rock, Rock! (which Berry and two other Chess acts appeared in, resulting in a still from the movie being used on the cover). The album contained three previous hit singles, with “School Days” topping the Billboard R&B Best Sellers chart – after battling Elvis Presley’s “All Shook Up” in the Jockeys and Juke Box charts for three weeks – and reaching #3 on the Hot 100.

Though uncredited, the cover was presumably designed by Don Bronstein, Chess’ in-house art director from around 1955 to his death in 1968.

Back cover featuring artist and album name in Tempo Heavy (Ludlow, 1931). Smaller text including the track listing (bold with writer credits in regular), liner notes (regular), address (bold) and catalog number and “HIGH FIDELITY” (bold) all seem to be set in Spartan, a follower of Futura distinguished by the two-story a.

Toulouse Olympique Aviation Club was founded on October 4, 1944, through a
merger of Toulouse Olympique XV and the Omnisport Aviation Club Toulousain. Since March 6, 1990, the club from the capital of France’s southern Occitanie region is known under the name Toulouse Olympique Aérospatiale Club (TOAC).

This membership card from 1945/1946, issued to Joseph Goulounes (1924–2001), features the club’s emblem with a winged dragon and a compass rose.

“Membre actif” is set in Elegant-Grotesk licht, an all-caps inline version of Stempel’s Futura follower, Elegant-Grotesk. The specific version likely is Universelles éclairées, a local copy sold by the Dutreix foundry in Limoges.

The plain sans has German roots as well: it’s Simplex, a variant of Berthold-Grotesk with a monocular a, produced by Fonderie Olive in Marseille.

The italic serif used for “Année” is Cheltenham with the alternate swash A, available in France from Fonderie Caslon. The wide grot used for the club’s name is yet unidentified.

This album combines two violin concertos performed by David Oistrakh (1908–1974) together with the Russian State Symphony Orchestra under conductor Alexander Gauk (who, like Oistrakh, was born in Odesa). Opus 44 by Nicholas Myaskovsky was recorded in September 1939 and Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 19 by Sergei Prokofiev in June 1953.

Period Records released the album in 1955, with a cover design by Lily Gruen Zepel.

[More info on Discogs]

Ear Candy is a compilation album with songs by various artists signed to Twentieth Century Fox. The cover is a literal take on the title, with a candy bar for each of the seven featured artists and songs. Some of the typefaces were rendered by hand.

Design by George Corsillo with illustration by Fred Nelson and art direction by Tim Bryant Design.

[More info on Discogs]

This compilation with “The Very Best of Chevalier” brings together a dozen hits by French singer, actor, and entertainer Maurice Chevalier (1888–1972), including “Valentine”, “Louise”, “Mimi”, and “Thank Heaven for Little Girls”. It was released in 1964 by MGM Records.

The big caps for “CHEVALIER” appear to be custom lettering, loosely based on Broadway (Condensed). The rest of the uncredited cover design is exclusively typographic, featuring twelve styles from ten typefaces (Peignot is represented by two weights, and Ultra Bodoni by roman and italic styles). Broadway also appears in unmodified form, for “Did You Ever See a Dream Walking”. Can you spot the LTypI?

[More info on Discogs]

The Bienal de Arte Flamenco de Málaga is a cultural gathering that celebrates flamenco as an artistic expression and living heritage. A space for exchange and visibility around cante singing, dance, and guitar playing, it highlights flamenco tradition and its connection to the city, bringing together artists, audiences, and diverse contexts around a deeply rooted culture. It took place in Málaga from May 27 to August 2, 2025.

To develop its visual identity, we began with a process of research and visual archaeology, diving into flamenco posters from the 1970s and 80s. We were interested in reviving their way of communicating: the typography, the abundance of text, the colors, and that distinctive style characteristic of popular graphic culture. With respect, we reinterpreted this tradition through a contemporary lens, preserving the authenticity, energy, and passion of flamenco.

For the main masthead, we opted for a combination of 20th-century typefaces, bringing together Umbra and Copperplate Gothic. The dialogue between Umbra’s expressiveness and play of shadows and Copperplate Gothic’s solid, classical character creates a headline with presence, personality, and a certain timeless quality. This pairing strengthens the identity’s character while connecting it to the graphic tradition that inspired the project.

For secondary information, we used Annonce and, for residual information, Futura. A project with a highly typographic character. A revision of flamenco aesthetics brought into the present day.

Cover of issue 1. Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed is used for the cover text.

Mermaid was an American adult magazine first published in 1962 by Geemil Publications (not be confused with another adult magazine also called Mermaid, published from 1958 by Garden of Eve Publications).

The Mermaid logo uses all-caps Filmotype Party.

Cover of issue 2. Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed is again used for the cover text.

Cover of issue 3. The text immediately below the logo as well as the words “ADULTS ONLY” are in Futura Condensed. Other text is in Ludlow Condensed Gothic (Modernized).

Cover of issue 4. The text immediately below the logo is again in Futura Condensed [edit: or rather Tempo Heavy Condensed, see comments], while the other text is in Bodoni Campanile.

Issue no. 2 from July 1981. The white text at the bottom is an unidentified typeface similar to Futura Extra Bold Condensed. I wonder if it’s related to Heraldus. [edit: identified by Bryson as Tempo Black Condensed]

Motter Tektura is the logo typeface for Your Computer. The Australian monthly home computing magazine “for business and pleasure” ran from May/June 1981 to May/June 1997. From 1977 to 1984, Othmar Motter’s typeface was also used for the logo of the Apple Computer Inc., likewise in all-lowercase letters.

Initially edited by Les Bell and published by the White House Publishing Group under licence from Motorword Pty Ltd., Your Computer was typeset by Hughes Phototype, Mosman. and printed by The Lithgo Centre, Waterloo. Barry Brady served as the magazine’s first art director. In 1982, he was superseded by Michelle Mabbott. Rolf Hagenmaier filled this role in 1993.

By 1994, the logo had been redrawn (almost) beyond recognition.

You can browse many digitized issues in the Internet Archive.

Motter Tektura was also used as headline typeface on interior pages. Here’s the table of contents from no. 5, November 1981.

June 1982, with ITC Korinna in a starburst for the “Big Birthday Issue”. The logo got a contour.

October 1982, ft. Dynamo Shadow for “16 Bits – A Revolution?”

May 1983

June 1983

September 1983

“Learning With Your Computer” special issue, 1986, with a shaded logo version and ITC Avant Garde Gothic

February 1993. The claim below the logo now reads “Making your micro work”.

Letterpress printed poster for Typographic Printing Program 2026. Printed from hand-cut linoleum (LL Ruder Plakat), the first letter of the first line starts in its original shape and gradually morphs into the last letter of the last line, which is totally deformed.

The larger white information is set in Helvetica bold 72pt, from traditional metal type. Since the interweaving lines on the smaller size (24pt) are very labour-intensive to set in hand-set metal type, these blocks have been cast from Ludlow's Record Gothic bold in 24pt.

Record Gothic has often been referred by old printers as Ludlow Helvetica because of their similarities. In this case, since there is no capital R and no numbers on the small copy of this poster, it is really hard to tell the difference between the two faces. This made the production much easier than setting the smaller blocks from hand-set type.

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.

I've just found this magazine from Peru in Budapest, only God knows why.

Textual is the journal of the Peruvian National Institute of Culture. Concerned with literature, humanities, and arts, it was published between 1971 and 1975. CEDOC (Centro de Documentación de la Biblioteca Central UNMSM) has digitizations of all ten issues. The logo is based on Amelia, in lowercase letters and with filled-in counters.

Number 9 is dedicated to philosopher, educator and journalist Augusto Salazar Bondy (1925–1974). Display typefaces used in this issue include Michel, Thalia, and Ludlow Garamond. Body text is set in Helvetica and Permanent, with drop caps from Neo Script.

Thalia with enlarged and descending caps

Colophon (left) and a black-and-white version of Salazar Bondy’s portrait as seen on the cover (right)

All-caps Michel and Thalia in mixed case

More Michel caps combined with pre-Columbian symbols

Text in Helvetica is printed on top of the title in reversed caps from Michel

A mix of caps and lowercase letters from Thalia for “Educación”

This creature apparently is a raptorial bird as depicted by members of the Chavín culture

Spread with drop caps from Neo Script

Detail from the colophon, with text set in two weights of Permanent

Rotated Ludlow Garamond for “Bibliografía”

This compilation of so-called barbershop music was released by Decca Records in 1960. It celebrates the last ten winners of the Barbershop Harmony Society’s annual international chorus competition: the Buffalo Bills, the Schmitt Brothers, Four Teens, Vikings, the Orphans, Four Hearsemen, Confederates, Lads of Enchantment, Gay Notes, and Four Pitchikers.

The large number 10 is probably drawn without using a font. “Years of Barbershop Champions” is set in the Heavy weight from Ludlow’s Radiant. The names of the winning quartets are set in Alternate Gothic, likewise in all caps. “Official Recordings” inside the trophy is in Typo Script.

[More info on Discogs]

After being inspired by the film Marty Supreme, I decided to add a few items of my own creation to the world this movie created. These would have been celebrity endorsed and promotional items existing after Marty’s rise to fame.

1976 edition

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (1918–2007) was rejected by at least 26 publishers before Ariel Books finally accepted it in 1962. The science fiction novel went on to win the Newbery Medal, the Sequoyah Book Award and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, has sold over ten million copies, and was made into a movie twice.

Shown here is the 1976 paperback reissue by Dell/Laurel-Leaf as featured in the fifth season of Stranger Things: it’s the edition owned and cherished by Holly Wheeler (played by Nell Fisher).

“Now, don’t be frightened, loves,” Mrs. Whatsit said. Her plump little body began to shimmer, to quiver, to shift. The wild colors of her clothes became muted, whitened. The pudding-bag shape stretched, lengthened, merged. And suddenly before the children was a creature more beautiful than any Meg had even imagined, and the beauty lay in far more than the outward description. Outwardly Mrs. Whatsit was surely no longer a Mrs. Whatsit. She was a marble white body with powerful flanks, something like a horse but at the same time completely unlike a horse, for from the magnificently modeled back sprang a nobly formed torso, arms, and a head resembling a man’s, but a man with a perfection of dignity and virtue, an exaltation of joy such as Meg had never before seen.

In 2023, Amory Sivertson of WBUR’s Endless Thread podcast was able to finally identify the artist responsible for the cover art: it’s Richard Bober (1943–2022). The designer who did the cover typography featuring all-caps Robur continues to be uncredited.

[More info on ISFDB]

The title page is set in Ludlow Garamond Bold.

1980 printing

Holly Wheeler reading her copy of A Wrinkle in Time in Stranger Things, Season Five, set in 1987

From record collector oopswhoops:

Killer funky single, produced by Barry White and arranged by Barry White and Gene Page.
1974 French pressing on Warner Bros. label.

The typographic sleeve design relies on the shadow-only Umbra, supported by all-caps Univers 63.

[More info on Discogs]

This recording of Gustav Holst’s The Planets as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under Malcolm Sargent (1895–1967) was released by Decca in 1954. The cover shows the seven featured planets as the heads of their eponymous Roman deities, orbiting a flaming yellow sun.

The main typefaces are Monotype’s Bodoni Ultra Bold Italic and Profil by Haas for “PLANETS”. The contoured and shaded all-caps slab doesn’t appear in direct use, but was redrawn: some details are slightly off when compared to the foundry original, see the bowl of P that’s angled at the bottom, or the A that has a smaller counter.

[More info on Discogs]

Alternate version. The sans serif used for the conductor’s name in the black circle (representing Earth?) and the other small print is the Bold weight of Tempo.

“I’m Glad I Had Leprosy” and other evangelistic illustrations for sermons and programs, arranged by Mamie Gene Cole Husk, Southeastern Secretary

American Mission to Lepers Incorporated, ca. 1950.

The title combines two typefaces designed by Robert Hunter Middleton for Ludlow in the 1930s: the low-contrast script Mandate and Tempo Bold with its characteristic two-story a. All smaller text is set in several styles from Vogue, Intertype’s geometric sans.

From Wikipedia:

We Are Family is the third studio album by the American R&B vocal group Sister Sledge, released on January 22, 1979, in the United States and on April 30, 1979, in the United Kingdom by Cotillion Records. The album was written and produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of the band Chic, and includes four hit singles: the title track, “He’s the Greatest Dancer”, “Lost in Music” and “Thinking of You”, all of which have been sampled, remixed, and reissued in the decades after the album’s release. The album reached number one on the Top R&B Albums chart and peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, making it the band’s most commercially successful album. In 2013, NME named it among the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The title is shown in a digonal band, set in tracked out caps from a light weight of Syncopation, featuring its round-top A. The group’s name is added above in Coronet, with an extended exit stroke on the first S. Art direction by Bob Defrin, with cover photography by Jim Houghton.

[More info on Discogs]

Wang Laboratories was a renowned Massachusetts (USA) manufacturer of desktop computing and word processing technology through the 1970s and 1980s. Founded by Dr. An Wang in 1951, the company started out in typesetting and calculator equipment before becoming more successful and well-known for office computing equipment.

The Wang System 2200 was a series of desktop minicomputers with a built-in BASIC language, introduced in the early 1970s before the advent of popular microcomputing. The printed documentation for this line of systems employed a couple different design languages, but the style shown here with this typography was in consistent use through at least 1977’s PCS-II.