Letterpress printed poster for Typographic Printing Program 2026. Printed from hand-cut linoleum (LL Ruder Plakat), the first letter of the first line starts in its original shape and gradually morphs into the last letter of the last line, which is totally deformed.

The larger white information is set in Helvetica bold 72pt, from traditional metal type. Since the interweaving lines on the smaller size (24pt) are very labour-intensive to set in hand-set metal type, these blocks have been cast from Ludlow's Record Gothic bold in 24pt.

Record Gothic has often been referred by old printers as Ludlow Helvetica because of their similarities. In this case, since there is no capital R and no numbers on the small copy of this poster, it is really hard to tell the difference between the two faces. This made the production much easier than setting the smaller blocks from hand-set type.

68.7×99.7cm letterpress printed poster

Exhibition poster announcing a project that was working with LEGO® bricks to letterpress print letterforms by different typedesigners and graphic designers from many places around the globe.

The posters have also been letterpress printed from a total of 5,469 pieces of 1×1 LEGO bricks. The large outline type with the checkerboard gloss is a pixelated form of Univers 93 Extra Black Extended. The main info has been cast from Ludlow hot metal slugs in Record Gothic Bold Extended and the small bottom line was set in Record Gothic Bold.

70×100cm poster letterpress printed from 50 different wood blocks

This one is not so heavy on type, but nevertheless a rare contemporary use of Ludlow’s Record Gothic Bold Extended. The fifty wood blocks have been cut and sanded to type height to be letterpress printed on the poster. The type (main info and bottom note) has been cast from Ludlow hot metal slugs and printed in a separate pass.

Semester lecture program for Rice Architecture—the smallest professional degree program situated within a top research university in Houston, Texas. Letterpress printed from hand-cut linoleum, hand set wood type and freshly cast Ludlow hot metal slugs.

For you type geeks: the words “collective conversation” have been printed from an old set of wood type of from Xilografia Italiana called Treviso in 25 Cicero.

It is also noteable that the size 25 Cicero is very typical for Italy, but not very common in Switzerland or Germany. In Switzerland and Germany, sizes for poster type are 6C, 8C, 10C, 12C, 16C, 20C, 24C… Which makes sense with the duocecimal system of points (fractions of 12). Once a typesetter gets used to it, it is a very practical system since not only the physical body sizes of type, but also the sizes of the physical spacing material and furniture to fill up the non-printing parts of a lock-up will work together nicely in these fractions of 12. Also all sizes come in straight numbers. In Italy however, the system of larger type and furniture is organized differently. Anything larger than 10C is 15C, 20C, 25C, 30C…

Semester lecture program for Rice Architecture—the smallest professional degree program situated within a top research university in Houston, Texas. Letterpress printed from hand-cut linoleum and freshly cast Ludlow hot metal slugs. And also check out the custom made envelopes!

#1, Dracula Returns! (1973) with cover art by Harry Borgman

This is the first edition of the Dracula Horror Series, a.k.a. The Return of Dracula, written by Robert Lory (b. 1936) and published by Pinnacle Books between 1973 and 1975.

The typography is largely the same for all nine volumes, with Quaint Roman used for the titles and Contact Bold Condensed for the author’s name, the series title, and the teaser texts. On the cover for #7, Contact got replaced by the similar Monotype Clarendon Condensed for the teaser. And on the last two volumes, these texts are set in Record Gothic Heavy Condensed.

[More info on ISFDB]

#2, The Hand of Dracula! (1973) with cover art by Harry Borgman

#3, Dracula’s Brothers (1973) with cover art by Harry Borgman

#4, Dracula’s Gold (1973) with cover art by Harry Borgman

#5, The Drums of Dracula (1974) with cover art by J. Thompson

#6, The Witching of Dracula (1974)

#7, Dracula’s Lost World (1974) with cover art by Victor Valla

#8, Dracula’s disciple (1975) with cover art by Victor Valla

#9, Challenge to Dracula (1975) with cover art by Victor Valla

Letterpress printed poster for the Swiss Study Foundation. Printed from cast Ludlow hot metal slugs and laser-cut plexiglass poster type. See the complex work-and-turn forme for the black print run. Watch the video!

The Return Of The Gunfighter by Marty Robbins was definitely a return to territory laid out by his massively successful Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs. This album keeps with the theme and features several songs from past releases re-recorded.

Cover photo by Byron Shaw.

[More info on Discogs]

Double-sided promotional poster for the Typographic Summer Program with Dafi Kühne, an intense 2 week summer program in Switzerland for international graphic design students and professionals.

Letterpress printed in 3 print runs from Helvetica Plakat (plastic and wood) in 12 Cicero, Ludlow slugs from Record Gothic in 48pt, and brass rules.

Format: 55×88cm
Paper: Chromolux, 100g/m2
February 2018, edition of 250 posters on a FAG Control 900

Record Gothic Bold with its distinctive horizontal-terminalled ‘s’? News, Trade, and Franklin Gothics had much more open ‘s’ shapes. On the other hand, the ‘a’ isn’t quite right.

Ludlow’s fictional usage samples from this 1960s Record Gothic specimen.​

Record Gothic is a typeface that most contemporary designers don’t know because it never made the jump to digital format. It’s a large disparate family developed over many years, each new style mirroring the fashions of its period rather than fitting within the kind of aesthetically congruous system we expect from large type families today. For some typographers, that is its charm.

According to McGrew and others, Record Gothic was released in one regular weight and width at small sizes in the late 1920s. In the early 1950s Ludlow added larger sizes and cut Condensed and Extra Condensed. From 1956–69 Ludlow expanded the family to 20 members (most of which are represented in this booklet), with Middleton contributing to many of the styles. These subsequent styles vary widely, some close to News and Alternate Gothics, others similar to Akzidenz-Grotesk, Folio (Bold/Heavy Condensed) and Helvetica (Medium-Extended).

While there is not yet an explicit digital revival, the recently released Notary (2014) is derived from the standard width. Record Gothic on Fonts In Use →