Cover designs for the books Nomadic Furniture (1973) and Nomadic Furniture 2 (1974) by James Hennessey and Victor Papanek. The first volume shows caps from Harry (VGC, 1966). The follow-up features Baker Sans, another VGC face which had been issued shortly before, in 1973.

Next week, Robert Beatty will play a show at Green Lantern Bar, Lexington, together with Ziemba and Jeanne Vomit-Terror.

For the poster typography, Beatty came up with an imaginative variation on the ever-popular crop-and-repeat technique. Instead of cropping the echoed lines, he squeezed them vertically to an increasing degree. The typeface is Arthur L. Rawn’s Précis (VGC, 1972), set in all caps. Having a center line with A, double N, V, M, and triple R is the perfect occasion to flaunt this obscure face with its wacky emphasis on diagonals. May the 4th be with you!

The small type might seem unimposing in comparison, but a closer look reveals it’s in an interesting font as well. It’s a style from Baker Sans (VGC, 1973). This series was designed by calligrapher Arthur Baker (c. 1930–2016). With Baker Sans, he explored decidedly uncalligraphic terrain and tried his hands at a neo-grotesque. While the low-contrast Baker Sans Mono isn’t more than a rehash of Helvetica, Folio & Co., the other family members with added stress are quite unique. As far as I can tell, it wasn’t a big hit back in the 1970s. However, similar ideas – how would a neo-grotesk with stroke contrast look like? – have been explored again lately (and more skillfully), see e.g Yassin Baggar’s Beausite (2014) and Beausite Classic (2018), or Chi-Long Trieu’s Basel/Basel Classic (announced for 2019). Another pair that deserves a mention here is Albert-Jan Pool’s URW Linear/URW Imperial (1994), which is more in the lineage of Univers than Helvetica.

Two styles of Baker Sans were digitized by Castcraft as OPTI Swiss No. Three and Four (Castcraft, 1990–1991). In 2000, Maverick Design released Baker 2000 XCX, a reinterpretation in three widths and many weights, plus italics. Unfortunately, it’s rendered largely useless by its bizarrely elongated ascenders.