Radiohead at C.W. Mitchell Pavilion concert poster

Florian Hardwig — Thu, 05 May 2022 04:56:02 +0000

On 18 June 2001, Radiohead played the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands, Texas. Houston-based artist Jermaine Rogers designed a triptych poster for it, featuring his Dero character. It’s a rare example for a poster to include instructions for how to view it:

Directions for use: LEFT IMAGE to be viewed while listening to AMNESIAC – track 2. CENTER IMAGE to be viewed while listening to KID A – track 1. RIGHT IMAGE to be viewed while listening to THE BENDS – track 9.

For the display typography, Rogers took Dignity Of Labour, “an over-the-top parody of computer-oriented typefaces of the late 1960s” drawn by Ray Larabie of Typodermic in 1999, and made it wider by means of stretching. The poster measuring 36″×24″ was printed in a limited edition of 225 copies, and has become a sought-after collector’s item.

It caught the eye of type designer Nick Curtis, who found inspiration in “this tight, trippy techno face”, assuming it was custom lettering by Rogers. Only later did he realize his Funky Rundkopf NF is in fact an interpretation of an existing typeface. When Curtis released the font in 2008, he made sure to include credits for both Larabie and Rogers.

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

Comparison of Dignity Of Labour (top) and Funky Rundkopf NF (bottom)

Detail. Instructions are set in Impact.

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

Dignity Of Labour in use

Radiohead at C.W. Mitchell Pavilion concert poster