This cover design by Christoph Ehbets from 1964 is a precursor to the one he did five years later for the Pioniere des Jazz compilation, using pretty much the same ingredients: Forest House with red fill for the artist’s name; a second, more ornate face for the title, in pink; and a black-and-white photograph below. For “Oldtime Jazz”, Ehbets went with Carnival. First cast around 1849, this decorated Tuscan was revived by Fonderie Typographique Française (FTF) as Romantiques 2. Just like Forest House, it’s included in the first volume of the Lettera alphabet source book, as Romantique, with FTF credits.

The track names are set in Fundamental, a standard sans serif used in the GDR. The order number appears to be in Futura Bold, though. The Amiga logo is custom drawn.

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Christoph Ehbets was not the only designer working for Amiga Records who recognized the display qualities of Forest House. His colleague Klaus Vonderwerth (1936–2016) used the contoured and shaded slab serif, too. This sleeve is for a single by schlager singer Klaus Müller (1943–2000), released in 1965 under his first stage name, Ten Oliver. From 1967 on, he became known as Klaus Sommer.

Song titles, credits and all other small print is set in several weights from Super-Grotesk, a 1930s sans serif by Arno Drescher that has been nicknamed the GDR’s Futura.

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Front cover.

A Lettera double feature for the cover of a jazz compilation released by (East) German Amiga Records in 1969. Christoph Ehbets (1935–1992) was an avid user of the alphabet source books by Swiss publisher Niggli. Forest House was one of his favorites and can be found in many of the covers by the designer from Berlin-Köpenick. The condensed slab serif with contour and shadow is part of a series of decorated capital alphabets drawn by Paul Sollberger, a graphic artist from Bern. For “JAZZ”, Ehbets switched to another, more festive design: Macdonald is an ornamented fat face that probably goes back to the 1820s or 1830s. The two shaded all-caps alphabets are both reproduced in the first volume of Lettera from 1954 and are here used with a color fill.

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Detail.

Front cover of a different pressing with a more sober Amiga logo.

The back cover is set in two different geometric sans serifs: While the tracklist with credits is in Fundamental (1938), the liner notes by Werner Sellhorn are in Super-Grotesk (1930). Both were drawn by Arno Drescher and continued after the war by Typoart.

A compilation with songs by French singer, composer and actor Gilbert Bécaud (1927–2001), released 1967 by Amiga, a state-owned music label from the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

Sleeve design by Christoph Ehbets.

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