This would have been a classic Lisp text in the 1990s and while it seems to be quite well regarded, it doesn’t seen to be well known or available. A scan recently became available on archive.org.

A grey cover with the left-aligned title and author list in two weights of Eras. It is not a coincidence that the cover is reminiscent of another Lisp book I’ve put on Fonts In Use, it’s the same publisher and cover designer. This time the designer David Ford avoids the “weird typeface pairing” prize (see comment by Mark Simonson) by sticking to just one typeface.

The authors were staffers at Lucid Inc. which was one of the major Lisp players of the time; the company went bankrupt in 1994 largely as a result of the AI Winter.

Thanks to Paolo Amoroso on the fediverse for a pointer to the online version.

No More Jinx (Chrysalis Records, 1986) [More info on Discogs]

From Billboard magazine (June 28, 1986, p. 18):

Chicago-based band Wild Blue is playing Midwest dates through July supporting its Chrysalis debut album, “No More Jinx.” The album’s first single, “Fire With Fire,” is also the theme song for the Paramount Pictures' movie of the same name.

From Billboard magazine (July 19, 1986, p. N-5)

Noting that Chrysalis spent the first half of of 1986 developing bands like Icehouse, the Art of Noise, and Wild Blue, [Fran] Musso says, “It might take longer to break new acts, but I think labels are still definitely open to getting new talent across.”

Unfortunately for Wild Blue, their brush with a national audience did not last much beyond 1986. However, this brief foray with major label exposure did provide us with examples of Photoscript’s France in use as their band logo.

Art direction and design for the No More Jinx album is credited to Ria Lewerke. No design credits are given on the “Fire With Fire” single.

Close-up of band logo from their album's record sleeve.

“Fire With Fire” single. (Chrysalis Records, 1986) [More info on Discogs] The other fonts present beside France, from top to bottom, are Friz Quadrata, Eras, and Futura.

I was prompted into finishing this post which has been long-sitting in my drafts by Paolo Amoroso’s reminder that Common Lisp: the Language was published 40 years ago. Common Lisp is a programming language and was an attempt to synthesize out of the many similar-but-not-compatible languages in the Lisp family a ‘common’ Lisp which would help programmers, vendors, suppliers, textbook writers, and so on.

Affectionately known as CLtL (the 2nd edition being known as CLtL2), Guy L. Steele’s comprehensive work was a standard reference for Lisp programmers and helped organize the multi-year effort to make Common Lisp a standard. Some of the languages on which Common Lisp was built and drew (variously known as Lisps or Lisp-like languages) are featured on the cover of CLtL in Windsor’s Outline style. Common Lisp as a language was successful to the extent that of those, only Scheme and Common Lisp survive today in any recognisable form.

The first edition cover is entirely typographic, using Eras for author (in white) and the title (in teal and white), with “COMMON” being made large, and “LISP” very large. All on a silver background. The book design is credited to David Ford.

The second edition replaces teal with red, and silver with pale-cyan. Gone are the other Lisp-like languages (not just a whimsical design choice, by 1990 when the 2nd edition was published, Common Lisp had essentially won: every major Lisp vendor had or claimed to have an implementation of Common Lisp). The new graphic is an illustration by the author of the mathematical function (z-1)/(z+1) in the complex plane. There are similar graphics of several functions in the Numbers chapter. The graphics are all produced directly from PostScript programs and incorporated directly into the digitally produced camera ready copy (from the Colophon); the PostScript programs themselves are generated by a Common Lisp program which is listed in the book.

The colophon of the second edition also goes to some lengths to document the tweaks made to Letter Gothic, used for displaying code: the accents grave, acute, circumflex, and tilde have been borrowed from a larger font-size and shifted; /hyphen and /equal have been replaced or redrawn; and in #, /numbersign, the gap has been eliminated. The programming language Common Lisp has a fairly high frequency of such characters, and some of them can be seen in the program fragment.

The colophon also attests to the second edition being printed on a Linotron 300 (but sadly, not who designed the covers).

Detail of interior page showing a fragment of the Common Lisp program used to generate the PostScript program used to generate the diagrams (as seen on cover).

This pack of baking soda as sold in Russia and previously in the USSR has a recognizable design and is considered just as iconic as the packaging designs for salt, sugar and Indian tea. The manufacturer is the Bashkir Soda Company, located in the city of Sterlitamak in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russian Federation. Today T-shirts and various other items not related to the food industry are being produced with a similar design. The product is still being sold with minor changes to the packaging design.

There are three main types of design: the one used during Soviet times, a Russian one, and a more recent redesign. In the USSR design, the product name “СОДА” is in a Cyrillic version of a French Clarendon. Italiennes Étroites comes close in terms of proportions and the low bar in A. It’s unclear if this is lettering or a typeface. The text “натрий двууглекислый” (“sodium bicarbonate”) is written in the typeface Zhurnalnaya Roublennaya, which is a Cyrillic extension of Erbar-Grotesk.

Already in the 1990s – after the collapse of the USSR – the package was redesigned. The product name “Сода Пищевая” (“baking soda”) now is shown in Erika, a Cyrillic version of Eras. Secondary text is in Arial and sometimes in Akzidenz-Grotesk Condensed Bold [edit: or rather Hermes (PT), see comments].

The USSR package from 1980 (left) compared to the redesigned one from 2018 (right)

Preston Farmers / 75 Years / Service to the farmer / 1911–1986

A mug that my brother-in-law served me coffee in. Made in 1986 to commemorate 75 years of Preston Farmers (probably Preston Farmers Ltd, an agricultural cooperative; more at MERL). I initially thought that “75 YEARS” was Scanner, but it turns out to be Eras with a Scanner-like treatment. Eras also used for “Service to the farmer”. The remaining text is Rockwell.

No idea where Kinross Mill is, or what its significance is.

The mug itself was presumably 37 when I took the picture in 2023; if it lasts as long again, it will deserve its own commemoration.

Kinross Mill

Mug of foamy coffee

A mid 1990s print advertisement for Coca-Cola, known at the time as Coca-Cola Classic:

oh my goodness!
you should’ve seen this one…
TALL, dark and
cooler than cool
I Had To Pick It UP.

The typography uses no less than five (or seven, if one takes weights into consideration) fonts: Eras (in 2 weights) for “Oh my goodness!”, Commercial Script for “you should've seen this one…” and – with tracking – for “and”, Industria for “Tall”, Futura Extra Bold for “dark”, and ITC Kabel for the last two lines; “cooler than cool” uses the Ultra style, whilst “I had to pick it up” uses the Bold style. In addition, “Always” in the slogan “Always Coca-Cola” at the top uses Compacta, and the small print at the bottom is set in Helvetica.

New English Library’s 1984 paperback edition of Gregory Benford’s follow-up to his Jupiter Project, first published in 1983 in Amazing Science Fiction, here with cover art by Chris Moore.

The title uses caps from Advertisers Gothic, designed by Robert Wiebking in 1917 for Western Type Foundry, featuring the symmetrical A. The author’s name above is added in a light weight that wasn’t part of the original foundry series. It’s shown in Phil’s Photo’s catalog from 1980, without credits, and was used already in 1975, for the Mahogany movie poster. (Phil Martin’s Legothic is another phototype adaptation that extends Wiebking’s design to several weights – but that’s not what’s used on this cover.)

There are numerous digitizations of Advertisers Gothic, including one of the Light, by Monotype (inaccurately crediting Wiebking). Nick Curtis made an even thinner monolinear variation, known as both Stringline Gothic and Perisphere. Quite recently, Jamie Chang of Manic Type launched a new interpretation. It’s named AdGothic and comes in variable font format with a width axis, or four static widths – but no light weight.

The blurb is added in two weights of Eras.

[More info on ISFDB]

From Wikipedia:

Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s Super Off Road is an arcade video game released in 1989 by Leland Corporation. The game was designed and managed by John Morgan who was also lead programmer, and endorsed by professional off-road racer Ivan Stewart.

The arcade features racing action for three players, with full-sized steering wheels. Shatter was apparently chosen to visualize the vibrations one experiences during dirt track racing. See also the Death Riders movie poster and the Brother Moto Flat-Trackin’ Tee for other motorsport-related uses of the classic Letraset face by Vic Carless.

Title screen in Shatter. “Ironman” is added in City Bold, “Super” (inside the O) in Eurostile Bold Extended.

Flyer for Super Off Road. Stewart’s name uses City. “Do It In The Dirt—The IRONMAN Way!” is in contoured Eras.

Source: goo.gl Google Street View. License: All Rights Reserved.

An LTypI with a twist, spotted by Jan Middendorp: Esra is a halal restaurant in Ghent, Belgium, offering kebab, burgers, falafel, fries and other snacks. Their logo uses Eras. The sign with the shiny lowercase letters was installed sometime before July 2009.

Posted as part of a series that pays tribute to Albert Boton, one of the preeminent French type designers of the past sixty years. Albert Boton died on July 20, 2023, at the age of 91.

Source: www.google.com Dae Jin Buelens. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.google.com Muneeb Khalid. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.google.com David Gillingham. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.google.com Jeroen Gude. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.google.com Mahmoud Khammash. License: All Rights Reserved.

First edition of the first book in the Omega Point trilogy by George Zebrowski (b. 1945), published in 1977 as a prequel to The Omega Point (1972). The cover art for Ashes & Stars is by Bob Pepper.

For the title and also for the date on the back (“A.D. 6599”), the uncredited typographer went with the heaviest weight of Eras. This early design of Albert Boton’s was started around 1958 at Hollenstein, initially in a single light style without lowercase. The Ultra was released as part of ITC’s expanded version of Eras from 1976, which comprised six weights plus Outline and Contour styles.

[More info on ISFDB]

Posted as part of a series that pays tribute to Albert Boton, one of the preeminent French type designers of the past sixty years. Albert Boton died on July 20, 2023, at the age of 91.

My Way is a 1969 album from singer Frank Sinatra, released on his Reprise Records label.

The artist and album title appear on the front cover in the book weight of Eras, in all-caps at a large size, with a very tight letterspacing such that many letters touch. The "Arranged and Conducted by Don Costa" text and song titles are set in all-caps Optima.

On the back cover, the artist and album title, track list, and liner notes are all Optima, with Univers for the small credits at the bottom. Art direction and photography by Ed Thrasher.

[More info on Discogs]

The back cover

Original album cover

Bananaphone is an album by Canadian children’s singer Raffi, released in September 1994.

“Bananaphone” is set in a modified version of Remedy Single. “RAFFI” is set in ITC Kabel Demi. The track listing uses different weights of the aforementioned two fonts, i.e. Remedy Double and ITC Kabel Medium.

On some reissues, “RAFFI” is in Eras Demi instead of ITC Kabel. This only applies to the front cover.

Art direction by Kiki Kambylis, The Design Works, with photography by Colin Goldie, GM Studios.

[More info on Discogs]

For comparison: “Bananaphone” in unmodified Remedy Single. The letter p is a capital P, lowered and rotated. The letter e lost its decorative dots and the smudge on the crossbar.

Track listing

CD label

1995 reissue with the Eras font

Division Leap, a dealer specializing in counterculture books, periodicals, and ephemera, just listed this item:

Austin: Austin Vanguard, [1977]. 4to, tabloid format, single sheet of newsprint folded once; offset printed in two colors.

The first and only issue of one of the first, if not the first, punk fanzine published in the state of Texas. No attribution is given, but the zine is believed to be the work of Nick West, who would go on to edit Sluggo, one of the greatest art zines of the late 70's. The phrase “Someday All the Adults Will Die” emblazoned on the cover summed up many of the beautiful contradictions of early American punk.

The logo uses Eras, commonly seen in the 1970s, particularly after its release by ITC in 1976. The rest of the text, however, is set in a much less common typeface from the 1930s. Stop is an early emulation of dry brush lettering as metal type. It seems unlikely the Austin Vanguard originated on letterpress, so it’s possible the designers found Stop as transfer lettering or phototype.

Dust jacket designed by Teresa Bonner for the 1989 William Morrow first edition of the science fiction novel Total Recall by Piers Anthony. Jacket illustration by John Berkley. The book is actually a novelization based upon the screenplay of the 1990 science fiction film of the same name, which in turn was adapted from the novelette We Can Remember It for You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick, first published in 1966. It is the only current example of a story by Dick being adapted into a film and then back into a novel.

The front panel, front flap and spine of the jacket features text set in Novel Gothic, with the novel's title and author's name in outline. Additional text on the front and back flaps, as well as the back panel, is set in Schadow. The interior title page features text set in ITC Eras, which is also used for the silver lettering along the blue cloth spine of the hardcover.

The cassette inlay of Andrew Braybrook’s Commodore 64 game Paradroid as published by Hewson Consultants.

From the top line in Eras Bold to the title’s wonderfully retro Data 70, from the cheesy Stop of the company name to the sober Helvetica for the instructions, this little artifact oozes “eighties” like the best of the crop.

The choice of typeface for the Paradroid title is reflected in the game as well, augmented by another famous and meticulously pixeled typeface, Motter Tektura.

Cassette inlay of the Commodore 64 release published in 1985.

Gradius logo using Langdon Biform with modified G and S and also using 1 for the I letter.

From Wikipedia:

Gradius (グラディウス, Guradiusu, /ˈɡræd.i.əs/ GRAD-ee-əss) is a series of shooter video games, introduced in 1985, developed and published by Konami for a variety of portable, console and arcade platforms. In many games in the series, the player controls a ship known as the Vic Viper.

The arcade version of Gradius was released internationally outside Japan under the title of Nemesis, although subsequent home releases have the original title. There's also a series called Salamander (Life Force), which is considered as a part of Gradius series, but with slight different game mechanics, such as switching between Side Scroller and Vertical Scroller.

There’s a fanmade font named Gradius that’s based on the logo itself. But the actual logo used Langdon Biform, with modified G and S and also using 1 for the I letter.

“Destroy the Core!” is the most memorable quotes when player facing the boss battle of the games.

Gradius packaging design for Nintendo Entertainment System. Most text is set in Eras.

Flyer for the arcade version of Gradius which was released outside Japan under the title of Nemesis.

Box cover for Gradius Collection (or Gradius Portable in Japan) for PlayStation Portable, which is a collection of several series of the games. The fonts featured on the box include Handel Gothic (“20 years of intense shooting action”), Serpentine (“5 complete games”), Digital (ICG), and Helvetica Condensed.

Start screen of Gradius Portable, known outside of Japan as Gradius Collection

Cover of the manual for Gradius V for PlayStation 2 (2004)

CD cover for the soundtrack to the latest instalment of the series, Gradius: The Slot (2011), made for Japanese Pachinko machines

Front

The front cover of Triple Challenge, an Intellivision game released in 1986 that comes with three games: Tournament Chess, Backgammon, and Checkers. The typeface used here is Broken English, which had been released by Chartpak the same year. Designed by Steven Fabian, it came in three weights.

The text on the back of the box is set in Eras. The Intellivision logo is based on Peignot, see this dedicated post. It’s here accompanied by light Helvetica with a glow effect.

See INTV Funhouse and Launchbox for more info and images.

Back

Space Jazz is an album of music composed by Scientology leader L. Ron Hubbard as a soundtrack to his science fiction novel Battlefield Earth. Performed by a band featuring prominent Scientologist and jazz fusion pioneer Chick Corea on several tracks.
This cover features a design template similar to the 1982 edition of the book (featured on the cover) which has a cover illustration by Paul Stinson.

[More info on Discogs]

In 1984, the album was re-issued as Battlefield Earth, now directly referencing the book’s title. Cover art by Gerry Grace.

West German packaging design for ZAK nylon plugs. The logotype uses Frankfurter, text is set in ITC Eras Book and Bold.

Arcade marquee

Q*bert is a classic arcade game. First published by Gottlieb in 1982, it has been ported to numerous platforms. The logo uses Cooper Black in yellow letters with a red outline, set on a bouncing baseline. The Q has been customized – by default, this letter has a rather peculiar form in Cooper Black. The asterisk (*) is taken from ITC Zapf Dingbats. It has later been assigned a dedicated Unicode, as Teardrop-Spoked Asterisk (✻). The Gottlieb logo appears to be custom, with similarities to Handel Gothic.

Cabinet

Control panel

“Q*bert Qollects Quarters!” ad. The copy is set in ITC Souvenir.

Game flyer, featuring more Cooper Black and ITC Souvenir. The small print uses another ITC face, Eras.

Manual cover. The orange type is in Futura Extra Bold Condensed. The smaller type is ITC Avant Garde Gothic.