Zeit zu sterben is the German title of Tiempo de morir, known in English as (A) Time to Die. The Colombian-Cuban co-production is based on a script by Gabriel García Márquez. Directed by Jorge Alí Triana, the film stars Gustavo Angarita, María Eugenia Dávila, Enrique Almirante, and Sebastián Ospina.

The art on the poster for the East German release by Progress Film suggests a rooster’s head, with the beak depicted as a bullet. The tombstone-like letters for the title are from Buster.

Fonts from the Flea Market 1438

“Dynamite Dragster” is 1976 single by French disco combo Performance. For the Spanish release in Carnaby’s Especial Discotecas series, the title was unceremoniously altered to “Dinamita” on the cover. The perspective caps are from Buster. Originally a shadow-only design, the uncredited sleeve designer added an outline to the top and left of the letterforms, probably to enhance legibility. The series logo enclosed by headphones is another Letraset classic, Compacta.

[More info on Discogs]

A spectacular jacket design for the first British edition of The Forever War, published in fall 1975 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Designer Nick Sutton started with Tony Wenman’s Buster, a 1972 Letraset face with perspective caps. He inverted the shadow-only glyphs, gave them dimensional bodies, and rotated them by about 55 degrees to the left. Now they seem to float in space; an illusion that is intensified by the big overlapping “WAR” letters (backwards rotalics!) and the implied stars in the speckled background.

[More info on ISFDB]

The spine lettering is in all-caps Grotesque No. 9.

14 Abril is an album by the symphonic/jazz-rock band Goma from Sevilla, Spain, released in 1975 on the Movieplay label.

[More info on Discogs]

Cassette cover

From record seller dany_the_avenger:

Rare single by the Belgian underground band Banzai who made a sought after LP, well played complex tune with great keys & rhythm section. Produced by the ex-Pebbles Luc Smets.

[More info on Discogs]

The sleeve design pairs two typefaces with letterforms exclusively defined by shadows: Umbra is a shaded all-caps version of Robert Hunter Middleton’s Tempo, issued in the 1930s. Buster was designed by Tony Wenman for Letraset in 1972, referencing 19th-century novelty faces. Someone got cold feet and added a second color, so that the band name in Buster becomes more readable.

Two 1970s Letraset faces with roots in the 19th century, on the cover of an EP by French electropop duo Zombie Zombie from 2013.

The dimensional, shadow-only Buster (Tony Wenman, 1972) channels Victorian styles like Shaded No. 5. The reverse-contrast Zipper (Bob Newman, 1970) is a reconsideration of 19th-century wood type such as Hamilton’s Gothic Bold.

[More info on Discogs]

This catalog was issued by Letraset, the British manufacturer of dry-transfer lettering sheets and other graphic means, in 1975. The front and back cover show fifteen examples for how to use their display faces. Each typeface is presented in a different setting alongside illustration that complements the letter style.

The example for Broadway (first image, top left) features a frame made from elements of the Stripes typeface. In 1977, this device was referenced in a cover design for an album with music by Bing Crosby, see the post contributed by Pampa Type.

Another example of note is Buster (first image, bottom left) which employs the text buildup technique as sometimes seen in concrete poetry. Stripes also appears on the back cover (bottom right), with hyper-extended glyphs. Both Stripes and Buster were desiged by Tony Wenman and are Letraset originals. Many of the other faces were either licensed from contemporary manufacturers of phototype, like ITC Pioneer by ITC, Pluto by Face Photosetting, or Yagi Link Double by FotoStar/Facsimile Fonts; or were adaptations of metal typefaces. The Letraset logo uses tightly spaced Helvetica.

Photos courtesy of Peter Smith – thanks a bunch!

“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.

The best looking entry in the impeccable Innovation series of Congolese soukous LPs (early enough to be unmarred by ’80s production) featuring a lovely trio of singers, veterans of Orchestres Bella Bella, Lipua Lipua, and Kamalé. The information on this album is limited—the model is credited but not the designer!—but Nyboma was known to have lived in Paris when this was released, Disques Innovation seems to have been based there and it was unambiguously distributed by a Parisian company so it seems likely that it was designed there, rather than in the artists’ and producer’s native Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Zaïre).

Reinstate is an experimental typography zine by Juan Duque that explores lyrics of contemporary R&B music popular in modern day culture. Its purpose is to reinstate lyrics that are often overlooked or dismissed, restoring them back to their former condition — simple words and phrases. By disconnecting and disassociating the lyrics from their tracks, these words have a chance to speak to the same crowd in its raw form.

Artists featured in this issue include:
Drake / 6LACK / Tory Lanez / Banks / Sabrina Claudio / Ella Mai

Only 10 numbered copies of Reinstate Issue 0 were printed.

[More info on Discogs]

“To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Posada's death, A Century of Skeletons collects nearly 1,000 reproductions of original prints, including dozens of engravings never before published. Over the last century, Posada's satirical illustrations with their signature ‘calaveras,’ or skeletons, have become synonymous with the imagery of Mexico's Day of the Dead celebrations.” — RM/BBVA