Ad in LIFE magazine, October 11, 1968

New imaginative styles by Peter Max. Three wild designs to choose from. Repeat alarm wakes you – lets you snooze – then awakes you again. Daring and decorative – great gift.

Every time I come across a Peter Max work, whether it’s a pair of jeans (ad) or the cover of his own magazine—my eyes literally overdose on all the colors and swirling forms. Peter Max is not just another “hippie” artist, rather he’s a kind, caring and loving person who’s influenced a whole generation of artists and people abroad. Even if his name has never crossed your eyes or ears, you’ve probably seen his art somewhere. So many others around the world admire Max and his artwork, although these days it absolutely breaks my heart to see how others treat him in his current state.

Let's move on to something lighter… literally!

From 1968 to 1970, Peter Max was commissioned to design clocks and a poster for General Electric. The poster, advertising some absolutely wonderful wall clocks is set in Millstein Orientale for “New from General Electric” and below, with some Helvetica for the tinier text.

Moving on to the 1970 Snooz-Alarm clocks advertisement which shows Norton Futuramic, a Photo-Lettering face that was issued in the 1940s, paired with Obese E, a Psychedelitype (link two) released in 1967—note that this wouldn’t be the first or last time Obese would be used in Max’s work. Jefferson Aeroplane appears for the Symmetry clock, and Davison Arabesque for the Spectrum clock. Aura is just Futuramic, repeated, and below the three is presented in Futura for the price and bold words, Bodoni for the quoted text.

The actual Symmetry clock uses an illustrated form of Obese, Spectrum uses Art Nouveau-esque numericals not unlike Benguiat Laurent, and the Aura clock uses custom numerals not specific to any phototype… but still looks rad anyway!

Ad in Courier Journal, March 22, 1970

Symmetry

Spectrum

Aura (black version)

Flower Girl

The Lennon Sisters were known for their performances on the Lawrence Welk Show. This album showcases their style which was often characterized by soft harmonies and covers of popular songs from the era.

[More info on Discogs]

Detail from the back cover, showing the band name in Benguiat Discotheque Contour B.

Source: archive.org Internet Archive. License: All Rights Reserved.

Staudel Xenotype K is based on an alphabet shown by J.M. Bergling in his Art Alphabets & Lettering from 1914. Photo-Lettering made the phototype adaptation as part of their Art Nouveau Xenotypes 1895–1905 series in 1962. Here it can be seen in use for the cover of an album by Raymond Lefèvre and his Orchestra, released by Monument Records in 1966. The group’s name is added in Inserat-Grotesk.

The French release on Barclay Records (see the last image) uses the same photograph – by Herman Leonard – and a similar typeface: this time, it’s Staudel Xenotype A, another of PLINC’s Art Nouveau Xenotypes for which I haven’t been able to find the original source yet. The s is more angular than in a 1971 specimen. This suggests that the glyph is either an alternate or was modified, or that the letterforms were taken from a different source, possibly even the original. The secondary text here is set in caps from Auriol.

[More info on Discogs]

Source: archive.org Internet Archive. License: All Rights Reserved.

The back cover rearranges the name in Inserat-Grotesk and the title in Staudel Xenotype K in six stacked lines. Track names are set in Trade Gothic and the liner notes by Aaron Sternfield in Helvetica.

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

The French version with Staudel Xenotype A and Auriol was released by Barclay in their Super Panache series in 1966.

Source: www.abebooks.com Purpora Books. License: All Rights Reserved.

Filmotype Vigus and its outline variant, Unicorn Open, in use for titles and spine lettering of The Golden Lotus. This four-volume edition was published by Routledge & Kegan Paul (RKP) in 1972, based on the 1939 translation by Clement Egerton. From Wikipedia:

Jin Ping Mei (Chinese: 金瓶梅)—translated into English as The Plum in the Golden Vase or The Golden Lotus—is a Chinese novel of manners composed in vernacular Chinese during the latter half of the 16th century during the late Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Consisting of 100 chapters, it was published under the pseudonym Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng (蘭陵笑笑生), “The Scoffing Scholar of Lanling,” but the only clue to the actual identity is that the author hailed from Lanling County in present-day Shandong. The novel circulated in manuscript as early as 1596, and may have undergone revision up to its first printed edition in 1610. The most widely read recension, edited and published with commentaries by Zhang Zhupo in 1695, deleted or rewrote passages to help understand the author’s intentions.

Source: www.abebooks.com Purpora Books. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.abebooks.com Purpora Books. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.abebooks.com Purpora Books. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.abebooks.com Purpora Books. License: All Rights Reserved.

This compilation consists of five LPs with a total of sixty songs recorded by Percy Faith (1908–1976). For the name of the Canadian–American bandleader and composer, the uncredited cover designer used the lightest weight of Benguiat Discotheque, with some horizontal stretching. The title is in Bookman Swash Bold Italic, used with its characteristic swash alternates for several letters.

[More Info at Discogs]

Le Cirque de Consolation in the second studio album of French musician Léonie Pernet. It was released by Crybaby & Infiné on the 19th of November 2021.

Pictures on the album cover are credited to Estelle Hanania and the make-up was made by Anthony Preel and the design is credited to Uncle O.

The text on the album cover is set in Estoril, except for the first letters of the words where Paolo Gothic is used instead. All other text is set in Times Italic, partially in faux small caps.

“Hard Billy” is a single from the album and was released in September 2021. Its release was advertised online with the same typographic choices as the album cover (Paolo Gothic for the first letters, and Estoril for the rest).

In this case, the picture is a still from the single's music video directed by Jean-Gabriel Périot in collaboration with maskcollective. The musician's name is displayed with the same typefaces near the end of the video (at 3m20s)

A single remix, followed by a remix EP called Le Club de Consolation were later released digitally, using Times for their cover’s text.

[More info on Discogs]

Ed Benguiat’s Discotheque in use on the cover of Robert Lory’s novel The Thirteen Bracelets. This cover is from the first edition published by Ace Books in 1974. The cover art is uncredited (presumably by Davis Meltzer). The title is set in the lightest of Discotheque’s three weights, with the author's name set in a (likely manually) widened version of that weight.

[More info on ISFDB]

The synopsis on the back cover is set in all-caps Optima.

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

Front cover of the original release (Westbound Records WB 2001)

Free Your Mind… and Your Ass Will Follow is the second album from the funk-rock band Funkadelic led by George Clinton, released just five months after the self-titled debut.

From Wikipedia:

The album's gatefold cover forms something of a visual pun, echoing the sentiments of the album title. The woman holding her arms towards heaven in an ecstatic pose is found to be nude upon opening the sleeve.

The original 1970 issue’s artwork featured the woman facing downward, and the “Free Your Mind…” title in brown. Reissues beginning in 1990 reversed the woman’s direction (substituting an alternate photograph where her head is more inclined and her fingers are more widely fanned), and have varied the placement and color of text elements.

Cover design by Stanley Hochstadt and The Graffiteria, with Dave Davison’s Arabesque, photography by Joel Brodsky, and art direction from David Krieger. The track titles and credits are set in Dominante.

[More info at Discogs]

Source: www.ebay.com doctor_of_jazz. License: All Rights Reserved.

Gatefold of the original release (Westbound Records WB 2001)

Source: www.ebay.com doctor_of_jazz. License: All Rights Reserved.

Back cover of the original release (Westbound Records WB 2001)

Source: newmusicunited.com New Music United (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Front and back cover, 1990 reissue (Westbound Records SEWA 012)

Source: archive.org Internet Archive. License: All Rights Reserved.

Front and back cover, CD release, 1989 (Westbound Records WBCD 2001)

The bold weight of Ed Benguiat's Discotheque in use on the jacket of The Other Side of the Rainbow: With Judy Garland on the Dawn Patrol, a biography of Judy Garland, known for her role as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, by author Mel Tormé. It seems the first and second editions of the book used this design.

From the publisher's notes:

“That winter of The Judy Garland Show will never be forgotten by anyone who shared in the unbelievable confusion, excitement, humor, sadness, and frustration of it all. It is a story that has never been told, a profile in some depth of a frenetic nine-month period in Judy’s life. It is a book for the many thousands who were deeply saddened by her death and wonder why her world went to pieces.” Steve Allen wrote, “Mel Tormé sensitively reflects the reality that was Judy Garland. Perhaps only another entertainer could so clearly suggest the puzzling mixture of ego and self-destructive insecurity that tortures so many prominent performers.”

Gig poster for Hoovaranas and Máquina Delírio (a.k.a PintassilgoPrints) concert at Bro Cave in Florianópolis.

Our fonts Acid Green and Lunatique Rounded, both released on the The Flying Type label, dress up the words. Illustration by Pedro Correa finishes off the visual.

Panther Books edition, 1970 [More info on ISFDB]

The Shuttered Room and Other Tales of Horror is a collection of short stories by H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth. This edition was published by Panther Books in 1970, and represents an early use of Filmotype Vigus. Just like Davison Arabesque (PLINC, 1968), Vigus is a phototype interpretation of an untitled “poster and sign card alphabet” by J.M. Bergling shown in his Art Alphabets & Lettering (1914). It originated at Filmotype and also went under the name Unicorn. The earliest showing that I’m aware of is in Photoscript’s 1970 index. Unlike PLINC’s version (and Bergling’s original), Vigus doesn’t have a lowercase, and is distinguished by a few details, including a smaller top aperture in S. See Estoril (Scriptorium, 2018) and Acid Green (The Flying Type, 2021) for digital interpretations with lowercase.

The same cover design including Vigus, Baskerville, and the creepy “palm tree” illustration by Picture Post was also used for a 1971 printing by Beagle Books.

Beagle Books edition, 1971 [More info on ISFDB]

A Great Fall is an awarded non-fiction book written by Mildred Savage (1919–2011) and first published in 1970.

On June 16th, 1965 in a small town in Litchfield County in Connecticut, a young wife and mother were found brutally murdered in her home. This is the story of that murder and the trial that became two trials and exploded into a cause celebre.

This softcover edition by Fawcett Crest from 1971 displays Davison Arabesque on its cover, being used in both upper- and lowercase characters.

It seems this is the third example documented on Fonts In Use of Davison Arabesque in use with lowercase characters, after two great findings by Christopher Bentley.

A fairly early use of Davison Arabesque (Photo-Lettering, 1968), for the cover of Pyramid’s paperback edition of Lest Darkness Fall from August 1969. The alternate history science fiction novel was written in 1939 by L. Sprague de Camp. Cover art by Peter Bramley (1944–2005).

[More info on ISFDB]

The Patterns of Chaos by British science fiction writer Colin Kapp (1928–2007) was first published in 1972. This is the cover of a paperback edition by Award Books from 1973, with Davison Arabesque for the title and the author’s name. The cover art was repurposed from Peter Goodfellow’s illustration originally made for Tandem’s 1972 edition of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Planet of Exile (via Sauroman).

[More info on ISFDB]

With the very kind permission of J.J. Englender at Adsausage I am able to make a third font use contribution under Davison Arabesque, this example thereof appearing on page 59 of a 1972 catalogue by Frederick’s of Hollywood. Sadly, unlike my two previous contributions related to Davison Arabesque, Of Course You Can Sew! and Diabolus, this is not in mixed cases, but it still is a fairly eye-catching example of its use.

Frederick’s of Hollywood (founded in 1947 by the inventor of the push-up bra, Frederick Mellinger) no longer exists as a chain of physical stores (as of 2015). However, in a sort of tribute to its catalogues, it still exists as an online only store at fredericks.com. It is notable, though, that Frederick’s has apparently abandoned the outerwear market that it clearly occupied at the time of this catalogue.

The artwork for the catalogues was provided by Dorothy Kahn (1922–2000), about whom one can read more at KahnArt on Zazzle.

Fawcett Crest T1725. Cover art by Jeff Jones

After having made an at-the-time unique font use submission for Davison Arabesque where there is a mixed-case use thereof for Of Course You Can Sew! by Barbara Corrigan, I am in the very fortunate position to be able to make a second submission for this font in mixed cases, with the very kind permission of Ron Lightburn at the Sandra & Ron Lightburn site.

The title is set in yellow and in all upper case, admittedly. However, the name of the author, and the word “by” before that is in white and thankfully also in mixed cases.

The rest of the text on the cover appears to be set in Helvetica, going by the upper case G at the beginning of the word “Gripping”.

[More info on ISFDB]

Source: archive.org MGM Records. License: All Rights Reserved.

Hugh Masekela’s Next Album is the straightforward – if not to say unimaginative – title of the fourth studio album by South African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela (1939–2018). Recorded in New York City, it was released in December 1966 by MGM Records.

The cover photo is my all-time favorite: Masekela in a black suit and a striped tie, standing barefooted on Times Square, his arm resting on a life-sized stuffed zebra, with his trumpet in one hand and a spear in the other. It’s the epitome of cool.

Photo: Florian Hardwig. License: CC BY-NC-SA.

Xenotype 3486 AKA Radium as shown in PLINC’s Alphabet Thesaurus Vol. 2 (1965).

The title typeface is Radium. Photo-Lettering, Inc. presented it in Alphabet Thesaurus Vol. 2 (1965) as Xenotype 3486, without any design credits, and named it Radium in their One Line catalog (1971). As with most of PLINC’s “xenotypes”, it’s not an original design, but a phototype adaptation of a historical alphabet. In the case of Radium, I tracked down the model in Art Alphabets and Lettering (1914), a source book by American calligrapher and engraver John M. Bergling, where it’s shown as an untitled “modern alphabet”. There is no digital version by PLINC. David Nalle’s Beaumains (Scriptorium, 2011) is based on the same historical source.

License: All Rights Reserved.

The historical model for PLINC’s Radium: A “modern alphabet” shown by John M. Bergling in his Art Alphabets and Lettering (1914).

Radium preserves the original H with its blackletter/minuscule-like construction. For the cover design, this letter was replaced by a more conventional form. The track list below the green title in Radium is set in caps from Folio schmalfett. I haven’t been able to find a credit for this iconic cover, neither for the photo nor the design. If you know more, please let us know in a comment

[More info on Discogs]

Benguiat Discotheque Bold in early use for the cover of an album with easy listening music, recorded by orchestra leader Billy Vaughn (1919–1991) and released on Pickwick Records in 1967. The track names are set in all-caps Franklin Gothic, with every other line italicized.

[More info on Discogs]

Discotheque was added to Photo-Lettering’s library sometime after 1965. See a previous post about a paperback cover from 1968 for a sample showing three weights of Ed Benguiat’s design.

Of Course You Can Sew! – Basics of Sewing for the Young Beginner (front cover).

This use of Davison Arabesque – an unusual case of the typeface being used in both upper- and lowercase characters – for the title on the front cover of Of Course You Can Sew! – Basics of Sewing for the Young Beginner by Barbara Corrigan, published by Doubleday (now Knopf Doubleday) in 1971, comes courtesy of my following the blog “The Vintage Traveler”, authored by Lizzie Bramlett, specifically this post, dating from 18th April 2021.

I am unfortunately only able to upload six images, so to view the missing three Fonts In Use readers will have to head over to the “The Vintage Traveler”. However, the six I have manged to upload will serve to illustrate the other fonts I believe to be featured here.

In addition to Davison Arabesque, the other typeface appearing on the front cover appears to be Futura, in regular and italic form. Turning our attention to the contents of the book, the typeface used for the titles at the top of the pages, the page numbers and the body text are set in Caledonia and the figure numbers and pattern measurements and guides in News Gothic.

As well as writing the book, Barbara Corrigan provided the illustrations, which are highly evocative of the young fashions of the early 1970s and to see a few more details of her life and work these are to be found at the aforementioned “The Vintage Traveler” blog post.

Of Course You Can Sew! – Basics of Sewing for the Young Beginner (page 67, fig. 9).

Of Course You Can Sew! – Basics of Sewing for the Young Beginner (page unknown, figs. 16 & 17).

Of Course You Can Sew! – Basics of Sewing for the Young Beginner (page 80, figs. 20, 21 & 22).

Of Course You Can Sew! – Basics of Sewing for the Young Beginner (page unknown, figs. 13, 14 & 15).

Of Course You Can Sew! – Basics of Sewing for the Young Beginner (page unknown, figs. 1 & 2).

Psychedelic watercolor and collage cover for a collection of science fiction stories edited by Sam Moskowitz and published by Pyramid Books. Artwork by Gail Burwen, who was later the art director for National Lampoon magazine.

[More info on ISFDB]