Crillee in use

Temple of Apshai C64 box art

Bryson Stohr — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 16:40:42 +0000

Contributed by Bryson Stohr

Source: www.lemon64.com License: All Rights Reserved.

The box art for Epyx’s Commodore 64 port of Temple of Apshai, a classic RPG. Shown here is the game’s cassette release for the computer – some of the other releases were styled differently.

The font used for the title of the game is Croissant by Philip Kelly. At least two modifications were made to the font: the o was closed, and a drop cap-style f was created, likely from modifying the font’s t; the designer for the box art likely thought the original glyph was too goofy or ambiguous.

It’s paired here with Helvetica and Helvetica Condensed, and Crillee, Epyx’s signature typeface at the time.

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

Metra tickets, 1990–1991

Florian Hardwig — Sun, 17 Sep 2023 14:50:00 +0000

Contributed by Florian Hardwig

January 1990, ft. an unidentified rounded sans

February 1990 ft. Italia Bold

C82 is the website of Nicholas Rougeux, a Chicago-based designer and data artist. One of the many great things one can find on C82 is his collection of train tickets sold by Metra. Every month, the commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area releases a new ticket design. In 2004, Nick started collecting. Over the years, and with the help from other ephemera enthusiasts as well as of Metra, the archive considerably grew in size. At the time of writing, it includes an impressive 1,395 tickets, spanning more than fifty years of commuter history.

This post highlights the monthly tickets from 1990 and 1991. In a recent blog update, Nick comments:

In the early 90s, ticket designs varied significantly with new typography and visual styles appearing each month. I can’t say these are some of my favorites but I recognize that this may have been in an effort to curb counterfeiting. However, I do enjoy some of the typography from the 1990s tickets. I owe a big thanks to fellow collector John for these and others.

Each of the tickets features a different typeface. Many of the chosen fonts stem from the libraries of ITC (Korinna, Quorum, Serif Gothic, Zapf Chancery, …) and Letraset (Caxton, Italia, Romic (Letraset), …). There are also classics that go back to the era of foundry type, like Beton, City, or Optima, and Monotype originals like Albertus and Plantin. The typographic smorgasbord is completed by designs as diverse as Moderne Schwabacher, a turn-of-the-century blackletter; Salut, an upright script first cast by Gebr. Klingspor in the 1930s; and Checkmate, a futuristic sans with chamfered corners, dreamt up at Schaedler in the 1970s – all of which were either used still as phototype, or in the form of early digitizations.

For the year 1990, all abbreviated month names are shown in vertically stretched letterforms. The source of the stacked numerals (“90”) was identified by Quinn as City Bold, see comments. The bitmap caps (“D/A”) are likely custom. While the spelled-out month names and the ticket numbers are similar to OCR-B, the specific font appears to be a proprietary design with some differences, probably from a specialized printing machine.

The Metra logo seen on the depicted train as well as on some of the tickets is Crillee. See also the dedicated post about it.

March 1990 ft. Macbeth

April 1990 ft. City Bold

May 1990 ft. Checkmate

June 1990 ft. Roberta

July 1990 ft. what appears to be a version of Filmotype Amber (or a similar face)

August 1990 ft. Salut

September 1990 ft. Moderne Schwabacher a.k.a. Chalet Text

October 1990 ft. Clarendon Condensed

November 1990 ft. Beton Bold Condensed

January 1991 ft. ITC Quorum Bold

February 1991 ft. ITC Kabel Ultra

March 1991 ft. ITC Serif Gothic Heavy with the pointed forms for M and A that were omitted from the digital version. “March 1991” uses ITC Korinna and Times New Roman.

April 1991 ft. a bold variant of Plantin

May 1991 ft. a bold variant of Albertus

June 1991 ft. Caxton Bold

July 1991 ft. Optima Bold

August ft. ITC Cheltenham Bold

September 1991 ft. ITC Zapf Chancery Bold with the alternate swash caps

October 1991 ft. a bold variant of Century Oldstyle

November 1991 ft. Romic (Letraset) Bold

December 1991 ft. ITC Berkeley Oldstyle

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

Metra logo and timetables

Florian Hardwig — Sun, 17 Sep 2023 14:13:57 +0000

Contributed by Florian Hardwig

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by Tripp. License: CC BY.

The Metra logo on the METX 193, 2005

The Metra logo uses Crillee, an italic-only typeface designed by Dick Jones and issued by Letraset in 1980.

Metra is the commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area serving the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. From Metra:

Due to the complicated and patchwork nature of commuter rail at the time, the [Commuter Rail Division] in 1985 came up with the “Metra” name as a service mark for the entire system (short for “Metropolitan Rail”). The idea was to bring a unifying identity to all the various components, no matter who owned or operated them.

The wordmark has the lowercase glyphs raised and aligned to the cap line. The space underneath is filled by two underlines, the lower one extending from the M, with bracketed endings echoing Crillee’s baseline terminals. Introduced in 1985, it was implemented on trains already in 1986. Usually seen in white on blue, it is still in use to this day.

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by Chris Phan. License: CC BY.

The Metra logo on a train, spotted in Westmont in 2009

The Metra wordmark with the slogan “The way to really fly”

In the early years, the full name “Metropolitan Rail” was spelled out underneath the wordmark, in Helvetica Bold Italic. The same typeface was used for the slogan “The way to really fly”, introduced in 1986.

Timetables from the 1980s and 1990s feature text in various weights from Eurostile, with upright Helvetica for labels, see below. Jim Ellwanger (trainman) shows many more timetables in his Flickr collection.

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by Jim Ellwanger. License: CC BY-NC.

Metra time table for Chicago to Joliet, Rock Island District, December 21, 1987

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by Jim Ellwanger. License: CC BY-NC.

Metra time table for Chicago to Elgin, Milwaukee District/West Line, April 17, 1989

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by *Hajee. License: CC BY-NC-ND.

The Metra logo in big and small, on an EMD SW1500 in Libertyville, 2018

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by conatz. License: CC BY.

Metra train crossing defunct Hermosa station, Chicago, IL (2017)

A color variation in blue on yellow, 2012

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by Kevin Zolkiewicz. License: CC BY-NC.

Metra trains as seen from the green roof of CTA headquarters, 2011

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

Nightshift – “Kivullisii” (feat. Dreas, Ibe, Pyhimys)

Julian Grönberg — Sat, 24 Apr 2021 05:09:35 +0000

Contributed by Julian Grönberg

Photo: Julian Grönberg. License: All Rights Reserved.

Cover and concept design for “Kivullisii”, by the Finnish producer duo Nightshift. The texts for the artwork and the credits in the music video are set in Serifbabe, a typeface representing perfectly an immediate nightmare feeling with its sharp endings.

The idea behind the branding of this duo is a refermentation to a sort of a night squad, who can be seen as ambulance, security, police or any other supportive grouping for the performers during their shifts in the night. Crillee was the perfect face to find the line between a typical ambulance typeface and a hip-hop producer duo.

The first single is mainly about “What if nothing changes?” in our current life, especially with the case of global warming like the globe on fire by the end of the video.

The first character is trapped in a dream, where he sends us to two other characters representing different problems in our society. The red tall person who looks like scrarecrow messes with our beautiful and stunning nature. So he is punished to the tree of life for being reckless and mean.

“Trapped in the roots, figuratively showing that even if we all grow out of the earth, our roots dictate that many of us have to fight our way in this world. We’re afraid to get stuck in the hamster wheel, to repeat what our roots dictate us to do - ending up not living a life that is unique and fulfilling. Sometimes, roots need to be pulled out and planted into fresh earth to be able to grow and prosper.”

The third character is a person who just wants to isolate himself because he is afraid and tired of all the things happening outside. He feels most comfortable in his summer cottage, a place usually known for enjoyment and recharging from the daily life. In his case he displays the flipside of this beautiful ideal.

℗ & © 2021 Def Jam Recordings / Universal Music Finland

Photo: Julian Grönberg. License: All Rights Reserved.

Photo: Julian Grönberg. License: All Rights Reserved.

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

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

Clip Books of Line Art, Volk (1984)

Sun, 20 Sep 2020 19:41:00 +0000

Photo(s) by Bart Solenthaler on Flickr.

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by Bart Solenthaler and tagged with “frankfurter”. License: All Rights Reserved.

“Service” (No. 8416) ft. Frankfurter (Letraset, 1970) served on a platter.

Covers for various clip books of line art issued in 1984 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. 1984 saw the introduction of the Apple Macintosh personal computer. The era of clip art booklets was about to end, and Volk to go out of business after three decades. These booklets might have been the last ones to be issued.

As in previous volumes, almost every booklet’s cover features a different display typeface. In this one, all shown titles are set in all caps. “A Clip Book of Line Art” is in light caps from Kabel.

“Children” (No. 8401) ft. stacked and tilted lowercase letters from Kabel Light, with a capital L for balance.

“Spring” (No. 8404) ft. ITC Korinna (1974) with florettes as middle dots.

“Western” (No. 8406) ft. a version of Mansard, possibly Letraset’s Rodeo.

“Outdoors” (No. 8409) ft. Compacta Black (1976).

“Summer” (No. 8410) ft. Rock Opera.

“Holidays” (No. 8411) ft. Frankfurter Highlight.

“Couples” (No. 8413) ft. ITC Zapf Book (1976).

“Tourism” (No. 8414) ft. ITC Uptight Neon (1970).

“Entertainment” (No. 8417) ft. more ITC Uptight Neon.

“Health Care” (No. 8418) ft. Times New Roman.

“Gimmicks” (No. 8419) ft. Quicksilver (Letraset, 1976).

“Office” (No. 8420) ft. all-caps Crillee Extra Bold Italic (Letraset, 1981).

“Do-It-Yourself” (No. 8422) ft. Windsor Elongated.

“Cora Zilch II” (No. 8424) ft. Sintex.

“Sports” (No. 8426) ft. Windsor.

“Ad Starters” (No. 8427) ft. Hobo.

“Energy” (No. 8428) ft. more all-caps ITC Uptight Neon.

“Christmas” (No. 8429) ft. Knightsbridge, a lesser known stand-alone bold italic style from Letraset.

“Anniversary” (No. 8431) ft. condensed caps from Goudy Heavyface.

“Autos” (No. 8432) ft. a vintage car contrasted with Othmar Motter’s futuristic Motter Ombra (1974).

“Executives” (No. 8433) ft. more Compacta Black.

“Senior Citizens” (No. 8434) ft. more Knightsbridge caps.

“Winter” (No. 8435) ft. Igloo, a snow-capped bold grotesque similar to Norton Frosted.

“Family” (No. 8437) with more Frankfurter, echoing the similar letterforms used in the Volk logo, which was designed by Herb Lubalin in 1977.

“Contests” (No. 8439) ft. all-caps Benguiat Caslon (1965) with swashes.

“Expressions” (No. 8440) with more Windsor Elongated.

“Education” (No. 8441) ft. more Crillee.

Money (No. 8442) ft. Bond Shaded.

“Holidays” (No. 8443) ft. ITC Busorama (1970) with each glyph shown reversed in a box, on a bouncing baseline.

“Leadership” (No. 8444) is yet another issue from this year with Windsor Elongated on the cover.

“Homemaker” (No. 8445) ft. Cooper Black.

“Computers” (No. 8448) ft. more Compacta Black.

“Circus-Fair” (No. 8501 ft. Abbey Scroll. This cover switches to Helvetica as the secondary typeface.

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

Spritkönig, Graz

Sun, 12 Jul 2020 08:46:41 +0000

Crillee in use for Spritkönig (“Fuel King”), a chain of service stations in Austria. From the series Middenstandsroyalty (“Middle-class royalty”) by Dutch Flickr user Maurits van den Toorn.

Crillee is an italic-only typeface originally designed by Dick Jones for Letraset in 1980. In the following years, it was subsequently expanded to five styles. There are digital versions available from ITC (four styles, lacking the Light) and Scangraphic (four styles, lacking the Inline Shadow).

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

The True Story of Megaverb

Rob Stenson — Fri, 03 May 2019 19:16:28 +0000

A promotional video for Megaverb, a digital reverb plugin based on “bad” digital reverb sounds from the 1980s and 1990s. Watch the full video here:

You can read more about the process of the video on goodhertz.co.

Two of the typeface selections made for the video were inspired directly by posts here on Fonts in Use. The pixellated Motter Tektura (Othmar Motter, 1974) was inspired by the 1985 game Paradroid, and the captions were set in Crillee (Dick Jones, 1980) after some browsing-by-year, which led to the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” closing credits.

Italics from Computer Modern Serif (Donald Knuth, ca. 1985)

Eskapade Fraktur (Alisa Nowak, 2012)

Forma DJR (David Jonathan Ross, 2016; originally by Nebiolo, 1968) in all caps, with outline effects and the alternate forms for G and R (not pictured in this image).

Rage Italic (Ron Zwingelberg, 1984) in pink. Captions throughout the video are set in Crillee (1980).

More Rage Italic, mixed with Senator (Zuzana Licko, 1988).

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

Real City Heroes (RCH)

Aidan Nester — Sat, 29 Sep 2018 19:56:47 +0000

Title card from episode 1, “George the Garbage Truck”.

Real City Heroes is a series of animated educational videos produced by Coilbook:

RCH is all about our city heroes – policemen, firemen, ambulance crew and even a garbage truck.

The main logo combines Niagara (in Solid and Engraved styles; Tobias Frere-Jones, 1994) and Colonna (Monotype, 1926). Both font families come bundled with MS Office and other Microsoft products. Some titles and graphics in the animations also use other fonts.

Ross’s nameplate uses a Bold style of the Copperplate Gothic typeface.

The Fire & Rescue logo uses an Arial typeface.

The Real City Heroes: Water Rescue logo uses a Crillee typeface.

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

Star Trek: The Next Generation titles

B.J. Winzer — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 16:23:24 +0000

Star Trek: The Next Generation ran from 1987 through 1994. The credits were rendered in Crillee for the entirety of its run.

Pica Pic website

Nick Sherman — Fri, 13 Dec 2013 22:55:56 +0000

Pica Pic is an online collection of handheld electronic games. The choice of Crillee seems particularly appropriate, given the era and branding of the devices that are being emulated.

Palomino Blackwing pencils and packaging

Stephen Coles — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 06:59:21 +0000

“Some of the world’s most legendary Grammy, Emmy, Pulitzer and Academy Award winners have created with Blackwing pencils. The list of known users includes John Steinbeck, Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein and Chuck Jones.” — Pencils.com

“Ideal for illustrators and musicians who prefer a soft, dark line, the Palomino Blackwing was launched in October 2010 as a modern version of the iconic Eberhard Faber Blackwing 602 pencil.” — Palomino

Source: palominobrands.com License: All Rights Reserved.

License: All Rights Reserved.

License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: palominobrands.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: palominobrands.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: palominobrands.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: palominobrands.com License: All Rights Reserved.

License: All Rights Reserved.

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use