Source: www.last.fm License: All Rights Reserved.

Caruso Roxy in yellow caps and with lots of its swirling glyphs for Organ in Orbit, a 1965 album by jazz space-age organist Julius Goldberg (1915–1977), better known as Sir Julian Gould, or just Sir Julian. The uncredited cover designer went with a very literal translation of the title. It seems likely that the sans used for the track names is from the PLINC library as well. With the top-heavy S, Pacella Electra is a contender.

[More info on Discogs]

Flyer for a gig with Tennger and Strates, November 26, 2025, at le Dalidaark in Toulouse, France.

Bachelors ’68 is an album by The Bachelors, released in 1968 on London Records.

The swashy letters of the album title are in Pacella Latina, with the song list underneath set in Pabst Extra Bold. No cover designer or photographer is credited.

[More info on Discogs]

Main poster

Pacella Vega, a bold, heavy serif designed by Vincent Pacella, was the main title font for Sydney Pollack’s 1972 revisionist Western, Jeremiah Johnson, starring Robert Redford. Supporting titling uses ITC Avant Garde Gothic. The credits look to be set in Grotesque Light 126.

Alternate poster

Lobby card with set photography

Flyer for an electronic/noise show with Zoon and Undude which took place on the 14th of March in Toulouse, at Atelier des Cheminots.

This two-record set with music by The Lennon Sisters was issued in 1973 by Pickwick Records. It combines two previously released albums, Our Favorite Songs (1965) and Goodnight Sweetheart (1967). The bold display typeface is Pacella Latina, used with swashes. This typeface was already used on the cover for Our Favorite Songs.

[More info on Discogs]

The 1977 Alphabet Yearbook celebrates “Photo-Lettering, Inc.’s 40th year of service to the advertising and graphic arts industry”: the New York phototypesetting company founded by Ed Rondthaler first opened its doors for business in 1936.

The Yearbook was designed by Ed Benguiat, PLINC’s Type Director, with assistance from Tom Vasiliow. Most pages comprise the usual mix of one-line samples and exemplary settings. For page 99, though, the designers had some fun, and did a parody of the opening lines of The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, a.k.a. the United Stated Declaration of Independence, from July 4, 1776:

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to use bicentennial alphabets, Photo-Lettering Incorporated presents the largest selection available. We hold these alphabet styles to be

After thirteen lines – one for each of the founding states – the continuous sample text breaks off, but it’s self-evident how it continues.

Benguiat and Vasiliow used eleven styles from nine typefaces, all set in all caps, stacked and justified. Some of the more topical alphabets with stars and stripes were issued in the late 1960s, possibly in anticipation of the United States Bicentennial in 1976. Others are much older: Eighteen Ninety, Carousel and Eventide go back to the first half of the 20th century. The oldest design is Algonquin – it was first cast by the Dickinson Type Foundry in Boston around 1888.

From top to bottom, the featured styles are:

Brave and Free (uncredited, possibly derived from an existing plain style, before 1970)
Pacella Cobbler Shaded A (Vincent Pacella, late 1960s)
Cavanagh Eighteen Ninety (John Albert Cavanagh, before 1950, stretched)
Gonzales Pioneer Shaded (Francisco Gonzales, 1969)
Pacella Cobbler (Vincent Pacella, late 1960s)
Davison Carousel G (Dave Davison, before 1950)
Papirtis Washington (Charles Papirtis, 1967)
Pacella Monitor (Vincent Pacella, a variant of Cordina with stars and stripes, c.1968)
Carlyle Eventide (Paul Carlyle, c.1938)
Gonzales Pioneer A (Francisco Gonzales, 1969)
Algonquin Shaded (a.k.a. Algonquin Ornamented, John F. Cumming, c.1888)

Movie poster

Prince of the City is a Sidney Lumet film from 1981 about New York police officer Daniel Ciello (Treat Williams) delving into his own city's police corruption. Vincent Pacella’s Collegiate is used for the title. Memphis Light is used for supporting text.

[More info on IMDb]

Cover of the soundtrack by Paul Chihara, released on Varèse Sarabande. [More info on Discogs]

Asphalt Canyon Suite is a studio album by the jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell (b. 1931). It was recorded in 1969 and released on the Verve label. Art direction and photography by Sid Maurer. Cover design by Elaine Gongora.

[More info on Discogs]

Book jacket of the hardback edition by Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1977. The title is set in a condensed Goudy Heavyface. Author name and subtitle are in what looks like ITC Cushing. This revival of Cushing Oldstyle was made by Vincent Pacella. It wasn’t released by ITC before 1982, so this is probably a precursor that was exclusively available from Photo-Lettering, Inc. Pacella worked at PLINC where many of the ITC fonts were produced. The photograph is by Todd Tarbox.

From the inner flap:

In this important and controversial book, Geneva Smitherman defines Black English as
comprising a set of grammatical and phonetic rules, a special lexicon, and a particular rhetorical style. In analyzing these elements, she discusses attitudes toward language and explains the differences in usage and in linguistic attitudes that often lead to misunderstandings between blacks and whites and offers specific suggestions for public policy that would recognize the validity and make use of Black English. Shifting occasionally into Black Idiom as she writes, Dr. Smitherman makes clear that Black English is a vital and effective language, as legitimate a form of speech as British, American, or Australian English.

Dr. Smitherman relies heavily on black culture and its inherent African oral tradition for examining and understanding black speech. Talkin and Testifyin provides the immediacy of a culture, language, and experience that ranges from African villages to Motown, from myth to reality, from the sacred to the secular. Interwoven throughout the text as evidence for the author's arguments are the words of Frederick Douglass, Curtis Mayfield, W.E.B. Dubois, Richard Pharr, lmamu Baraka, Claude Brown, Nikki Giovanni, Smokey Robinson, Maya Angelou, Richard Wright, Bessie Smith, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Stag-O-Lee, Martin Luther King, Jr. , Chinua Achebe, Langston Hughes, James Brown, Adam Clayton Powell, Isaac Hayes, Malcolm X, Aretha Franklin, Haki Madhubuti, Frankie Crocker, the Reverend C.L. Franklin, Jesse B. Simple, and many others.

Title page of the Houghton Mifflin edition. Cooper Black Italic is used for the title (with swash caps), and Baskerville for other text.

Cover of the paperback edition by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1986, pairing Baby Teeth and ITC Avant Garde Gothic.

“Omar Rayo en la Segunda Bienal Americana de Artes Graficas / Museo La Terulia / Cali Colombia, Octubre 1973.” Stripes (1973) is paired with Pump Bold (1970), which is used without i dots.

Omar Rayo (1928–2010) was an abstract art painter from Colombia whose geometric Op Art works have been exhibited multiple times at Museo La Tertulia and at Museo Rayo in Cali. The two museums collaborated on a retrospective exhibition with paintings from both collections. Each time a catalogue was printed it featured a different typeface arrangement, mostly with geometric display typefaces. Both museums even made an special exhibition in 1977 called Los Rayos del Museo Rayo y los Rayos del Museo La Tertulia.

Some exhibition catalogues like the one for La constante geometría from 1972 had original lettering, but most of the covers and posters are early examples of instant lettering typefaces in use, with very original typesettings. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any information about the designer of these printed materials.

Another exhibition from 1985 called Rayo Serie Raya Blanca Raya Negra shows Stripes in use. In Spanish, Omar’s family name Rayo could be translated to “ray”, but when used in feminine form, Raya means “stripe”. In this case, it transtales to: Rayo White Stripe and Black Stripe Series.

Joc Line (1973).

Stop (1971) and caps from an unidentified wide grotesk (similar to Akzidenz-Grotesk or Venus breit) for Omar Rayo at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo.

Sans-serif caps from what appears to be a predigital cut of Helvetica, cropped and repeated.

Traffic (1973).

This piece of lettering appears to be modeled after Pacella Graphic Biform or Bailey.

Deutsch Black (1966).

These letterforms that look like folded paper strips are either custom drawn or from an unidentified typeface.

Compacta Bold Outline (1965) on an angle, with a circle punched out and rotated.

Eurostile neretto largo (1962), caught in a grid.

ITC Ronda Bold (1970), with a crop-and-repeat treatment and a custom interlinear ligature.

Good Vibrations (1973).

Yagi Link Double (1968).

Baby Teeth (c. 1966).

Hot Dog (1975). While most of the other typefaces were carried by Letraset, Hot Dog was exclusive to their competitor Mecanorma.

These caps look like they’re from Moore Computer (1968). The Y isn’t a match, though – it might be an alternate, or a modification.

This ladder-like arrangement appears to use custom drawn letterforms.

Poster for Rayo Serie Raya Blanca Raya Negra (1985), featuring Stripes and Helvetica. The Museo Rayo logo at the bottom left is based on ITC Avant Garde Gothic, while the text at the right is set in caps from Wexford.

Poster for La Constante Geometria (1972), ft. more ITC Ronda and Univers Ultra Condensed or similar. The big “OMAR RAYO” is probaby custom. For similar extracompressed digital fonts, see Radiator or Fit Skyline.

Setting the Pace is an album by saxophonists Dexter Gordon and Booker Ervin. It was recorded in Munich in 1965 and released by Prestige Records in 1967.

The tightly packed biform face appears to be Bailey Bold. A showing in the Letter-Fan (1969) suggests as much, except for the fact that Bailey is presented without any capital forms other than one alternate G. The capital/biform glyphs used here, for B D J K R V X, are neither included in Bailey Bold nor in California Caps, which was suggested by Lettergraphics as a matching uppercase companion.

[Edit: This isn’t Bailey, but Pacella Graphic Biform, drawn by Vincent Pacella for Photo-Lettering in or before 1965. See my comment to the post about Miles Davis – Greatest Hits.]

Don Schlitten did not only produce the album, he also takes credit for the photography and the design.

[More info on Discogs]

The cover for Prestige’s album with greatest hits by Miles Davis appears to use Bailey for the title. Most letterforms match a showing of Bailey Bold Condensed in a Lettergraphics specimen from 1969. Differences include the flatter i dot and the t with a slightly shorter ascender, which would be easy customizations. The specimen presents four alternates: a and s with diagonal and rounded middle parts, t with a tail that ends at the baseline, and a G of capital form as seen here. Bailey didn’t have a proper uppercase. The D, R, and H and the wide v/V could either be additional biform alternates not shown in the specimen, or modifications. Or was there another, virtually identical face with more glyphs by a different manufacturer?

[Edit: Yes, there was. This isn’t Bailey, but Pacella Graphic Biform, see the comments.]

The album was produced and designed by Don Schlitten, with photography by Ray Avery. See also another album cover by Schlitten from the same year, for which he used a narrower style from the same typeface.

[More info on Discogs]

Pressing by Victor Record Company, Japan (SMJX-10020), with a different order for the tracks.

Source: www.flickr.com Steve. License: All Rights Reserved.

1967 printing (73-662), with Pacella Decatur for the title. The secondary typefaces are Venus and News Gothic.

The Carnelian Cube is a fantasy novel by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt. First published in hardcover by Gnome Press in 1948, this is the paperback edition by Lancer Books. Their first printing from 1967 combined cover art by Frank Kelly Freas with a title set in caps from Vincent Pacella’s Decatur. Two years later, Lancer Books changed the typography and switched to another face by Photo-Lettering: Craig Mierop’s Ginger Snap, which had been added to their catalog shortly before. More specifically, it’s the “C” variant with open letterforms – here filled in green, yellow, and red – and a long shade.

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

1969 printing (74676-075) with Mierop Ginger Snap (and Helvetica or similar).

“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.

“Old Fashioned” (No. 166) features two Western-style typefaces that probably originated at Filmotype in the 1960s. They’re both shown in an undated c.1974 Filmomaster specimen, as Van Horn and Quincy. The latter is also known as Amanda.

Covers for various clip books of line art issued in 1968 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.

The bottom lines use Alternate Gothic Compressed and Univers.

“Holidays” (No. 167) ft. Gonzales Jeanette with a custom star dot that echoes the fuse.

“Expressions” (No. 168) ft. Reklame. This old German typeface was adopted by Photo-Lettering and shown in their 1971 catalog as Reclame. The punctuation is from Pistilli Roman, see the comments.

“Strength” (No. 170) ft. West Behemoth with tight and overlapping spacing and the monocular g.

“Telephones” (No. 171) ft. Filmotype Gamma.

“Religion” (No. 172) ft. Baker Chalone.

“Entertainment” (No. 174) ft. Norton Vaudeville.

“Contests” (No. 175) ft. Eurostile Bold Extended.

“Atmosphere” (No. 480) ft. Playbill.

“Direct Mail” (No. 481) ft. Univers, Venus Extended, and Franklin Gothic Wide.

“America” (No. 482) ft. Egyptienne Bold Condensed.

“Summer” (No. 483) ft. Chwast Art Tone on an angle.

“Marine” (No. 484) ft. Kalligraphia.

“Western” (No. 485) ft. Bookman Swash Bold Italic

“Autumn” (No. 486) ft. Staudel Xenotype J.

“Science” (No. 487) ft. Britannic.

“Fall & Winter Sports” (No. 488). This narrow grotesk looks a lot like an outlined version of Schmalfette Grotesk, or maybe PLINC’s adaptation Swiss Gothic, but it seems the ampersand doesn’t match. Any insights are welcome. The same outlined style appears on Volk covers from 1964 and 1974, while the “Law & Order” booklet from 1966 uses the similar Permanent Headline.

“Transportation” (No. 489) ft. Permanent Headline.

“Christmas” (No. 490) ft. Inserat-Grotesk.

“Couples” (No. 492) ft. Whimzitype 3600. Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Groups” (No. 494) ft. Futura Light.

“Insurance” (No. 495) ft. Permanent Massiv. The small text on this cover is set in Helvetica.

“Occupations” (No. 497) likewise shows light caps from Futura. Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Women” (No. 499) ft. Smoke in all caps.

“Money” (No. 500) ft. more Futura Light.

“Spring & Summer Sports” (number unknown), ft. Eurostile.

“Register and Vote” from the Paste Pot & Scissors subseries (No. PP 105), ft. Pacella Monitor and Franklin Gothic. The small type at the bottom is in Eurostile.

“Announcers” from the Paste Pot & Scissors subseries (No. PP 107), ft. Photo-Lettering’s West Behemoth Italic Swash with swash alternates and overlapping glyphs.

“Luck” from the Paste Pot & Scissors subseries (No. PP 108), ft. Mansard (with contour), another face available from Photo-Lettering. It might also be Jim Dandy, a contoured variant of Slim Dandy by Lettergraphics.

“The Year” (No. PP109) ft. more all-caps Smoke, here with its peculiar Y.

“Clichés” (No. PP110) ft. Palette on an angle as well as an early use of PLINC’s Ballard.

“Borders” (No. PP115) ft. Clarendon caps.

Kopp Records KS-3364 (1968)

Pacella Latina with several of its swash forms is used on the cover of the 1968 re-release of Louis Armstrong’s Hello Dolly. This face was designed by Vincent Pacella, probably around 1965, and available from Photo-Lettering, Inc. This record cover shows its ‘10’ weight, which came with Swash and Biform variants.

MCA Coral COPS-1780 (1972)

The first of Michael Moorcock’s pseudonymous, enjoyable pastiches of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s “John Carter of Mars” series.

Cover art by Gray Morrow.

The font in use on this cover is Gemini Biform, an ultrablack typeface with alternates for a, e, m and n. Gemini appeared in Lettergraphics’ catalog from 1968. It’s very similar to Photo-Lettering’s Pacella Barrel (before 1969). It’s not clear which came first. The differences here are mainly in the e and B.

Photography by Rudy Wolpert

More Today Than Yesterday is the seventh album by American singer and actress Barbara McNair (1934–2007), released in 1969 by Audio Fidelity Records in New York City. For the cover, Rhea Atkins chose Pacella Barrel, a fat biform face designed by Vincent Pacella for Photo-Lettering sometime in the late 1960s, and paired it with caps from Venus Extended.