“Omar Rayo en la Segunda Bienal Americana de Artes Graficas / Museo La Terulia / Cali Colombia, Octubre 1973.” Stripes (1973) is paired with Pump Bold (1970), which is used without i dots.

Omar Rayo (1928–2010) was an abstract art painter from Colombia whose geometric Op Art works have been exhibited multiple times at Museo La Tertulia and at Museo Rayo in Cali. The two museums collaborated on a retrospective exhibition with paintings from both collections. Each time a catalogue was printed it featured a different typeface arrangement, mostly with geometric display typefaces. Both museums even made an special exhibition in 1977 called Los Rayos del Museo Rayo y los Rayos del Museo La Tertulia.

Some exhibition catalogues like the one for La constante geometría from 1972 had original lettering, but most of the covers and posters are early examples of instant lettering typefaces in use, with very original typesettings. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any information about the designer of these printed materials.

Another exhibition from 1985 called Rayo Serie Raya Blanca Raya Negra shows Stripes in use. In Spanish, Omar’s family name Rayo could be translated to “ray”, but when used in feminine form, Raya means “stripe”. In this case, it transtales to: Rayo White Stripe and Black Stripe Series.

Joc Line (1973).

Stop (1971) and caps from an unidentified wide grotesk (similar to Akzidenz-Grotesk or Venus breit) for Omar Rayo at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo.

Sans-serif caps from what appears to be a predigital cut of Helvetica, cropped and repeated.

Traffic (1973).

This piece of lettering appears to be modeled after Pacella Graphic Biform or Bailey.

Deutsch Black (1966).

These letterforms that look like folded paper strips are either custom drawn or from an unidentified typeface.

Compacta Bold Outline (1965) on an angle, with a circle punched out and rotated.

Eurostile neretto largo (1962), caught in a grid.

ITC Ronda Bold (1970), with a crop-and-repeat treatment and a custom interlinear ligature.

Good Vibrations (1973).

Yagi Link Double (1968).

Baby Teeth (c. 1966).

Hot Dog (1975). While most of the other typefaces were carried by Letraset, Hot Dog was exclusive to their competitor Mecanorma.

These caps look like they’re from Moore Computer (1968). The Y isn’t a match, though – it might be an alternate, or a modification.

This ladder-like arrangement appears to use custom drawn letterforms.

Poster for Rayo Serie Raya Blanca Raya Negra (1985), featuring Stripes and Helvetica. The Museo Rayo logo at the bottom left is based on ITC Avant Garde Gothic, while the text at the right is set in caps from Wexford.

Poster for La Constante Geometria (1972), ft. more ITC Ronda and Univers Ultra Condensed or similar. The big “OMAR RAYO” is probaby custom. For similar extracompressed digital fonts, see Radiator or Fit Skyline.

First launched in 2015, Group B is a product line of luxury watches by Autodromo, a New York-based company which takes its inspiration from the golden age of motorsport. The series name is derived from “a set of regulations introduced in 1982 for competition vehicles in sportscar racing and rallying regulated by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA)” known as Group B.

For the logo, Autodromo referenced the typography featuring Traffic used by Peugeot for their Group B rally model, the 205 Turbo 16, see the post by Sean-Paul. Since Tom Hultgren’s Letraset design was lowercase-only, the capital B had to be added. It could have been derived from the numeral 3. Autodromo introduced some more customizations: hairlines were thickened, the two-storey g was replaced by a simpler shape, and the slash through p was moved up a bit. See the comments for a glyph set of the original Traffic.

Box with a 1980s-style grid illustration and the logo shwon on an angle.

Aluminium case.

Number plate with the Group B logo.

Contents of the case, including stickers with the logos of Autodromo and the Group B series.

Cover of the instruction booklet

Traffic used in a near-LTypI application on the back of Peugeot’s rally model 205 Turbo 16. From AutoRAI (translated):

In 1982, motor racing federation FIA decided to create a new rally class. This so-called “Group B” class was a competition in which there were hardly any rules. The only hard requirement was that manufacturers had to build at least 200 street cars from their competitive model. This new rally class caught the attention of many car manufacturers because the regulations offered the opportunity to maximize their technical knowledge. The result was a period of exotic, super-fast cars with rear or four-wheel drive that were as fast on gravel as a Formula 1 car on asphalt. From Lada to Ferrari, every manufacturer entered the Group B standings and one of the manufacturers was Peugeot.

Peugeot pumped and pimped their existing retail car model 205, and released it as model 205 T16. The rally edition was successful, winning two world titles until the Group B races were terminated following two lethal accidents in 1987. The same design was also used for the 405 Turbo 16.

“Turbo” with an uppercase T. See more images of the steering wheel and the dashboard (not in Traffic).

This close-up shows that Traffic is used in modified form: Most glyphs were made a little wider and the arch in r heavier. 5 does without bridge, t got a tail and a slash, and b lost its spur. See the original letterforms for comparison.

This plate uses standard Traffic, see t (no tail), r (thin hairline), b (with spur).

The Matchbox model car references the lettering based on Traffic, too, on the side as well as on the rear. 5 is again a little different. See more images at the Matchbox University.

In 2016, the rally model of the Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 was made available for use in Grand Theft Auto 5 (the game). It is described as “perfect for racing, but can also serve for ordinary travel in the city or suburbs. Texture is well developed and the model looks very nice in the light of the sun.”

Asphalt Gardens is the debut album by American smooth jazz saxophonist George Howard (1956–1998), released by Palo Alto Jazz in 1982. Cover design by Joan Ingoldsby Brown, with art direction by Herb Wong, photography by Craig Street, and a typeface conceived by Swedish illustrator and stamp designer Tom Hultgren. The lowercase-only Traffic was selected in a competition held by Letraset in 1973.

Back cover with track names and credits set in ITC Kabel.

Typographie: Schrift und Graphik mit Letraset was an exhibition that ran in Darmstadt, München, and Zürich in 1978–79. This 8×8-inch 72-page catalog was designed by Christof Gassner and features his own work along with dozens of other designers who used Letraset.

Design: Christof Gassner

Design: Helmut Langer

Design: Christof Gassner. Promotional material for Deutsche Letraset. The last image was used for the cover of LetraTime.

Design: Friedrich Friedl

Design: Christof Gassner. German translation of a quote by Henri Michaux: “Qui s’est abaissé devant une fourmi, n’a plus à s’abaisser devant un lion.” – “Those who have bowed to an ant do not have to bow down before a lion.”

Design: Christof Gassner. German titles of various plays by Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About _, King Lear, Richard III. For more, see Schauspiel im ZDF.

Design: Christof Gassner. Various film titles: Le Quai des brumes (Port of Shadows), The Third Man, Daddy Long Legs, Scarface

Rare sampler with NDW hits and related early 1980s German music. Exclusive pressing for Deutscher Schallplattenclub, released on Sonocord as 28477-8 (source).

This pile of band names represents “the essence of 1982 type on a single cover” (Stephen Coles). The most obscure typeface in the mix probably is Neptun (for “Fehlfarben”), originally released in 1900 by AG für Schriftgießerei, Offenbach. I am not aware of a digital version [edit: Peter Wiegel digitized it as Neptune CAT in 2014]. Time Machine is the best digitally available option for the unidentified MICR typeface for “Spliff”.

The title looks like a free interpretation of Kabel Black. “Jawoll” is probably not a font.

Track list

UKW: Sommersprossen
Trio: Da Da Da
Falco: Der Kommissar
ZaZa: Der Zauberstab
Rheingold: FanFanFanatisch
Nickerbocker: Puppe (Du Bist A Moderne Hex’)
Die Doraus & die Marinas: Fred vom Jupiter
Jawoll: Taxi
Neonbabies: Alibi
Neue Heimat: Ich bau dir ein Schloss

Spider Murphy Gang: Skandal im Sperrbezirk
Spliff: Carbonara
Fehlfarben: Ein Jahr (es geht voran)
Extrabreit: Hurra hurra, die Schule brennt
Palais Schaumburg: Wir bauen eine neue Stadt
Nichts: Tango 2000
Kraftwerk: Das Model
Joachim Witt: Der goldene Reiter
Zeitgeist: Anonyme Spieler
Minisex: Mona Lisa

Gustav Mårtensson, the designer of the stamps, explaining how the typefaces were selected by their importance to Swedish typographical history and their ability to represent the graphic expression of their time.

A new series of five stamps have recently been issued in Sweden, each portraying one influencial Swedish typeface to reflect the local typographic history. The five typefaces chosen were Berling (1951) by Karl-Erik Forsberg*, Indigo (1999) by Johan Ström, Sispos/Bosis (1973) by Bo Berndal, Satura (2010) by Göran Söderström, Peter Bruhn; and Traffic (1973) by Tom Hultgren.

*The digital version of Berling Antiqua is Berling Nova (2004) by Örjan Nordling and Fredrik Andersson.

Satura is representative of the new wave of Swedish fonts that are being drawn with digital tools and sold over the Internet.