Fonts from the Flea Market 1343

Two Mecanorma releases from 1969, combined in early use on the cover of a single with medleys of nine golden rock ’n’ roll oldies performed by The Dave Clark Five. The band name is in the Roller-inspired unicase face Dreamline; the bottom-heavy style used for the title is the caps-only Laurent follower Poster.

[More info on Discogs]

English-born Jimmy Bilsbury enjoyed success with the Magic Lanterns and the Les Humphries Singers (Les Humphries wrote both songs on this single).

[More info on Discogs]

This record is a rare compilation of material by the British psychedelic rock band Soft Machine, released only in the Netherlands in 1969 or 1970. The reason I put this here is that the cover and the back feature a very early use of Dreamline by Mecanorma.

[More info on Discogs]

Source: www.youtube.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.youtube.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.youtube.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.youtube.com License: All Rights Reserved.

From Wikipedia:

The Persuaders! is an action-comedy series starring Tony Curtis and Roger Moore, produced by ITC Entertainment, and initially broadcast on ITV and ABC in 1971. The show has been called “the last major entry in the cycle of adventure series that began 11 years earlier with Danger Man in 1960”, as well as “the most ambitious and most expensive of Sir Lew Grade’s international action adventure series”. The Persuaders! was filmed in Britain, France, and Italy between May 1970 and June 1971.

The typeface used for the opening titles including the series logo is Dreamline (Mecanorma, 1969). The unicase face in the style of Alfred Roller lettering is used with a modified P. It also appears on many other things related to the series, from the cover of the soundtrack (1972) to more recent DVD packaging. Shown below are the covers of various international TV tie-in paperbacks, written by Frederick E. Smith. Paul Woods posted a collection of various additional items.

Photo: Jaz Wiseman. License: All Rights Reserved.

The Persuaders! Book One, Pan Books, 1971

Photo: Jaz Wiseman. License: All Rights Reserved.

The Persuaders! Book Two, Pan Books, 1972

Photo: Jaz Wiseman. License: All Rights Reserved.

The Persuaders! Book Three, Pan Books, 1973

Photo: Jaz Wiseman. License: All Rights Reserved.

Os Persuasores, Portuguese edition published in Edições DêAgá (DH)’s Colecção Enigma, 1971

Photo: Jaz Wiseman. License: All Rights Reserved.

Kaygısızlar, Turkish edition by Koza Yayınları, 1974

Photo: Jaz Wiseman. License: All Rights Reserved.

Kaygısızlar 2. kitap, Turkish edition by Koza Yayınları, 1974

Spanish release, probably with the most elaborate type treatment: Georg Trump’s Time Script was slanted, set on a dramatic angle with tight letterspacing, and further enhanced with a gradient fill, gloomy shadows, and blood dripping from the double o. The script is contrasted with all-caps Washington Bold. The same sleeve design was also used in Germany and Austria. [More info on Discogs]

Five very different sleeve designs from various European countries for “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, the opening title track and first single release from Black Sabbath’s album of the same name, released in late 1973 with “Changes” as B-side.

The covers provide a cross section of what was popular in display type at the time, although it’s difficult to make out one common trend. There’s the multiline/Op art theme (Black Line), the unearthed turn-of-the-century oddities (Tintoretto, Frankonia) including the hippie revival of Jugendstil/Secession forms (Dreamline), and the amorphous, bottom-heavy styles (Bottleneck, Putty Bold) that had come in fashion shortly before. At the same time, we see various sans serifs, ranging from classics to contemporary heavyweights (Antique Olive Compact, Neil Bold) and new interpretations of Art Deco themes (Washington, Premier Shaded), to futuristic ones (Handel Gothic). Eight out of 14 typeface designs originated in phototype and dry transfer, four were created in the previous three years. Now one could ask the chicken-and-egg question: Were those typefaces trending that were offered by the type providers? Or did the font makers respond to the current trends?

What I find more interesting is the fact that there were hardly any genre-specific typeface preferences yet. None of the featured typefaces is inherently “metal” or “hard rock”. This is different for the album: With the stylized blackletter on the cover, it’s instantly clear what kind of music it contains. Mean letterforms for mean music. On the international single sleeves, though, the styles are all over the place. Those were often made by local divisions of record labels and distributors. In most cases, the bands had no word in the design decisions. There was no well-defined genre typography yet, it was all still “pop type”. Just compare this set of covers to another one by ABBA from around the same time. The music and fanbase is very different. The type styles are fairly similar, though, and some fonts are even the same.

The French version by Série Parade/Vertigo likewise does without a photograph. It features bichromatic Tintoretto caps paired with lowercase Frankonia for the titles. Note the mirrored quote marks. [More info on Discogs]

Scandinavian version by Vertigo, ft. Antique Olive Compact. [More info on Discogs]

Italian pressing on WWA Records ft. Bottleneck and Gill Sans. [More info on Discogs] Why’s the final letter in the band name from the lowercase? As there’s nothing too fancy about Bottleneck’s H, I have to assume that the designer ran out of dry-transfer letters. The third B looks fishy, too – it may have been made by repurposing parts of other characters.

The Portuguese release wins the prize for most typefaces, randomly picked. The front cover has bichromatic Premier Shaded with filled-in counters and both forms of A, arranged on a bouncing baseline and paired with all-caps Neil Bold and Putty Bold …

… while the back cover surprises with a completely different, equally variegated mix of fonts. ft. Black Line, Handel Gothic, Dreamline, and Univers Condensed Italic. [More info on Discogs]

Dutch sleeve with B-side “Put Out The Fire”, ft. Lazybones and Koloss, both available from Letraset at the time.

Brotherhood Of Man is a British pop group best known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1976 with “Save Your Kisses for Me”. “Kiss Me, Kiss Your Baby” is another hit single from the year before. The disco pop song reached the Top Ten in several European countries. The typographic choices on the various releases impressively illustrate the dominant role that dry-transfer lettering played for single sleeve artwork during this period.

French sleeve ft. Windsor Elongated (carried by Letraset).

German sleeve ft. Aachen (a Letraset original) and Futura Light, another face available from the English manufacturer of rub-down lettering sheets.

Spanish version with B-side “Love me for what I am”, ft. Dreamline and two weights of

Churchward Design. These faces were available from Mecanorma, the French competitor of Letraset. Mecanorma’s version of Churchward Design 70 was named Galaxy.

A vibrant color palette for this 7″ single record release of “Who’s Making Love” / “Give It Up” by Young-Holt Unlimited. The title is set in Mecanorma’s Dreamline, which was probably released in the same year as this single record design (1969).

This single features the Dreamline font. Its ‘5’ is used as an ‘S’.

Photo: H. Tullio

If this woman in shiny thigh boots looks familiar to you, it is probably because you are a loyal reader of Fonts In Use — Nick has previously posted a vintage paper bag with a variation of the same image. He explains:

The “Letter-Press” being referenced here is not the method of relief printing commonly associated with the term, but instead a design system of dry transfer lettering, much like the better-known Letraset rubdown sheets.

This full-page ad appeared in Graphis Vol. 25 No. 141 from September 1969. The flying carpet of typographic love in the background provides a glimpse into the range of faces available from Mecanorma at the time. In addition to several classics, there is Silva, a copy of Louis Minott’s Davida (originally issued by VGC in 1965), Contest, an adaptation (or should I say bootleg?) of Davison Psyche (PLINC, 1968), and Dreamline (cf. West Nouveau Compact, PLINC, 1968) — all of which are typical representatives of the late 1960s style. The type on the woman’s back combines Poster with a bright dab of color in Normandia, originally designed by Butti and Novarese for Nebiolo.

The trilingual copy that has been placed between the four legs (cf. Andy Warhol’s Double Elvis) is set in José Mendoza y Almeida’s Pascal. This typeface was included in Mecanorma’s library, too, and offered in sizes as small as 12pt. Laying down whole paragraphs with this must have been a pain in the neck. Apparently, there weren’t any umlauts, so they had to be added manually. (BTW, “Letter-Press ist der Abreibebuchstaben” isn’t proper German.)

Detail of Pascal fit to shape, with manually added umlauts. The ad is credited to “CEHES / Photo CHAPUIS”.

German single released by Polydor in 1969 [Discogs]. Cover printed by Gebrüder Jänecke, Hanover.

[More info on Discogs]