Front cover, featuring Allegro (import revision; Ludwig & Mayer, 1936) for Berry’s name and the album title. “With” set in News Gothic (regular; ATF, 1908) or a follower. Catalog number (bold) and “Hi—Fidelity¬ (regular) set in Spartan (Linotype) or similar.

Still of Berry with his guitar taken from his performance in the independent film Rock, Rock, Rock! (1956).

After School Session is rockman Chuck Berry’s debut LP on Chess Records, the label’s second after the compilation/soundtrack album for the film Rock, Rock, Rock! (which Berry and two other Chess acts appeared in, resulting in a still from the movie being used on the cover). The album contained three previous hit singles, with “School Days” topping the Billboard R&B Best Sellers chart – after battling Elvis Presley’s “All Shook Up” in the Jockeys and Juke Box charts for three weeks – and reaching #3 on the Hot 100.

Though uncredited, the cover was presumably designed by Don Bronstein, Chess’ in-house art director from around 1955 to his death in 1968.

Back cover featuring artist and album name in Tempo Heavy (Ludlow, 1931). Smaller text including the track listing (bold with writer credits in regular), liner notes (regular), address (bold) and catalog number and “HIGH FIDELITY” (bold) all seem to be set in Spartan, a follower of Futura distinguished by the two-story a.

Cover of issue 1. Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed is used for the cover text.

Mermaid was an American adult magazine first published in 1962 by Geemil Publications (not be confused with another adult magazine also called Mermaid, published from 1958 by Garden of Eve Publications).

The Mermaid logo uses all-caps Filmotype Party.

Cover of issue 2. Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed is again used for the cover text.

Cover of issue 3. The text immediately below the logo as well as the words “ADULTS ONLY” are in Futura Condensed. Other text is in Ludlow Condensed Gothic (Modernized).

Cover of issue 4. The text immediately below the logo is again in Futura Condensed [edit: or rather Tempo Heavy Condensed, see comments], while the other text is in Bodoni Campanile.

Issue no. 2 from July 1981. The white text at the bottom is an unidentified typeface similar to Futura Extra Bold Condensed. I wonder if it’s related to Heraldus. [edit: identified by Bryson as Tempo Black Condensed]

Motter Tektura is the logo typeface for Your Computer. The Australian monthly home computing magazine “for business and pleasure” ran from May/June 1981 to May/June 1997. From 1977 to 1984, Othmar Motter’s typeface was also used for the logo of the Apple Computer Inc., likewise in all-lowercase letters.

Initially edited by Les Bell and published by the White House Publishing Group under licence from Motorword Pty Ltd., Your Computer was typeset by Hughes Phototype, Mosman. and printed by The Lithgo Centre, Waterloo. Barry Brady served as the magazine’s first art director. In 1982, he was superseded by Michelle Mabbott. Rolf Hagenmaier filled this role in 1993.

By 1994, the logo had been redrawn (almost) beyond recognition.

You can browse many digitized issues in the Internet Archive.

Motter Tektura was also used as headline typeface on interior pages. Here’s the table of contents from no. 5, November 1981.

June 1982, with ITC Korinna in a starburst for the “Big Birthday Issue”. The logo got a contour.

October 1982, ft. Dynamo Shadow for “16 Bits – A Revolution?”

May 1983

June 1983

September 1983

“Learning With Your Computer” special issue, 1986, with a shaded logo version and ITC Avant Garde Gothic

February 1993. The claim below the logo now reads “Making your micro work”.

This recording of Gustav Holst’s The Planets as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under Malcolm Sargent (1895–1967) was released by Decca in 1954. The cover shows the seven featured planets as the heads of their eponymous Roman deities, orbiting a flaming yellow sun.

The main typefaces are Monotype’s Bodoni Ultra Bold Italic and Profil by Haas for “PLANETS”. The contoured and shaded all-caps slab doesn’t appear in direct use, but was redrawn: some details are slightly off when compared to the foundry original, see the bowl of P that’s angled at the bottom, or the A that has a smaller counter.

[More info on Discogs]

Alternate version. The sans serif used for the conductor’s name in the black circle (representing Earth?) and the other small print is the Bold weight of Tempo.

“I’m Glad I Had Leprosy” and other evangelistic illustrations for sermons and programs, arranged by Mamie Gene Cole Husk, Southeastern Secretary

American Mission to Lepers Incorporated, ca. 1950.

The title combines two typefaces designed by Robert Hunter Middleton for Ludlow in the 1930s: the low-contrast script Mandate and Tempo Bold with its characteristic two-story a. All smaller text is set in several styles from Vogue, Intertype’s geometric sans.

This Noll Fly Tying Kit from the 1950s includes up to 15 different materials, as well as an instructional booklet for beginners to read.

Although the company's name is script lettering, everything else is typeset. Tempo is used in its black, heavy, and bold styles for the kit name, product name, and details. Dom Diagonal is used for the tagline, while the numerals marking each of the materials are in Spartan (or Futura.)

Numerous other fly tying kits from the company used identical packages until sometime during the early 1960s.

Light's Out! is a jazz album by the Jackie McLean Quartet, with help from Donald Byrd and Elmo Hope, and was released in 1956 by Prestige Records.

Haymaker Cartoon is used for the main title, with supporting roles from Filmotype Homer and what looks like a somewhat squeezed Filmotype Hemlock or similar with a few alternates. The condensed casual sans is unknown [edit: it’s Hand Lettering 3920 or a version of this design, see comments]. In general, despite the album art’s use of Haymaker Cartoon, the design isn't as “out of place” as Gil Mellé's Miles Davis cover from the same year.

The back cover is much simpler, pairing Tempo with the similar Vogue.

No designer credited. The cover photography is by Esmond Edwards (1927–2007).

[More info on Discogs]

This is Amerpub’s 1975 rerelease of Henry D. Bomze’s Treasury of American Turfs, a book about the economic know-how of horse racing.

The title typeface is Radiant, with the tagline on top in Tempo Heavy Condensed Italic. On the bottom-right corner is Admiral Script plus Vogue Extrabold Oblique and Extra Bold Condensed. With the exception of Vogue, all typefaces were designed by Robert Hunter Middleton for Ludlow.

This circa 1958 album release by TAP (Top Artists Platters) Records contains recordings of Richard Tauber’s interpretations of numerous songs, operas, and lieder. The design of the cover is credited to “Von Hendler” on the bottom right corner.

The light and bold condensed styles of Robert Hunter Middleton’s Tempo are the stars of the show. However, the rare Agency Gothic Open is used for the composer's last name for emphasis.

The small, reversed print is set in another Futura derivative: Vogue, with several of its Futura-esque alternates.

[More info on Discogs]

The Orange Peels were an early 1960s surf and garage blues quartet. This self-titled vinyl record appears to have been their only release. The LP was recorded at, and/or published by, Wight Audio Studio, out of Princeton, New Jersey. It is likely the band was also based in New Jersey, but little else is known about the group. (N.B. These Orange Peels are not to be confused with a more recent California group with the same name.)

The simple jacket design uses Tempo Heavy, as do the record’s labels. The names of the band members are listed in the Bold weight. The studio’s logo employs Filmotype Liberty and a Bodoni Roman.

[More info on Discogs]

Highlights from “Tiefland” is an undated* vinyl record from Eterna’s Specialty Series, showcasing various acts of the opera and the prologue.

The majority of the fonts used here are Ludlow originals from Robert Hunter Middleton. The title of the opera is Tempo, seen here in its heavy, bold, and bold italic styles. “Highlights” and “Eterna” are set in Umbra. The script seen below the latter word is Mandate. The open roman is all-caps Cameo, used for “From” and “Long Playing Record 456”. Finally, there are two similar slab serifs: Karnak (which is distinguished by several details, including the Tempo-esque G), and what looks like Cairo. The latter is basically a clone of Memphis distinguished by a few details, especially the Stymie-inspired Q in all styles.

*) It’s mentioned in 1951.

This entry is dedicated to Javi Gonzales, who notified us of this use in the comments section of our page for In the Heat of the Night’s movie posters.

Hollywood Sings? As Impersonated by Guy Marks is an album by Guy Marks, released in 1966 by ABC-Paramount Records. As the title suggests, the album consists of Guy Marks' interpretations of various songs from numerous popular Hollywood films.

The main typeface is Filmotype Pioneer, a condensed interpretation of Ad Lib from Filmotype. Guy Marks’ name is likewise set in another Ad Lib derivative: the extended Filmotype Moose. Both faces are distinguished from the metal type original by a number of shared differences in the details, especially the angled strokes in letters that originally had straight ones. Accompanying them are caps from Robert H. Middleton's Tempo Medium and an italic style of Futura.

[More info on Discogs]

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

This curious sleeve doesn’t fit in with the rest of the mid-1950s cool jazz aesthetic. Duotone photography was commonly used in the genre, but that’s where the familiarity ends. The lime green color (later issues were blue); the large, brushy title, set dead center; and the bleak scene of arthritic trees along a nondescript canal – it’s all a bit mysterious. It gives off similar vibes to Marcus Keef’s spooky cover for Black Sabbath. The only sense I can make of the image choice is that Miles Davis’ quintet recorded this session in the fall (November 16, 1955).

Source: oa.letterformarchive.org Image: Letterform Archive. License: All Rights Reserved.

Haymaker Cartoon from Photo-Lettering’s One Line Manual of Styles, 1971

The typeface is Haymaker Cartoon, an extrabold sign painter’s or showcard writer’s “casual” that appears in Photo-Lettering’s 1965 catalog, but must have been available a decade earlier to be used here.

Source: www.popsike.com The Jazz Tome. License: All Rights Reserved.

While the back cover (set almost entirely in Vogue) doesn’t include attribution, Discogs credits the design to Gil Mellé, a musician and painter who created a handful of 1950s covers for Blue Note and Prestige featuring dynamic abstract art. While I love Mellé’s work, this minimalist oddball stands out, and that charms me.

Thanks to Gary Hornseth for bringing this gem to my attention via the lovely Jazz Tome website!

Rehearsal Vol. 1 was released by Folkways Records in 1951. It's a 10″ LP that contains two jazz songs rehearsed by Mary Lou Williams and Hylton Jefferson, and is the third in the Footnotes to Jazz series.

The design of the album mostly uses faces from Ludlow, the manufacturer of the Ludlow Typograph. The title is Medium Condensed Gothic, the secondary bits are in Robert H. Middleton’s Tempo Bold paired with the similar Vogue Bold. The company's information is Ludlow Condensed Gothic.

[More info on Discogs]

Coming from mid-century Britain, it’s easy to assume that the jacket typography of this book uses Gill Sans Light Italic with a few customized swash glyphs. In fact, it’s the corresponding style from Tempo, a sans-serif family issued by the American Ludlow company. Tempo Light Italic comes with a full set of alternate swash caps, the one for M featuring here. The glyphs for B P R with the “protruding roof” as well as the N with the curving stems are the default forms.

Stephen Gilbert’s Monkeyface was published by Faber & Faber in 1948. According to Wikipedia, it tells “the story of an ape-man missing link who is brought from the jungles of South America to the U.K. and learns to speak English, but struggles with adapting to modern human society.”

A series of jazz albums released in 1945–1946 by Manhattan Music Corporation – made in Canada and printed in America – with songs by Nick’s Dixieland Jazz Band featuring Miff Mole (A-10), “Muggsy” Spanier (A-20), and “Pee Wee” Russell (A-30), respectively. Nick’s Tavern was a club run by Nick Rongetti at 170 West 10th Street, New York.

Amongst the rather simplistic yellow and black design of the album covers are at least three fonts: the name of the featured artist is set in Robert Middleton's Tempo Heavy, with much of the secondary text in his Karnak Obelisk. “Printed by Samuel S Sanford” and the information below “Manhattan” is Vogue Extra Bold Oblique and Extra Bold respectively, with a few alternates.

[More info on Discogs]

Nine years after his first book, You Can’t Print That!, George Seldes (1890–1995) used a very similar title: You Can’t Do That is “a survey of the forces attempting, in the name of patriotism, to make a desert of the Bill of Rights”. It was published by Modern Age Books in 1938 and includes a selected bibliography on civil liberties in the United States, compiled by Clarice A. Rosenthal, M. Meeker, M. Ottenberg, and others for the American Civil Liberties Union.

For the title, book designer Robert Josephy chose Signal – a typeface he already used two years before, for Edmund Wilson’s Travels in Two Democracies. The author’s name is in Tempo Heavy with its long-legged R. The articles appear to be set in Futura. The full-circled C in “Congress” and the straight comma and semicolon don’t match Futura, but I’m not aware of a closer match. Maybe Josephy touched up the setting manually [Bryson identified it as Vogue with alternates, see comments].

The back of the jacket advertises the Seal Books imprint. It features Bauer’s Quick, known in the United States as Trafton Script. Copy is set in Sans Serif, Monotype’s copy of Kabel, which is distinguished by the lower bar in A and the top-heavy S, among other things. The bottom line is Tempo Medium Italic with its distinctive flat exit strokes.

Writers take sides on the question: Are you for, or are you against Franco and fascism? Are you for, or are you against the legal government and the people of Republican Spain?

This book with 418 American authors weighing in on the Spanish Civil War was edited by Millen Brand, Dorothy Brewster, Harry Carlisle, and Groff Conklin, and published by the League Of American Writers in 1938. The featured voices include Gertrude Atherton, Brooks Atkinson, Carl Becker, Kenneth Burke, Countee Cullen, William Faulkner, Edna Ferber, Felix Frankfurter, Dashiell Hammett, Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Rockwell Kent, Stanley Kunitz, George Seldes, Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck, Genevieve Taggard, Clara Weatherwax, and Richard Wright.

A poster for the first Australian tour of Bob Dylan, produced by Aztec Services Pty. Ltd. and Stadiums Pty. Ltd., with additional involvement from Ashes & Sand Inc.

The small print is likely Trade Gothic, specifically the regular condensed style and its bold equivalent. It's paired with Tempo, shown here in its Heavy and Heavy Condensed styles for the names of the musician and companies, respectively.

Vol. 1, May 1968 [More info on Discogs]

In 1968, Reprise Records released a two-volume compilation of greatest hits by Dean Martin (1917–1995). For the first volume, art director Ed Thrasher specified Tempo Black for the title, paired with Futura for the song names. Tempo was Ludlow’s response to Bauer’s Futura. Its Black weight is even heavier than Intertype’s Futura Extra Bold.

For Volume 2, which followed half a year later, he didn’t rehash the design, but came up with a variation: this time the titling face is Filmotype Gem, an extrabold sans with straight-sided rounds. The track list is shown to the left and right of Martin’s portrait, set in Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed.

What unites the two cover designs are the photographic portraits of smiling Dean Martin with his signature bow tie, the color palette with red white and blue, and a typography that uses two sans serifs in all caps.

Vol. 2, Aug. 1968 [More info on Discogs]