Poetry bundle set in Overused Grotesk, combined with illustrations and manually drawn letters and numerals based on Charrette. Published by Poëziecentrum in October 2025.

“Wedding” (No. 292) ft. the festive Saphir caps set on a curve.

Covers for various clip books of line art issued by Volk Corp in 1977. This year marked their silver anniversary. The celebration started already in 1976, indicating that the company was established in late 1951. According to Bart Solenthaler, it went out of business sometime in the 1980s.

See the previous post about the clip books issued in 1955 for more information on Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio.

“Holidays” (No. 293) ft. Paprika, a biline variant of Tabasco.

“Entertainment” (No. 295) ft. Tonight.

“Office” (No. 296) ft. Bobo Bold.

“Hobbies” (No. 297) ft. Abbey Scroll.

“Women” (No. 300) ft. Yagi Double.

“Holidays” (No. 301) ft. Koloss with EndcapS.

“Men” (No. 302) ft. Atrax.

“Spring” (No. 303) ft. Jolly Roger.

“The Farm” (No. 678) ft. Arnold Böcklin in all caps.

“Summer” (No. 679) ft. the Sparkly style from the Churchward Design series.

“Children” (No. 680) ft. Eurostile Bold Condensed.

“Medicine” (No. 682) ft. Columna.

“Sales” (No. 683) ft. Whimzitype 3600.

“Groups” (No. 685) ft. Eurostile Bold Extended.

“Christmas” (No. 688) ft. Benguiat Caslon caps with swash alternates.

“Menu” (No. 690) ft. more Saphir.

“Energy” (No. 691) ft. Frankfurter.

“Homemaker” (No. 692) ft. more Benguiat Caslon, here in caps set on a curve.

“Industry” (No. 693) ft. Old Gothic Bold Italic.

“Teens” (No. 695) ft. ITC Uptight Neon.

“Science” (No. 697) ft. Data 70.

“Spring & Summer Sports” (No. 699) ft. Marvin (Face). Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Design Devices” (No. G75) ft. Charrette. The decorated A is taken from Cloister Initials. The logo of the Grafika subseries is in ITC Fat Face with ligatures for ra and fi, accompanied by Kabel Light with omitted tittles.

“Pointers” (No. G77) ft. manicules (☛☞) with caps from Windsor Elongated.

“Symbols” (No. G80) ft. caps from Futura Light with a custom SY ligature. The anniversary note in the counter of O is in Helvetica Condensed.

“John Doe” (No. G82) ft. Augustea Open.

“Jane Doe” (No. G83) ft. Keyhole, which was Formatt’s copy of Sintex with added alternates.

French paperback edition of Cien años de soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude, 1967) by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, published in 1973 in the Le Livre de Poche series.

The typeface is Charrette, Letraset’s interpretation of the classic French stencil letters. The title is positioned as if were part of the image, and actually stenciled onto a wall somewhere in the streets of Macondo. Cover credited to Faucheux graphique.

Typographie: Schrift und Graphik mit Letraset was an exhibition that ran in Darmstadt, München, and Zürich in 1978–79. This 8×8-inch 72-page catalog was designed by Christof Gassner and features his own work along with dozens of other designers who used Letraset.

Design: Christof Gassner

Design: Helmut Langer

Design: Christof Gassner. Promotional material for Deutsche Letraset. The last image was used for the cover of LetraTime.

Design: Friedrich Friedl

Design: Christof Gassner. German translation of a quote by Henri Michaux: “Qui s’est abaissé devant une fourmi, n’a plus à s’abaisser devant un lion.” – “Those who have bowed to an ant do not have to bow down before a lion.”

Design: Christof Gassner. German titles of various plays by Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About _, King Lear, Richard III. For more, see Schauspiel im ZDF.

Design: Christof Gassner. Various film titles: Le Quai des brumes (Port of Shadows), The Third Man, Daddy Long Legs, Scarface

Sleeve design for the 1969 German release of Edwin Starr’s “Twenty-Five Miles”.

The most interesting aspect of this (uncredited) single cover design is probably the typeface story of the font in use: Charrette (released by Letraset in 1972) or rather likely Charrette’s predecessor French Stencil, published by Rapitype. Both are based on the same design of common French stencils.

[More info on Discogs]

In this blog post, a must-read for anyone interested in stencil type, James Mosley tells a combined first-, second-, and third-hand story of French stencils including the origin of Charrette:

I bought sets of stencils myself in Paris and used them to mark all kinds of things – folders of current work, and the numbers on new mobile shelving that was being installed in the St Bride Library, where they still survive.

When the makers of ‘Rapitype’, a rival to Letraset’s rub-down lettering, launched their product in about 1970 and were seeking new designs, I offered my stencils. They were marketed under the original name of ‘French Stencil’, and were perhaps the first font of this kind to be made.

Letraset did not get the message for another decade. When Letraset France launched an almost identical font under the name of ‘Charrette’ (the French word for a rustic two-wheeled cart, which the English company misspelled ‘Charette’), it got into trouble with the Fondation Le Corbusier for having used letters that they piously believed to have been designed by the great man for his own exclusive use. So the Letraset catalogues obediently and absurdly marked them ‘© Le Corbusier’.

For those curious about the Le Corbusier connection, see also this post on architecture blog SIAS/designnotebook: The Architect's Font: Stencil Faces (01 Le Corbusier)