We had the pleasure of working with FilmNation and Pacific Electric Picture Company to develop the branding and overarching design system for SNAFU Media, as well as the cover art for season two of their flagship podcast. The new logo is based on Marvin Visions, with a modified N.

SNAFU is a podcast hosted by Ed Helms that dives into history’s greatest screw-ups. In each season, Helms explores significant, yet often overlooked, historical events characterized by major blunders and their far-reaching consequences.

The hero of the identity system is the SNAFU wordmark, based on Marvin Visions (an expressive typeface with an interesting backstory), but with custom adjustments. The deep drop shadow on the podcast cover art is evocative of a red lens that reveals invisible ink, but it can also stand alone without that particular treatment.

SNAFU wordmark on merch.

SNAFU cover art as shown on a podcast app.

El Casal d’Olesa is a performing arts theater in Olesa de Montserrat, Spain. As part of their centennial, the theater staged Carroussel, a tribute to the variety shows of the same name that were held in El Casal in the 1950s and 60s. From their website (translated):

A great opportunity to see on stage more than 80 artists from Olesa with performances of music, dance, magic and theater, which will transport us throughout the hundred years of the institution’s history through a story between vineyards, looms, marquees and bouncers.

In April 2023, poet Michael Waters read from his book Sinnerman, published that year with Etruscan Press. The poster for the reading event pairs two all-caps typefaces, Marvin Visions by Mathieu Triay and a condensed style of Sequoia by Rachel Kick. The design takes advantage of the fact that in Marvin Visions, the author’s initials form a near-perfect mirror image when stacked on top of each other.

Sea of Sentiments is a non-profit organization that raises funds for charitable works through endowments to protect the oceans. In each episode, a guest DJ offers a one-hour mix on this YouTube channel, accompanied by videos of underwater scenes.

The contemporary and flexible visual identity, designed by Odd Forms Studio, directly refers to the founder's inspirations: living in harmony with the oceans, ambient music and Japanese records sleeves.

Blood, Hair, and Eyeballs is the tenth studio album by American punk rock band Alkaline Trio. It was released on January 26, 2024 on Rise Records.

John Yates of Stealworks designed the album art. He used Century 725 BT Black for the X, with some modifications. Inside the glyph’s diagonal, the title is set in red caps from Marvin Visions. The band logo predates Yates’s involvement – he did several albums for Alkaline Trio – but he chose to redraw it, based on the source typeface, Lafayette. It has been used at least since the debut album from 1998. The supporting font used for the lyrics and other things within is Futura PT Medium (not shown here).

[More info on Discogs]

Marvin Visions, Mathieu Triay’s revival of Marvin, expands Michael Chave’s original 1969 design into a range of weights and optical sizes. And yet the majority of applications uses the Bold weight only. This book is an exception.

Designers Lorraine Wild and Tommy Huang of Green Dragon Office started with the Bold, too, but made it less weighty by outlining the letterforms. The title is rendered with hyper-extended EndcapS (compare to a similar treatment for Starliners, 1980). For the subtitle, captions, page numbers, bibliographical dates and more, they pulled up a much lighter weight. This airy end of the design space has distinct qualities, which are a good match for the transcendental theme. The text typeface appears to be LL Catalogue.

The Transcendental Painting Group was founded in Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico, in 1938. This “first book on a radical, astonishingly prescient episode in American modernism” was published by the Crocker Art Museum together with DelMonico Books. It accompanied an exhibition that opened at the Albuquerque Museum in June 2021, and subsequently traveled to the Philbrook Museum of Art; Artis—Naples, The Baker Museum; and the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento. The show concluded at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in April 2023.

Left, the original pedal from 1978 using Marvin and right, the 2023 version using Marvin Visions

Anthony Rubolotta designed the re-issue of the Slap-Back Echo pedal by Electro-Harmonix, a rarity from 1978.

The original version designed by David Miller used Marvin and the 2023 version uses Marvin Visions. And though the form factor is different, the layout retains a similar design which ties them together in time.

The secondary fonts used for the labels are Helvetica (1978) and Futura (2023). The Electro-Harmonix logo is based on Skjald, see the dedicated post.

The new version on the pedal on its packaging

The 2023 version of the pedal

On this book jacket from 2019, Marvin Visions (2017), a revival and expansion of Marvin (1969), is used to epitomize the 1970s, alongside the psychedelic background of rainbow-colored swirls complete with florettes, stars, and peace symbols.

From the publisher (translated):

Jens Balzer, one of Germany's most distinguished cultural journalists, paints a colorful panorama of the seventies, from the moon landing and Woodstock to the oil crisis, the German Autumn and the nihilism of punk. A decade in which pretty much everything changed: The hippies try out unheard-of lifestyles, anti-authoritarian education and the emancipation movement reorganize family and gender relations, global idealism meets apocalyptic fears of the end of the world, and when hackers build the first “personal computer” at the latest, it becomes clear: this is exactly where our present begins.

Poster design and interstitial graphics for Leveski & Gordon Go to the Moon, a sketch comedy show about the moon, food, masculinity, technology, violence, the environment, our national condition, and resort wear.

For his latest single, "All Star," in collaboration with IBE, Finnish rapper/singer T Swoop opted for a cover art inspired by the aesthetics of all-star basketball and a vibrant Los Angeles color palette. This design approach aligns with his previous EP, incorporating script typefaces like Inoxida into his artwork.

The primary title is elegantly rendered in Marvin Visions, lending a classic and nostalgic vibe while cleverly incorporating a star motif. Complementing this retro aesthetic, Inoxida literally underscores the minimalistic cover art design.

Off Key Junior. License: All Rights Reserved.

Off Key Junior. License: All Rights Reserved.

Who is Off Key Junior? Junior, Marek, Cecil, and Andrew, residing in both Berlin and London, united by their shared passion for music and a particular affinity for French house and the indie vibes of the 2000s. As talented DJs, producers, and songwriters, they converge to form the sensational collective known as Off Key Junior.

For this collective, they opted to introduce themselves through a single character adorned with a mask designed by art director Julian Grönberg. Julian not only oversaw the graphic and typographic aspects but also spearheaded the transformation. Using a rugged a selfmade brush design as a starting point, they reimagined the original smiley face, turning it into a refreshing character.

The artist’s name uses the Overglow brush typeface, skillfully underlining every bold image and typeface within their visuals. “X Lovespeake” is set in the similar Flood. This attention to detail extends to their latest music video, “Taste Like Summertime,” where they employ Aachen typeface, famously featured in several Tarantino films. This choice not only creates a striking contrast but also infuses a cinematic and retro aesthetic into their artistic music world. In addition, there is Marvin Visions for the title and Credit for the first line.

Off Key Junior. License: All Rights Reserved.

Off Key Junior. License: All Rights Reserved.

Off Key Junior. License: All Rights Reserved.

Off Key Junior. License: All Rights Reserved.

The strong passion we witnessed watching the greats of the 1990s and 2000s play ball made us realize that there is no greater good than believing in yourself and staying positive.

Without the values of team sports the Goodbois brand would certainly not have lasted until today.

Goodbois is embarking on a new chapter of collections with the introduction of the Ball Pack, which features both the Bold and Regular styles of Marvin Visions. This typeface was inspired by a post on this website about Touchdown Illustrated Vol. 1 (1973). The sportiness of this collection is highlighted through the use of Marvin and the imagery of colorful shirts and woven labels, which draw inspiration from posters of the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich and their vibrant color themes. Overall, the Ball Pack collection is an exciting and dynamic fusion of typography, sport, and design.

Alaca proofs itself as the perfect match for any basketball typeface for Goodbois like in previous collections that are showcased on this font design community.

Machine-A × Matthew Williams T-shirt ft. Herbus Pointy and Super Seventy

Series of four limited edition graphic print T-shirts. Each one features the iconic logo re-imagined by Paul Hetherington using various fonts including several from Ornamental & Title Type. Machine-A posed the question “What does MACHINE-A mean to you?” to some of the world’s most renowned contemporary fashion designers. For example, Martine Rose’s answer was: “A is for always taking risks…”

Machine-A describe themselves as “a multi-brand luxury concept store located in Soho, London, focused on an aim to continuously showcase an eclectic mix of emerging and established brands”.

Machine-A × Raf Simons T-shirt ft. Kamura and Phlegm

Machine-A × Coperni T-Shirt ft. New Eddy and Marvin Visions

Machine-A × Martine Rose T-shirt ft. Kerozene and Yalla

Poster design by James Lacey a.k.a. Pointless Illustrations for a party at Wire Club in Leeds on October 16, 2019 after the release of Kornél Kovács’ album Stockholm Marathon. The event was organized by Transmission Funk. From Resident Advisor:

Born 1985 in Stockholm to Hungarian parents, Kornél Kovács’ perambulations in music began early and have continued at pace ever since. Raised on that classic, enviable diet of “proper” music training plus parents with killer music taste, Kovács’ daytime lessons were given texture at night as everything from Kraftwerk and Art Of Noise to King Tubby and Boogie Down Productions wafted through the house.

Futura in use for a poster series (vintage book style) for the Mevlâna Museum in Konya, Türkiye, showing some favorite Rumi quotes. The museum is also the mausoleum of Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, a Persian Sufi mystic, and also the dervish lodge (“tekke”) of the Mevlevi order, better known as the whirling dervishes.

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī – also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, Mevlânâ/Mawlānā (مولانا, “our master”), Mevlevî/Mawlawī (مولوی, “my master”) and simply as Rumi – was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, Islamic scholar, theologian and Sufi mystic who lived in Konya, a city of the Ottoman Empire, now Türkiye. His poems have been widely translated into many of the world’s languages, and he has been described as the most popular poet and the best-selling poet in the United States.

Rūmī’s use of Persian and Arabic in his poetry, in addition to some Turkish and less Greek, has resulted in his being claimed variously for Turkish literature and Persian literature, a reflection of the strength of his influence in Iran and Türkiye. The influence of his writings in the Indian subcontinent is also substantial. By the end of the 20th century, his popularity had become a global phenomenon, with his poetry achieving a wide circulation in western Europe and the United States.

In March 2020, rock band the Nude Party embarked on a two-week-long tour titled “Chasing That Neon Rainbow”. Band member Connor Mikita (Great Indoors) did the poster for it.

His design is a wonderful homage to an album cover from 1970 which I had posted to Fonts In Use previously, see The Nashville Sound: Bright Lights & Country Music. In place of the narrow face with flared stems (see Nottingham) featured in the original, Connor used Roberta. And since there is no digital version of Norton Vaudeville Act 9, he opted for another typeface made of dots, Theater Lights JNL. The dates and venues are added in Marvin Visions.

I wonder whether Connor saw the Nashville Sound cover here or elsewhere. Either way, seeing such a lovely tribute makes me happy!

Cover design for the debut album of the Miami based artist, Dream Shore. Concept:

Miami, a modern metropolis and cultural treasure trove, a place of “dreams & leisure” surrounded by a “glamorous subtropical paradise” during the day and a place of “mystery and adventure” by night. But like all good places, paradise comes at a cost, where you can’t even tell the players without a program. There is good and there is ugly and among them there’s the sunset.

Marvin Visions has been consistently used for the logo, as well as for social media communication posts. In this artwork it’s paired with Rainmaker Script for the front cover. Hamillton One is used for the song titles on the back cover.

This project is presented on Fountation’s Instagram. The album is available digitally, in all streaming platforms.

Carlos Bocai & Julia B Aguiar from Anywhere designed a custom T-shirt for the Future Print Club Project. Everpress produced the shirt as a special edition and 100% of the profits were donated to Casa 1, a Brazilian NGO that hosts and supports LGBTQIA+ youth.

The T-shirt features the rarely told timeline of the Brazilian queer fight for civil rights. Anywhere envisioned a product that would be educative but also would represent a statement. Therefore, Marvin Visions’ nostalgic and bold visual style was appropriate to embody this message. It also creates an interesting contrast when paired with Times New Roman and Helvetica Condensed. The mix of typefaces was inspired by Brazilian alternative press publications aesthetics that would frequently contain various styles.

“O amor LGBTQIA+ é lindo”

Poster for ACORN, Living Rent and London Renters’ Union to encourage people to join these organisations. Headlines use Marvin Visions, smaller text is set with Futura.

Autonomous Design Group is an independent collective of designers, artists and creatives opposed to capitalism and authoritarianism. We maintain that the aesthetic is of vital importance in the terrain of political struggle. We aim to offer artistic support to a wide range of groups and movements and encourage everyone to contact us for designs. All our designs are open-source and editable.

​We use a combination of collage, creative graphical elements, strong typography and colour palettes to depart from the usual red and black style of the left – an aesthetic which we believe comes across as dated and out of touch.

Shown here is a selection of posters around the theme of housing rights. Find more housing posters on our website.

Rent Strike Weekender, with a collage based on 1950s Air France posters and using Commune Nuit Debout.

Social Housing, with a collage based on 1950s Air France posters, with text set in Helvetica Condensed.

“Homes for people not profit”, set in all caps Gibson.

Poster for Los Angeles Tenants Union, headlines set in Amboy Black.

Poster for Sacramento Tenants’ Union. Collage from 1950s Air France posters. Gill Sans on top, stretch Gill Kayo for the bottom lines.

Poster for London Renters’ Union during the Coronavirus pandemic.

For the Miami detectives who protect the city while citizens sleep.
For the long riders who drive all night on a dark dimmed road.

Cover for the Night Shift – Synthwave/Synthpop from Miami playlist on Spotify, compiled by Dream Shore.