The Roaring 20’s Special Edition, G.A. 33-602, 1957. Illustration by John Groth. Track names in Alternate Gothic No. 2, with Franklin Gothic and Venus Bold Italic for small bits. [More info on Discogs]

The Roaring 20’s is a series of records with “great hit songs of the 20’s, excitingly performed by Enoch Light and the Charleston City All-Stars”. It was started by Grand Award Records in 1955. Most of the covers shown here were designed for pressings from 1957: four LPs, a double LP, and a 7″ EP. The series also included the EPs Vol. 7, Vol. 8 and Vol. 9, some of them with art reused from the LPs.

All covers in this series feature a wordmark based on Metropolis. Willy Schwerdtner’s design from 1928 is shown in caps of increasing size, virtually creating a gradient from the Bold to the taller Titling cut. Although it was already possible to create such perspective effects through photographic means at the time, chances are it’s handlettering.

The Grand Award logo uses Caslon 540 Italic, with roman capitals. The label’s art director Casper Pinsker, Jr. worked with various illustrators. For the secondary texts, he employed a range of standard typefaces, most of them sans serifs.

The Roaring 20’s Volume 1, G.A. 33-327, 1957 (1961 pressing). Illustration by Tracy Sugarman. “Volume 1” is in Vogue Extra Bold Condensed. Track names in Futura/Futura Condensed, art credits in Bodoni. [More info on Discogs]

The Roaring 20’s Volume 2, GA 33-340, 1957. Illustration by Davis Stone. Track names in all-caps Vogue Extra Bold, art credits in Bodoni. [More info on Discogs]

The Roaring 20’s Volume 2, GA 33-353, 1957. Illustration by Emerson Barron. Track names in Erbar-Grotesk Bold Condensed, art credit in Ultra Bodoni Extra Condensed. [More info on Discogs]

The Roaring 20’s Volume 5, GA 33-378. Illustration by Elmer Wexler. “World’s Finest Performances” is in a Clarendon/Ionic. Track names in all-caps Futura. [More info on Discogs]

The Roaring 20’s Volume 6, G.A. EP2018, 1955(?). While the subtitle is set in Vogue Extra Bold, most other small text uses Futura/Futura Condensed. Illustration by Emerson Barron.

Ad for Metropolis in Typographische Mitteilungen, Vol. 27, No. 6, June 1930.

Modern typography also needs a variety of means of expression if it wants to do live up to the tasks of practical work. A typeface that is as powerful and full of character, as novel and beautiful-looking, and at the same time as well legible as our Metropolis, does excellent and valuable service [in modern typography] for the purpose of highlighting and attracting attention.

The first two lines show Hohe Metropolis, a variant with elongated ascenders and capitals.

Die moderne Typographie braucht auch eine Vielfalt von Ausdrucksmitteln, wenn sie den Aufgaben der Praxis gerecht werden will. Eine so kraft- und charaktervolle, neuartig und schön wirkende und zugeich gut lesbare Schrift wie unsere Metropolis leistet für die Zwecke der Hervorhebung und Aufmerksamkeitserregung ausgezeichnete, wertvolle Dienste.

SCHRIFTGIESSEREI UND MESSINGLINIENFABRIK D · STEMPEL · AG FRANKFURT A · M LEIPZIG WIEN BUDAPEST BASEL

Tar Baby is the fourth novel by Toni Morrison. The jacket of the first trade edition (preceded only by a private publication by Franklin Library) was designed by R.D. Scudellari, who already provided the jacket for Song of Solomon. It obviously draws inspiration from the cut-outs by Henri Matisse, in particular his Icarus from 1946.

For the typography, Scudellari used bold and tightly spaced capitals, set on curves. While the yellow lines are in ITC Serif Gothic Black, the typeface used for the title is Chwast Buffalo. This obese semi-slab with rounded serifs was designed by Seymour Chwast, on the invitation of Mergenthaler Linotype. Linotype offers a condensed version, but never bothered to bring the original wide style to the digital age, too. In 2006, Nick Curtis made Lackawanna Weed NF, which is an outlined and shaded freebie interpretation of Chwast’s design. The golden letters on the cover and the spine are from Metropolis.

This debut album (1989) by pop duo Flipper’s Guitar had a great influence on the Japanese music scene in the 1990s. After releasing three albums, the band broke up, and two of the members continued their music careers as producers and solo artists: Keigo Oyamada (Cornelius) and Kenji Ozawa.

The sleeve typography clearly refers to Helen Merrill's 1960s jazz album Parole e Musica.

Spotted on a walk through the lovely Old Town of Tallinn. Reval Café is a small chain with several coffee shops. Metropolis is used consistently in the branding.

The bold typeface with the tiny x-height is the hohe (“tall”) variety of Metropolis, designed by Willy Schwerdtner and cut by Gustav Eichenauer for Stempel in 1928. In the US, Metropolis was available from Continental Type Founders Association and was advertised as “a series which through its contrasting weights and special long ascenders gives possibilities of effective advertising composition not previously obtainable”. To my knowledge, none of the various digital versions offers the elongated caps and ascenders of Hohe Metropolis.

The smaller copy is in ATF Garamond. The Linotype version of this design was introduced in 1936 as Garamond No. 3. Note the 4-dot ellipsis in line 4 and the dissolved ‘fi’ ligature in the last line (there is one in line 2) — both decisions help justifying the short lines.

This book cover from 1976 shows a condensed style of Willy Schwerdtner’s Metropolis. I am not aware of a digital version of this cut. Hans Reichardt mentions a Metropolis Hohe (“Tall”), published in 1928 by the D. Stempel AG.

Audio Consolette Model 2 brochure (amplifier shown)

In 1952, Saul Marantz launched his high-end audio company with the Audio Consolette preamplifier. The product used the typeface Metropolis on its faceplate and Davison Spencerian (in later editions), setting a typographic standard that the Marantz brand followed for at least 30 years. In fact, these typefaces (unsusual styles for audio components) are part of the reason Marantz products are visually distinct from their competitors. See these 1970s receivers, for example.

Incidentally, Marantz recently entered the iPod/iPhone dock market with a revival of the Consolette brand, but replaced the formal Spencerian with a contemporary brush script logo.

Audio Consolette Model 1 (1952 edition) sales sheet

Audio Consolette Model 1 (1952 edition) sales sheet

Audio Consolette Model 1 (1954 edition)

Audio Consolette Model 1 (1952 edition) on eBay

Audio Consolette Model 1 (1954 edition)

Audio Consolette Model 2 brochure

Model 3 Electronic Crossover

“Model 2215B. Sexy. Sadly not mine, just borrowed until my (also very sexy) Tandberg is happy again.” — Nina Stössinger

Many of the control labels on these 1970s-era Marantz receivers are set in Metropolis, the typeface from which the custom Marantz logo is presumably derived.

The extra frilly type (by audio equipment standards) used for the model label and “Stereophonic Receiver” is Davison Spencerian, a script from the Photo-Lettering library that was recently digitized by Mitja Miklavčič and the PLINC team at House Industries. The digital version has a conventially cursive ‘r’ form but I assume there was an alternative romanesque ‘r’ available in the film type days.

The use of these two typefaces goes all the way back to the company’s founding in 1952 when Saul Marantz launched the Consolette. 

Model 2220 “It not only sounds good, it looks good too. The dial and meter light are a GORGEOUS shade of blue. It weighs in at about 26 pounds. Back in 1973 it retailed for about 300 bucks, which in today's dollars is about $1400.” — Ron Davis of Revolver

The ad typography uses Kabel and Helvetica.