Style frames from the Criterion Channel’s 2025 Miami Neo Noir film collection. The collection featured the films Body Heat, Out of Sight, Miami Blues, Wild Things, Bully, China Moon, and Miami Vice.

Each month the Criterion Channel releases a handful of curated collections. Each collection getting some stylized typographic treatments used for a teaser trailer and style frames (thumbnails) for the collection as a whole plus a few select films within the collection.

The Miami Neo Noir collection is styled with the look of glowing neon signage paired with a thick, angular script and a quirky, geometric sans-serif.

The featured, glowing pink neon-like font is Piccadilly, from ITC, originally a typeface drawn for Letraset in 1973. It’s a neon-like rendition of Broadway, which features in the Miami Vice logo.

The accompanying script is Agneya from Seventh Imperium.

And the sans-serif type used to list films in the collection on the main title image and the director’s names on the individual film images is ITC Kabel.

In March 1996 TassinariVetta took over the art direction of Casabella, the historic architectural review founded in 1928. From that moment on the magazine has become part of the everyday life of the studio, where it is designed month after month.

Aiming to go beyond the traditional concept of ‘typographic architecture’ – which sees graphic arts subject to the universal compositional rules expressed in architecture – and to offer a new perspective on the world of letters, the 2024-25 cover design sets editorial objectives ahead of graphic ones.

Taking advantage of the constraints inherent in monthly publication in sectoralization and serialization, and enhancing repetitive elements—the masthead, headlines, but above all the sequential number—the project brings editorial content to the cover through the choice of the font used to compose the number, its graphic interpretation, and the explanatory note published on the inside pages, which is an integral part of the project itself.

Faithful to the magazine tradition, issue after issue, the choice of lettering or typeface moves through the 20th century between avant-garde and modernism, with forays into adjacent spaces suggested by unlikely discards or ambiguous analogies, while exploring the development of the industrial means underlying mechanical writing.

With philological respect—using fonts available under license, photographic reproductions of original specimens, or vector redrawing, as appropriate—and with the calibrated use of a color palette consistent with the magazine visual history, the graphic interpretation ultimately aims to bring the historical artifact into the present, contextualizing it in a contemporary and accessible language.

no. 976 – Lettering for the Tomba Veritti (Udine, Italy), Carlo Scarpa, 1951

no. 975 – Univers, Adrian Frutiger, Deberny & Peignot, 1957

no. 974 – Prisma, Rudolf Koch, Klingspor, 1930

no. 973 – LL Le Corbusier, Nico Schweizer (da Le Corbusier), Lineto, 1999

no. 971-972 – Memphis, Rudolf Wolf, Stempel AG, 1929

no. 970 – Ingenieur, Wim Crouwel, 1964, The Foundry Types, 2012

no. 969 – bayer-type, Hebert Bayer, Berthold, 1931

no. 968 – Mexico 68, Lance Wyman, 1966–68

no. 967 – Our Bodoni, Massimo Vignelli, Tom Carnase, WTC (World Typeface Center), 1989

no. 965-966 – Futura Black / Paul Renner / Bauer, 1929

no. 963 – Fat Face, Herb Lubalin, Tom Carnase, ITC International Typeface Corporation, 1970

no. 962 – Kabel, Rudolf Koch, Klingspor, 1927

no. 961 – Stop, Aldo Novarese, Nebiolo, 1970

no 959-960 – New Alphabet, Wim Crouwel, 1967

no. 958 – Frankfurter, Bob Newman, Letraset, 1970

no. 957 – Universal, Herbert Bayer, 1925

no. 956 – Oakland, Zuzana Licko, Emigre, 1985

no. 955 – Aldina (Aldino), Nebiolo, redesign Adalberto Libera, 1938

no. 954 – Kombinationsschrift, Josef Albers, 1926–28

no. 953 – Bifur, A.M. Cassandre, Deberny & Peignot, 1929

Margaret Whiting’s Moonlight on Vermont is a jazz CD released in 2000 by ASV, under the company’s Living Era label. The compilation contains 25 different jazz songs performed by Margaret Whiting (1924–2011), a vocalist active during the 50s and 60s.

All-caps Compacta is used alongside Pritchard for the subtitle. The Living Era logo is set in Roco with a custom RA ligature. All three faces were released by Letraset. The back also features ITC Kabel and Univers for the body text. (The ASV logo is based on Stop.)

[More info on Discogs]

Front cover, showing Modula Serif, Oakland 6 (now called Lo-Res 9 Wide Alternate), and Memphis.

MegaTech was a UK video game magazine dedicated to the Sega Mega Drive ("Sega Genesis" in North America), which was published from December 1991 to July 1995. The first issue was edited by Paul Glancey, with Jeff Zie as art editor. Glancey and Zie had previously produced The Complete Guide to Mega Drive.

The logo uses Modula Serif, which is also used elsewhere on the cover and for some of the interior text. (This logo was retained until issue 17, when a new logo was adopted.) Oakland and Oblong also form part of the magazine's identity. All three of these fonts were designed by Zuzana Licko.

Text fonts include Memphis, Helvetica, ITC Kabel, and Century Expanded. An unidentified Japanese font is used on the cover for the word メガテケ (Megateke).

For more information about MegaTech, see "The MegaTech story" at Forgotten Worlds.

Page 3, showing Modula Serif, Oakland 6, and Memphis.

Page 12, showing Modula Serif, Oblong (in the “Hyper Hyper” badge), Oakland 6, and Helvetica Bold.

Page 15, showing Modula Serif, Oakland 6, Oakland 10, Oblong and Memphis.

Page 17, showing Modula Serif and ITC Kabel.

Page 20, showing Modula Serif, Oakland 6, and Century Expanded.

The logo of Fargus Multimedia (Фаргус Мультимедия) as seen on their game covers uses ITC Kabel Ultra with stretched proportions.

From Wikipedia (translated from the Russian):

Fargus Multimedia was a localizer and publisher of illegal copies and derivatives of computer games, distributing its products in Russia and the CIS countries in 1996–2005, one of the largest pirate groups in Russia. Translations were carried out mainly by employees who were fond of computer games, working both on a paid and unpaid basis. It was liquidated as a legal entity in 2011. It became famous among the masses for the largest “pirated” circulation of licensed digital material ever released on compact discs. The company’s mottos: “Only complete and high-quality translation”, “Completely in Russian”.

First edition on Polydor Medium, front cover, using Kabel Black

Earth and Fire's eponymous debut album released in September 1970, with a cover design by Ron Seubert.

A few releases have a gimmick release in that it opens up like a matchbox: the photo part opens upwards, the bottom flap downwards. The inner sleeve has a print of a set of matches. Just a few international releases and a 2012 reissue on the Music On Vinyl label (images below are from this issue) use the matchbox gimmick cover. The artwork is used on other releases, but just on a regular cardboard sleeve.

The original versions use Kabel Black in lowercase letters for the band name on the front cover and the inside. Later versions used ITC Kabel (1975).

External links: MusicBrainz release group, Discogs master release, Earth and Fire website.

Another release uses a Roger Dean cover with a different font, Old English.

First edition, inside, using Kabel Black and Helvetica

Later edition by Music on Vinyl, front cover, using ITC Kabel

Later edition, inside with inner sleeve, using ITC Kabel.

Later edition, inside without inner sleeve, using ITC Kabel.

Armchair Fiction’s book series Horror Gems (2011–2020) comprises eighteen volumes presenting reprints of stories from authors like Paul Ernst, Robert Bloch, and others.

“Horror Gems” is set in Patrick Broderick's Zombie, a scrawled freebie interpretation of Rudolf Koch’s Neuland. The volume number is indicated using a digital version of Norton Mr. Bones, probably David Rakowski’s Headhunter (which was reinterpreted and expanded in 2019 as Headhunter Two). Other fonts in use include Futura, ITC Kabel Ultra, the macabre Demon Night, and Bank Gothic.

The back covers pair Demon Night with a changing choice of fonts for headlines, using for example Gill Sans Bold Extra Condensed, Shlop or Bernard Condensed. The spine lettering is in Shouldve Known.

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

January 1990, ft. an unidentified rounded sans

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

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.

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

March 1990 ft. Macbeth

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

April 1990 ft. City Bold

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

May 1990 ft. Checkmate

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

June 1990 ft. Roberta

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

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

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

August 1990 ft. Salut

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

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

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

October 1990 ft. Clarendon Condensed

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

November 1990 ft. Beton Bold Condensed

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

January 1991 ft. ITC Quorum Bold

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

February 1991 ft. ITC Kabel Ultra

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

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.

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

April 1991 ft. a bold variant of Plantin

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

May 1991 ft. a bold variant of Albertus

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

June 1991 ft. Caxton Bold

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

July 1991 ft. Optima Bold

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

August ft. ITC Cheltenham Bold

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

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

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

October 1991 ft. a bold variant of Century Oldstyle

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

November 1991 ft. Romic (Letraset) Bold

Source: www.c82.net C82 / Nicholas Rougeux. License: All Rights Reserved.

December 1991 ft. ITC Berkeley Oldstyle

Source: www.abebooks.com Space Age Books. License: All Rights Reserved.

Melancholy Elephants is a collection of fourteen stories from Hugo Award-winning author Spider Robinson (b. 1948), opening with the eponymous one from 1982. First published in hardback by Penguin Canada in 1984, this is the first paperback edition, issued in 1985 by Tor Books, New York, with cover art by Jill Bauman.

Ryter is a typeface family released by VGC around 1974. Its designer is unknown to me. Ryter came with a bucketload of alternates, and the uncredited cover designer employed several of them, like the flat-roofed M, the L without top bar, and the A with a corner at the top right. If you look closely, you can spot two different forms for O, N, and S. This wasn’t enough, though: there are also swashy forms for E and H which appear to be custom additions, possibly created to echo the trunk and tusks of the elephant floating in space. Talking about alternates: they should have used the plain I as well: Ryter’s default glyph with tail and entry stroke is best used in initial position, and not in the middle of words like here.

[More info on ISFDB]

Source: www.abebooks.com Space Age Books. License: All Rights Reserved.

Back cover

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.

Anywhere But Here is the debut novel of Mona Simpson, published in 1987 by Alfred A. Knopf. In 1999, it was made into a film of the same name starring Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman. From Crawford Doyle Booksellers:

The story is told from the point of a view of a 11-year old daughter trying to grow up and contend with an impossible mother, a born narcissist with few redeeming qualities. The book was a great success when it appeared, a winner of the Whiting Prize for first novels and receiving some continuing interest because of the author’s real-life connection to the late founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, who was her older brother.

The book design is credited to Marysarah Quinn. I don’t know if this includes the jacket and the illustration. The title is shown in two lines of Fanfare caps, distorted to fit into two opposing wedge shapes. “A novel by” is added in tracked out caps from ITC Kabel. Graphic Composition, Inc. from Athens, Georgia, composed the interior, using Caslon. Adroit is used for the cover (not pictured) and title page.

Title page

From IGDB.com:

Rip Cord was another black & white game released by Exidy in 1979. It was designed and programmed by Arlan Granger. The goal of the game is to jump out of the plane and land safely on one of the many targets down below. The challenge is to avoid the numerous enemy helicopters that occupy the sky in between your plane and the ground.

Promotional flyer for the 1979 arcade game Rip Cord, manufactured by Exidy, Inc.

The game's title is set in Corporate Gothic with the uppermost portions of the glyphs extended upward to create an arc, like the dome-shaped canopy of a parachute. Additional text is set in ITC Kabel.

Designer/s currently unknown.

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

Here's another, much later showcase of Benguiat Newlock. This revision of Ed Benguiat's earlier Benguiat Newlock would seem fitting for such a whimsical movie.

Exploring castles, museums and manor houses, megaliths, moors, mountains and lakes, this lavishly illustrated travel guide covers the rich history of magic and the occult in Britain and Northern Ireland and its inextricable bond with the landscape.

In addition to covering numerous sites of folklore, occult practice and strange history, Occult Britain also points us to places that inspired or in some instances were used as filming locations for numerous cult /horror novels, films and TV shows.

Occult Britain delves into a world of witchcraft, ancient rituals, and occult ceremonies. From the ancient stone circles of the Cornish moors to the wealthy manor houses of Hampshire, from the windswept headlands of Northumbria to the golden streets of Oxford, from the turbulent Scottish borderlands to the rugged Causeway Coast, this guide ventures into hundreds of locations with magical links, exploring the works of authors and creators inspired by their strange, numinous beauty; the lives of the occultists, witches, and cunning folk who inhabited them; and the legends that persist.

316 pages, paperback, 13×18 cm, with fold-out maps.

“Nerd Buster” is the 64th issue of the Bart Simpson comic book series by Bongo Comics, with cover art by Jason Ho and Mike Rote.

“Simpsons Comics presents” is set in ITC Kabel Ultra, “Bart Simpson” in a filled-in version of Rat Fink Gothic, and “Nerd Buster” in an outlined and slightly condensed Typography of Coop Black. The copyright notice, issue number, website URL, and price use numerous different weights of Futura.

Originally published in English by Faber (UK) and Farrar, Straus and Giroux (USA), Girl is a novel by Irish author Edna O’Brien. Set in present-day Nigeria, it tells the story of Maryam, one of the many girls who have been kidnapped by jihadist group Boko Haram.

For the book jacket and cover of the Büchergilde Gutenberg edition with Kathrin Razum’s German translation, designer Marion Blomeyer selected an all-caps typeface featuring fragile (or already fractured?) letterforms. It’s Faxi by Good Type Foundry (2020). With its triangular strokes and the stems that taper toward the middle, it reminds me of Infini (Sandrine Nugue, 2015), and even more so of Minérale (Thomas Huot-Marchand, 2017). Faxi has a more rugged feel which, together with the red and black strokes hastily painted with a dry brush, sets an appropriately unsettling tone.

Unfortunately a single opening quote mark (‘) has been used instead of a proper apostrophe (’).

The small lines appear to be set in ITC Kabel Ultra.

Beetlejuice puzzle. The green text in Treacherous Corners;

This line of Beetlejuice merchandise, made by Hasbro, was inspired by the 1988 Tim Burton film Beetlejuice. Featured here are a few items that use typefaces such as Meltdown and Treacherous created by Comicraft and a modified Caslon Antique for the Beetlejuice logo.

Monopoly, Beetlejuice edition. The line of text on top uses ITC Kabel, which is also the basis for the MONOPOLY logo. The two lines of text in the lower corners are set in Meltdown.

Back/bottom of the Monopoly box set, with most text set in Gotham, and Meltdown used for “Contents”.

“Floaty pen” set in Treacherous (the N in “PEN” is a flipped U from Treacherous Curves); use instructions are set in Chiller and the text on the pen itself uses Helvetica.

Yellow Dust front cover (2015), ft. Hairpin Hairline, with a hyper-extended y. The Finders Keepers logo uses Cooper Black. No designer is credited. [More info on Discogs]

Yellow Dust is a re-issue from 2015 that combines two vinyl records by Bruce Ditmas from 1977, with the artwork, photograph and even the record label logo being repurposed to make one album, using Hairpin Hairline, an outline version of the mid-1970s typeface, for the cover.

From Bandcamp:

As an artist whose name has become mutually synonymous with the instrument he plays Bruce Ditmas is a very unique heavy musician from one of those special tight knit communities that tried (and almost succeeded) to change the facade of progressive pop music and jazz via musical technology. Raised in Miami (an unknown incubator for future synthesists) Bruce carved the image of a teen prodigy playing jazz drums at the most exclusive Miami Beach hotels. After being whisked off to New York by none other that July Garland he became immersed in free music, recording compositions by Annette Peacock and Carla Bley before setting up house with vocal artist Joan La Barbara (later Mrs. Morton Subotnick) in 1975, who, via her own label, encouraged Bruce to pursue his very specific experiments in heavy electronic rhythms.

This LP is compiled from the solo Moog Drum compositions from his only two albums both released in 1977 using a Mini-Moog (donated by Gil “Hendrix” Evans), an Arp 2600 and a wide range of treated percussive instruments that littered this enfant terrible’s bedroom floor throughout the 1970s. A later pillar of the Enja and ECM community, Bruce's later work in TV, film, sound sculpture and free music still renders truly unique recording to this very day. Meet your new favourite drummer, and the best Moog Drum record in your whole collection.

Glyph set of Hairpin, with alternates for e, f, o, and t. The typeface is lowercase only.

Yellow Dust back cover (2015), with ITC Kabel for display type.

Aeray Dust front cover (Chiaroscuro Records, 1977), ft. tracked-out Harlow. The Letraset typeface was released the same year. [More info on Discogs]

Aeray Dust back cover (1977), set in ITC Avant Garde Gothic. Album design by Chic-Art Studio, N.Y.C., with art direction by Rob Warwell & Chico Alvarez and photography by Rollo Phlecks.

Yellow front cover (Wizard Records, 1977), ft. Hairpin Hairline. No designer is credited. [More info on Discogs]

Yellow back cover (1977).

Yellow Dust record label (2015). Text in ITC Kabel. “Finders Keepers” here seems to be based on Helvetica Bold.

Aeray Dust record label (1977). Text is set in the IBM Selectric version of Univers. “Chiaroscuro” is in caps from Univers Bold.

“Battleship is a strategy type guessing game for two players. It is played on ruled grids on which each player's fleet of ships (including battleships) are marked. The locations of the fleets are concealed from the other player. Players alternate turns calling ‘shots’ at the other player's ships, and the objective of the game is to destroy the opposing player’s fleet.” – Wikipedia

The pictures shown are for the 1984 edition of the Battleship game, released by Milton Bradley.

The word “Battleship“ uses ITC Machine, with a white/orange gradient, and a black stroke around it. The sub-title uses ITC Kabel Bold. On the left side of the box top, the “Ages 8 to Adult“ text uses Helvetica Bold.