Herbert von Karajan’s recording of The Planets with the Vienna Philharmonic was first released by Decca in 1962. The 1973 reissue on their Ace of Diamonds label comes with one of the wackier cover designs made for Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite: the planets are represented by floating heads of the eponymous Roman deities. Illustrator Christos added them to a photo of the Trifid Nebula. Saturn looks pretty annoyed by the never-ending rainbow carousel rotating in front of his nose.

The typography brings together two staples of the 1970s: Neil Bold and Stop. In the latter, the H doesn’t have a stem at the right. This unconventional feature was “fixed” by the cover designer, so the title effectively reads “THIE PLANETS”. Other examples for the same intervention include the Thompson Twins logo and Gagosian Gallery’s Crash.

[More info on Discogs]

The trilingual liner notes on the back are set in IBM’s Theme proportional typewriter face.

Wang Laboratories was a renowned Massachusetts (USA) manufacturer of desktop computing and word processing technology through the 1970s and 1980s. Founded by Dr. An Wang in 1951, the company started out in typesetting and calculator equipment before becoming more successful and well-known for office computing equipment.

The Wang System 2200 was a series of desktop minicomputers with a built-in BASIC language, introduced in the early 1970s before the advent of popular microcomputing. The printed documentation for this line of systems employed a couple different design languages, but the style shown here with this typography was in consistent use through at least 1977’s PCS-II. 

A sticker for The Pachinko Factory located amidst a pachinko machine mechanism.

Who the heck looks at the back of mechanical devices? Well, I certainly do.

Imagine my glee when I spotted this incredible logo for The Pachinko Factory, a business in Calgary, Alberta, that reconditioned and distributed authentic Japanese pachinko machines between 1976 and 1983.

This machine originally belonged to my daughter-in-law’s grandfather and was likely purchased in the late 1970s.

The customization of what I assume to be Letraset’s version of Aldo Novarese’s Stop is delightful … especially the scattering of little pachinko balls as design elements.

Novarese’s Stop makes for quite a quirky choice for the title of this history of peasant rebellion in the then guerilla occupied Chalatenango region of El Salvador. Additional text on the cover is either in Trade Gothic or News Gothic. Stop is also used for the chapter titles.

From the blurb:

Jenny Pearce crossed the front line in El Salvador to collect oral histories from the people living under bombardment in Chalatenango, an area controlled by the FMLN guerillas. Promised Land traces how, despite 50 years of systematic and brutal repression, the peasants began to organize themselves. In the face of growing landlessness and misery, they formed a union in the 1970s to fight for cheaper credit, lower rents, and better wages on the plantations. Together with other labor organizations, they created one of the best organized and most combative popular movements in Latin America.

Charming cover artwork too, featuring hand-drawn lettering for the “Clinica” and the “Tienda Popular”. The copyright page (for once) credits Valeria Varas for the illustration and Chris Hudson for the cover design.

The book was published by the Latin America Bureau in London, with distribution in the USA by the Monthly Review Foundation.

Detail from the opening page of Chapter 1, showing Stop used for the chapter titles. The text typeface is News Plantin.

In 1978, Gay Freedom Day was the name of the march and celebration now known San Francisco Pride. The event that year, attended by an estimated 250,000 to 375,000 people, marked the debut of the original rainbow flags.

As Pride is a Protest explains, the 1978 Gay Freedom Day was also a major political event:

It featured a central rally against California Proposition 6, a.k.a. The Briggs Initiative, which aimed to bar gay teachers from the classroom. […]

1978 Gay Freedom Day also featured a newly elected Harvey Milk, California’s first openly gay government official, who rode down Market Street in a convertible wearing a pink triangle arm band and a shirt that read, “I’ll Never Go Back!”

It featured a boycott on Coors Brewing, which “put prospective employees through a polygraph test to determine, among other things, if they were homosexual. […]”

That year, the identity design for Gay Freedom Day prominently featured Aldo Novarese’s Stop typeface along with a rising sun motif. The design featured prominently across the celebration: on buttons, T-shirts, flyers, printed programs, and a hand-made parade banner for the Gay Freedom Day Committee. I haven’t been able to track down any credits for the design so please comment below with any leads you may have.

Pride events are taking place around the world this month for Pride Month, including SF Pride and NYC Pride this weekend.

Almost an entire font catalog on an album cover! This 1973 record compilation of UK television show theme music features at least 14 unique typefaces, each a logotype of a different TV program.

I see Bookman Swash, Stop, Amelia… and a bunch more that I look forward to learning about. The title in particular is one I don’t think I’ve seen before.

[More info on Discogs]

Pascal User Manual and Report, second edition.

Following Sander de Jong’s post on Niklaus Wirth I came across these covers for the Pascal User Manual and Report. Of the many programming languages that Niklaus Wirth designed and contributed to, Pascal is perhaps the best known, particularly among undergraduate programming courses of the 1970s and 1980s. This showing of the second edition has a cartouche proclaiming “Special Printing for Apple Computer, Inc.”, which hints at the fact that Pascal was the preferred systems programming language for Mac apps prior to Mac OS X (the period that Wikipedia calls the “Macintosh Era”).

I didn’t realise at the time, but the silver cover is a common design element for Springer–Verlag’s computer science series (see my earlier post on Programming in Prolog). Here, the silver is paired with red for the large keyword “pascal” in Amelia for the second and third edition, and Stop for the fourth edition. Both of which happen to be favourites of mine. The first edition is part of Springer–Verlag’s Lecture Notes in Computer Science series and has a much plainer covers, and no good scans available online.

I’m not sure what the solid red stripes above the “pascal” in the second edition are trying to do. The top right has a clipped corner, probably a reference to the clipped corner of an IBM 80-column punched card that dominated the industry at the time Pascal was introduced.

Remaining text is in Helvetica.

Niklaus Wirth died this year, 2024, on January 1.

Third edition. Compared to the second edition, the shape above the word “pascal” has been reduced to an outline that still follows the contours of the letters.

Fourth edition. Amelia has been replaced by Stop.

Revue was used extensively for SEGA’s After Burner game originally on the arcade machine livery and the attract screen through to advertising and home machine conversions across various platforms.

The Accenta is an alarm system first developed by Honeywell in the early 2000s. The Accenta+ ADE model shown here uses ITC Avant Garde Gothic for the buttons and Frutiger for the labels. “ADE” is based on Stop, while the Accenta+ logo appears to be Janson Text Bold Italic, stretched and further slanted.

Exhibition Formy Aktywności Artystycznej, Galeria Współczesna, Warsaw, 1975 © Zygmunt Rytka

In 1975, Galeria Współczesna in Warsaw showed a group exhibition titled Formy Aktywności Artystycznej (Forms of Artistic Activity). It featured works by Bernard Borgeaud, Jean Clareboudt, Hervé Fischer, Klaus Groh, Hubert, Tomek Kawiak, Jonier Marin, Pineau, and Da Rocha. The title as well as the names of the artists are applied in Aldo Novarese’s Stop.

Exhibition Formy Aktywności Artystycznej, Galeria Współczesna, Warsaw, 1975 © Zygmunt Rytka

Exhibition Formy Aktywności Artystycznej, Galeria Współczesna, Warsaw, 1975 © Zygmunt Rytka

Exhibition Formy Aktywności Artystycznej, Galeria Współczesna, Warsaw, 1975 © Zygmunt Rytka

Exhibition Formy Aktywności Artystycznej, Galeria Współczesna, Warsaw, 1975 © Zygmunt Rytka

Exhibition Formy Aktywności Artystycznej, Galeria Współczesna, Warsaw, 1975 © Zygmunt Rytka

An alleged photo of the elusive Banksy holding the artist’s trademark stencil signature which is based on Stop, with horizontal stretching. The a seen here seems to have been refined over time, being either a custom modification of Stop's C or D, or perhaps loosely based on another font entirely, such as the similar Motter Tektura.

Various works by the elusive street artist Banksy. The artist's trademark signature stencil is based on Stop. Other fonts used in works by the artist include stencilled versions of Courier New, Arial and Monotype Corsiva.

A work from 1998, featuring the artist’s trademark stencil signature which is based on Stop. The A featured in this early version of the Banksy signature more closely aligns with Stop.

First appearing in 2002, Banksy’s monkeys feature messages set in a stencilled version of the bold weight of Courier New.

A work from 2007, featuring text set in a stencilled version of the bold weight of Courier New.

A work from 2003, featuring text set in a stencilled version of the black weight of Arial.

A work from 2004, featuring text set in a stencilled version of Monotype Corsiva.

The cassette inlay of Andrew Braybrook’s Commodore 64 game Paradroid as published by Hewson Consultants.

From the top line in Eras Bold to the title’s wonderfully retro Data 70, from the cheesy Stop of the company name to the sober Helvetica for the instructions, this little artifact oozes “eighties” like the best of the crop.

The choice of typeface for the Paradroid title is reflected in the game as well, augmented by another famous and meticulously pixeled typeface, Motter Tektura.

Cassette inlay of the Commodore 64 release published in 1985.

Weekend World is a group of organizers of events in the 1990s in the rave party movement. This flyer was designed for Weekend World 1989 Part II, held at M25 Orbit on August 5, 1989.

On this flyer we find the name of the organizer and the date, with little information that goes beyond that. We can see a globe which is often present in the flyers of Weekend World. The design is quite characteristic of the flyers of this time; with a lot of illustration and a particular graphic composition featuring titles around the edges, turned 90 degrees. The typeface is Stop – a popular choice for hardcore and rave (see for example the Pont Aeri logo).

The use of the illustration is very common for rave flyers. But I find that the choice of colors is quite modern. Many flyers from this era use rather excessive and saturated color combinations. In contrast, this flyer is consistent in its use of colors.

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From Discogs:

Pont Aeri was the name of a famous club of Makina/Hard Trance/Hardcore located in Catalunya (Spain), active since 1992 to 2012. Skudero & Xavi Metralla were the resident DJs since 1997.
Under this name, were edited a lot of maxi-singles and compilations in Spain. The brand still active and there are parties in different locations.

The logo is in Stop, sometimes shown with a thick black outline, and sometimes with a 3-dimensional effect.

Ghost sign

Re+Union was the title of the 2020 edition of the Desert Daze music festival, held in April at Pappy and Harriet’s in Pioneer Town, Joshua Tree, California.

“Desert Daze” is set in Stop, and “Re+Union” is in Funky Rundkopf NF. Windsor is used for everything else, here in all-caps.

Variant with the lineup by days, printed in different colors

Magazine ad for Toxic Waste Hi-Voltage Bubble Gum from ca. 2008

Toxic Waste is a line of sour candies by Candy Dynamics from Indianapolis.

The advertisement for their Hi-Voltage Bubble Gum shown above features Ad Lib for “Torment your Taste Buds!” and “New!”, mostly in all caps, AG Book Stencil, a style unique to the AG Book Family, is used for “Shockingly Sour BUBBLE GUM!”, and “Over 2 Feet of Gum!” uses Techno. Secondary fonts include Akzidenz-Grotesk (plus Condensed) and Univers Ultra Condensed.

The packaging combines Kaffeehaus (an interpretation of Kaufmann with rounded terminals) for “Hi-Voltage” with Stencil (ATF) for “Toxic Waste”, supported by more Techno. The typeface chosen for the “Nuclear Sludge” packaging is Stop. The Candy Dynamics logo is based on Mister Earl, with stretched letterforms.

Toxic Waste Candy Special Edition Drums

Toxic Waste Nuclear Sludge candy display, 2008

Candy Dynamics logo

Source: www.etsy.com Image: Mind Dust Shop. License: All Rights Reserved.

My first exposure to Aldo Novarese’s superfuturistic typeface, Stop, was probably as an eight-year-old kid going through my older brother’s stuff and finding a Thompson Twins cassette. The synthpop band used the typeface on the cover for its single, “Lies” (1982), and it became a logo from that point on, appearing on promotional material, other singles, and the next three full-length releases: Quick Step & Side Kick (1983), Into the Gap (1984), and Here’s to Future Days (1985).

Source: ebay.us Image: societysdogs. License: All Rights Reserved.

Lies EP (1982). No design credit.

Source: ebay.us Image: wendi68-uk. License: All Rights Reserved.

Watching EP (1983). “Cover design by Satori with ideas from Alannah.”

Source: ebay.us Image: terr-cutt. License: All Rights Reserved.

Quick Step & Side Kick LP (1982). Design: Satori. Art Direction: David Shortt.

Source: www.flickr.com Image: The Retro-Spector. License: All Rights Reserved.

Into the Gap LP (1984). Art Direction: Alannah Currie, Nick Marchant. Design: Satori.

Source: www.flickr.com Image: Waffle Whiffer. License: All Rights Reserved.

Cap’n Crunch Rock ’n’ Roll Sticker, 1984.

Source: thompsontwinstombailey.co.uk License: All Rights Reserved.

Tom Bailey’s official website in 2021.

The three-headed logo was abandoned for album covers after percussionist Joe Leeway left the group in 1986 (making the illustration no longer relevant), but the typographic “Thompson Twins” continued to appear in merch and other material, including lead singer Tom Bailey’s current brand as of 2016.

It’s not clear who designed the logo. Band member Alannah Currie is an artist and was credited as a designer or art director on various Thompson Twins albums, but not Lies, where the logo first appeared.

Source: www.rosensound.com Image: Rosen Sound. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: youtu.be License: All Rights Reserved.

Tom Bailey plays a Prophet-5 synthesizer in the music video for the song, “Doctor Doctor”.

Stop was a popular typeface throughout the 1970s and 1980s, especially for anything “high tech”, so it’s not a surprise it was adopted by a band that leaned on electronic elements. But perhaps there was a direct influence: Tom Bailey played a Prophet-5, the iconic synthesizer manufactured by Sequential Circuits, a company whose logo was also set in Stop.

The typeface also appears in the artwork of other electronic musicians of the era, including Herbie Hancock – Flood album art and Tokyo Science – Tokyo Science album art.

Source: www.violaobrasileiro.com.br Violão Brasileiro. License: All Rights Reserved.

Front cover of the Som Livre pressing.

Jacarandá is an album by prolific Brazilian guitarist and composer Luiz Floriano Bonfá (1922–2001). It was released in 1973, with two different cover designs. Ranwood’s version features a photograph showing a peculiar detail of a tree (a Jacarandá?), taken by Bonfá himself. Domestic label Som Livre apparently didn’t trust the commercial appeal of this find. They relegated the bark to the back, and rather went with a photograph of the artist and his guitar for the front cover. This picture was taken by his wife, singer and songwriter Maria Toledo (1937–2010).

Source: wfmu.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Front cover of the Ranwood Records pressing.

The typography of both versions features two rare and spectacular typefaces. Bonfá’s name is set in Aztec. This wide all-caps sans with rounded corners was shown by Californian phototype service Lettergraphics in their 1969 catalog. Its unknown designer aimed for a three-dimensional look by adding a gradient of dots. The letterforms hence resemble worked stones as found in meso-American monuments. On the album cover, the gradient isn’t smooth: the inner parts are printed in a light green, the edges in a dark green, separated by a jagged inline in white. The acute accent on the A probably wasn’t included in the font, and added ad hoc.

Source: www.flickr.com Photo: Florian Hardwig. License: CC BY-NC-SA.

Aztec as shown in a Lettergraphics catalog fom 1969.

License: All Rights Reserved.

“Design & Poster” – alphabet by Ross F. George as shown in the 13th edition of his Speedball Text Book (1938).

The typeface used for the title is an interesting one, too. It’s shown by Lettergraphics as Split Ends in their 1970 catalog. The same face is reproduced under the name Split Caps in Castcraft’s Enyclopedia of Phototype Styles (1978) as well as in Special Effects and Topical Alphabets, a source book compiled by by Dan X. Solo and published by Dover in 1978. The design goes back to an (incomplete) alphabet by lettering artist Ross F. George, presented on a page labeled “Design & Poster” in the 13th edition of his Speedball Text Book from 1938, with less detailing than the phototype adaptation(s). There are various digital interpretations.

The Brazilian pressing additionally has a line in Windsor, proudly announcing that the record was “gravado em Los Angeles–USA”. The Som Livre logo is in Riverside Drive (ca. 1970), and “Estereo” in Stop (1971). The yellow sticker-like addition combines a wide sans and a serif, both in all-caps. These could be Trade Gothic Extended and Bodoni Bold.

Source: www.acervocult.com.br Acervo Cult. License: All Rights Reserved.

Front cover of the Som Livre pressing.

Source: www.acervocult.com.br Acervo Cult. License: All Rights Reserved.

Back cover of the Som Livre pressing.

Source: aucfan.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Front cover of a promotional copy of the Ranwood Records pressing.

[More info on Discogs]

Source: www.ebay.ca seriouslysimple. License: All Rights Reserved.

#1 Pacific 8 Conference Football ’73 ft. ITC Busorama

Touchdown Illustrated is an American college football magazine by Touchdown Publications, Inc. It was started in 1973 as the official publication of the Pacific 8 Conference and its member universities. In its first year, Touchdown Illustrated simultaneously published nine issues, all edited by Ralph M. Grady and David A. Duncan. No. 1 covered the Pacific 8 Conference in general. The other ones were dedicated to the eight university teams.

For the covers and the headlines, each issue uses a different display typeface or two. Most of the featured faces had been released in the years before. All of them were included in Letraset’s range of typefaces for dry transfer lettering.

#1 Pacific 8 Conference Football ’73 – ITC Busorama
#2 Oregon State University – Dynamo
#3 Stanford University – ITC Avant Garde Gothic
#4 University of California – Marvin
#5 UCLA Bruins – Kabel Black and Antique Olive
#6 University of Oregon – Neil Bold
#7 University of Southern California – Optex and Pump
#8 University of Washington – Revue
#9 Washington State University – Michel and Stop

The text typeface is Helvetica, and the all-lowercase logo of Touchdown Illustrated is based on Pump Bold or similar, with a customized c. The nameplate lists Charles R. Vaughan as Director of Advertising and Karen Anger as Staff Assistant, but doesn’t explicitly credit a designer.

Source: www.ebay.ca seriouslysimple. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.ebay.ca seriouslysimple. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.sportsartifacts.com Sports Artifacts. License: All Rights Reserved.

#2 Oregon State University ft. Dynamo.

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

#6 University of Oregon ft. Neil Bold

Source: www.ebay.com wwwprpsportscom. License: All Rights Reserved.

#3 Stanford University ft. ITC Avant Garde Gothic.

Source: www.ebay.com hri-showroom. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.ebay.com hri-showroom. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.ebay.ca Photo: maripaperco (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

#4 University of California ft. Marvin.

Source: www.ruleoftree.com Scott Allen, Rule of Three. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.ruleoftree.com Scott Allen, Rule of Three. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.ebay.ca Photo: hanselman (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.ebay.ca Photo: hanselman (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.ebay.ca brezeus. License: All Rights Reserved.

#5 UCLA Bruins ft. Kabel Black.

Source: www.ebay.ca brezeus. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.ebay.ca brezeus. License: All Rights Reserved.

#5 additionally features Antique Olive for titles.

Source: www.ebay.ca brezeus. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.ebay.ca brezeus. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.ebay.com sportscollectorandmore. License: All Rights Reserved.

#7 University of Southern California ft. Optex and Pump.

Source: www.ebay.com sportscollectorandmore. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.ebay.com sportscollectorandmore. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.ebay.com jjjcollectibles. License: All Rights Reserved.

#8 University of Washigton ft. Revue.

Source: www.ebay.ca Photo: maripaperco (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

#9 Washington State University ft. Michel and Stop

Source: www.ebay.com hri-showroom. License: All Rights Reserved.

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

Source: www.ebay.com hri-showroom. License: All Rights Reserved.

“Tokyo Friend Park 2 (Japanese: 東京フレンドパークII; often abbreviated as “TFP2”) is a Japanese game show that premiered in April 1994 on the Tokyo Broadcasting Station (TBS).” – Wikipedia

The “TFP2” part at the top uses the Stop typeface, with each character in a different bright color, and a drop shadow. The title at the bottom is set in JTC Win S.