When Bob Silverman designed the jacket for Maurice Yacowar’s book on the comic art of Mel Brooks, he chose Ruby Shadow for the title. He apparently deemed its M to be too tame for the topic. In any case, it got replaced by the sweeping glyph found in another bold 1970s script: the initials are taken from Charade.

Al Elliott’s Charade – a Canadian creation just like the book – did come with a Shadow style. The shadow was customized to match the one in Ruby Shadow, though. Printed in two colors, the alliterating title is combined with what looks like skewed caps from Venus. The all-caps roman at the top is Hess Old Style.

About the book, from the inner flaps:

The critics hate Mel Brooks. But does that stop him? When a Playboy interviewer once remarked, “You've been accused of vulgarity,” Brooks replied, “Bullshit!” No critic could ever stop Mel Brooks from being one of the best-loved comedians in film history—in fact, his movies consistently out-gross (in every sense of the word) those of much-praised Woody Allen. Mel Brooks is funny, and the people love him.

How does he do it? Is he really as crazy as he seems? Maurice Yacowar, whose previous book (on Woody Allen) received unanimous critical acclaim, takes us on a Brooks-lover’s tour through his work on television with Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, his records as the “Two-Thousand-Year-Old Man,” and all of the films from The Producers to Blazing Saddles, from Young Frankenstein to High Anxiety. The resulting tribute will have film buffs nodding their heads nostalgically, and fans laughing out loud on every page.

Mel Brooks turned 100 years old today. Happy birthday!

Device from the front flap. Note the two forms for s in “Madness”.

Tite page. The book’s interior was designed by Dennis J. Grastorf using Caledonia.

A groovy use of Al Elliott’s Charade with close shade and internal shading, for a plastic model kit produced by AMT in 1977.

“Chevy Custom Van” is in caps from Grotesque No. 9 Italic.

Side of the box with description in Univers Condensed

Side of the box with upright Grotesque No. 9 and labels in Univers

Decals

The instructions use Othello (ATF) and Futura.

Fonts from the Flea Market #1308

1978 single by Dutch pop group Pussycat, led by the three Veldpaus sisters – Toni, Betty, and Marianne – with a country rock cover of the 1960s Motown song by Four Tops.

Using a joined-up script like Charade with outline (or shadow) isn’t trivial. The connection between u and s would have required more overlap and some trimming of the exit stroke, or the use of an alternate. Several other pairs like at and am aren’t smooth either. In the days of phototype, typesetting services would offer the required manual adjustments for an extra fee. The designer at EMI Electrola apparently didn’t have the time or the budget for that.

[More info on Discogs]

Packaging design for 500 grams of deep-frozen pre-fried French fries, from the visual archives of Stichting Albert Heijn Erfgoed. This foundation is dedicated to preserving the heritage of leading Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn, and to make it accessible to interested parties.

The bottom-heavy script is Charade. According to Canadian type designer and historian Rod McDonald, it was designed by Toronto-based artist Al Elliott (1922–1978) and released in the late 1960s or early 1970s by Headliners. It was copied by Castcraft as Gaston Agency and also adopted by Formatt for dry transfer lettering as Gaston, both before 1978. Brandywine Bold is another alias. Here it’s used in the Shadow style, with terminal swashes added to both words.

Stichting Albert Heijn Erfgoed dates this own-brand design to “approximately 1966”. Now is this an early use of Charade? Possible, but somehow I doubt that it goes back so far. I can imagine that it’s rather from the early 1970s, and the reason why it was dated ca. 1966 is simply because of the presence of the Albert Heijn logo: the now iconic ah monogram was designed by James Pilditch of Allied Industrial Designers (AID), London and introduced in 1966. So far, the earliest reliably dated in-use example for Charade in our – admittedly modest – collection is from 1973.

Charade in use for Let Me Be There –

the third studio album by Australian singer Olivia Newton-John. It was originally released on 20 November 1973 as Music Makes My Day in the United Kingdom, by Pye International Records, and shortly after in Australia as Let Me Be There, which became its most recognizable name. In the United States and Canada, Let Me Be There was released with an alternative tracklist, combining songs from the original release with other tracks from Newton-John's previous albums If Not for You and Olivia. […]
The American publication of the album by MCA Records used the cover art from Olivia's 1972 LP record Olivia, which was not released by MCA.

With its bottom-heavy shapes, Charade mirrors the top-heavy lettering used for the artist’s name.

[More info on Discogs]

An odd trio on the mud: the unsinkable Dory uses lettering in Optima and Helvetica, combined with the Dell Quay logo based on Charade.

“The easy guide to DIY fashion” is in Rockwell, “Kleding Maken” is embroidered and shaded

Charade. The logo of broadcaster/publisher Teleac is set in Gill Sans Bold.

The designer of this 1970s course book is uncredited, but it’s probably not a Massimo Vignelli adept. Why use fifteen different typefaces (plus some condensed and bold weights) in what could have been a straightforward course book? Did the designer finally get access to that fancy Mecanorma font catalog? Was this a first book, and was he or she eager to show off and play as much as possible? Whatever the reasons, this book was made with pleasure, and the hobbyist typographic tools (transfer lettering and IBM typewriter) echo the DIY nature of the content.

Kleding Maken – De makkelijke handleiding voor Zelfmaakmode (Making clothing – The easy guide to DIY fashion) is the name of a sewing course, broadcasted by Teleac on Dutch television in the late 1970s. The TV show came with this accompanying book and sewing patterns. It was written by Henriëtte Beukers, with photographs by her husband Henk Beukers and illustrated with flair by fashion illustrator Gerda van Gijzel (at that time known as Gerda van Tol).

Edit: Zelf Kleding Maken is a true DIY project. It was conceived, written, directed, designed photographed and layed out by Henriëtte Beukers and her husband Henk Beukers, who met at art school, and worked together ever since. In order to be able to produce this book themselves, the family bought an IBM Selectric Composer (at the cost of half a house), and with the help of their son and design student Haico and a few others, this book was produced in a few months time.

“Wat hebben we nodig?” (What do we need?) is in a filled-in version of Paperclip. The body text for the book was set with the IBM Selectric Composer, with these pages in IBM’s Century.

“Kussensloop / Een goede oefening” (pillow case / a good exercise) set in Expressa, with an ‘oo’ ligature. Captions set with the IBM Selectric version of Univers.

“Stoffen stoffen” (fabrics fabrics) set in Clarendon with effects.

“Smokken / Stofversieren” (Shirring / Decorating textiles) set in Aki Lines, an ITC original that was also available from Mecanorma.

“van knippatroon tot rok” (from pattern to skirt) set in Mecanorma’s futuristic monoline Film.

“Handige Hints” (helpful hints) is a recurring section throughout the course book. Headers and numbers set in Embrionic Triline with swashes. Body text in Univers.

“Uit de kast gehaald” (out of the closet) is another recurring section, discussing ways to reuse well-worn clothes or textile leftovers. The title is a combination of Expressa and Via Face Don. The body text is set in Theme, a typeface designed specifically for the IBM Selectric Composer.

“Doorlopende figuurnaad” (continuous tuck) is not set in Octopuss Shaded but in its near-identical and ready-filled sibling Madeleine Shaded.

“Kijken naar kleding van vroeger” (looking at clothing from bygone days). Heading in Poppl-Exquisit. For the righthand page, effort was made to make it look like a page form the past: A narrower typeface, old style fractions, and a outdated choice of words and grammar.

“Register” (Index) set in caps from Avant Garde Gothic, entries in Univers Condensed.

Bananica — “The Original Chocolate Coated Foamy Dessert”, from Serbia. The product originated in 1938, but this logo design likely debuted in the 1970s–80s.

“Tips for August Food”, Finnish cooking guide, 148×210 mm. From Kelvin Soh’s growing collection of small publications and ephemera.

The bottom-heavy display script is Charade.