Karasek is an Austrian winery whose labels combine expressive illustration with a restrained typographic system. The main information is set in Morion, whose sharp, high-contrast serif forms give the labels a precise, contemporary presence across winery name, varietals, and key descriptors. Supporting details are set in Akzidenz Grotesk, providing a neutral counterpoint and handling dense information efficiently, particularly in the narrow vertical column. The pairing creates a clear hierarchy that balances character and readability.

язык тишины (Yazyk Tishiny, English: “Language of Silence”) was made as a student project at HSE Art and Design School.

We are used to thinking of silence as a lack of sound or image, a kind of “pause” between important events. In my book, the opposite is true: silence is the main character and the active material. It is the moment when the visual noise subsides, and we finally begin to notice the very structure of things: the grain of the film, the rhythm of the grid, or the physics of the paper. It is not “nothing,” but “everything” that we usually don’t have enough time for.

I wanted to understand how silence in art goes from being just an empty space to becoming a powerful tool. In a world where everything is loud and fast-paced, I wanted to find ways to slow down the viewer. My goal was to create a system that would make people stop, look closer, and experience the pause as a full-fledged event.

Source: jellobiafrasays.tumblr.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Barcelona Step By Step by Bert and Frances Strauss

Barcelona pam a pam is a city guide written by Alexandre Cirici Pellicer (1914–1983) and first published in 1971 by Editorial Teide, with photographs by Oriol Maspons (1928–2013) and drawings by the author. Bert and Frances Strauss translated the book to the English, as Barcelona Step By Step (1974). A version in Castilian Spanish, Barcelona paso a paso, followed by 1975.

Source: en.todocoleccion.net Maria28MM (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Barcelona pam a pam (original Catalan version), with Cirici’s name in Akzidenz-Grotesk

Source: srabsenta.blogspot.com Cosas de Absenta (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Barcelona paso a paso (Castilian version), with Cirici’s name in Helvetica

All three editions feature the same cover design by Victor Rahola – with the title set on a curve, in A.M. Cassandre’s Bifur – albeit it with different colors for the hat of the man peering in from above. The interior pages are set in Folio and two typefaces by Simoncini: Karlgeorg Hoefer’s Permanent and Francesco Simoncini’s Aster.

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Title page with Folio halbfett and Permanent

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Table of contents in Permanent. The colophon on the left is set in Monotype Grotesque.

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Folio mager for the chapter title “How To Use This Book”, Aster for the text

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Detail with text set in two weights of Aster

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Chapter opening with the number from Folio’s extrafett and the title in the mager.

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Text is interspersed with bits of history that are presented in a smaller size, also from Permanent.

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Spread from chapter 11 on Antoni Gaudí, with one of the photographs by Maspons. The caption is in Aster Italic.

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Detail with text set in two weights of Permanent

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Glossary of special terms

Source: www.antikavion.cz Antikvariát Avion. License: All Rights Reserved.

Zelená kuchyně (1988) by Jan Jeník, Václav Větvička, and Sergej Michajlovič Skornjakov, with illustrations by Edita Plicková

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Czechoslovak publisher Lidové nakladatelství brought out a series of nature books in their Edice Planeta imprint. Zelená kuchyně (“Green kitchen”) is about vegetables and edible plants and Zelení ježci (“Green hedgehogs”) about cacti, while Zelený domov (“Green home”) deals with houseplants and Klenoty přírody (“Jewels of nature”) with minerals.

The cover designs are by Milan Albich (1925–2000), a painter, illustrator, and graphic artist from Krupina, Slovakia. He rendered the titles in ITC Serif Gothic. in all-lowercase letters from the Black weight, likely using the Letraset adaptation for dry transfer lettering. Unlike Mecanorma’s – or the official digitization, for that matter – this version includes the alternate glyphs, see for example the descending forms for z and k, the spurless r, and the tailed t.

Albich must have been fond of this typographic style: he also used it for a catalog of his own drawings and paintings in 1987.

Source: www.etsy.com craftytransfers (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

A sheet of 48pt Serif Gothic Black, issued by Letraset in 1980 as LG3603 in their Letragraphica range. Note the alternates for aefkrstzEL and the pile of combining diacritics at the bottom.

Source: www.modrykonik.sk Modrý koník (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Zelení ježci (1989) by Stanislav Peleška and Valerij Dmitrijevič Lobko, with illustrations by Jiřina Kaplická and František Severa

Source: aukro.cz knihyantikeu (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Zelený domov (1990) by Galina Tavlinova and Jan Dienstbier, with illustrations by Zdeněk Berger

Source: www.knihyuvrany.cz Knihy U Vrány (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Klenoty přírody (1990) by Vladimír Bouška and Vitalij Ippolitovič Sobolevskij, illustrated by Adolf Absolon 

Source: www.ebay.com Epic Rare Books and Collectibles (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Wanted: Dennis the Menace. The other fonts are Antique Tuscan Condensed and Akzidenz-Grotesk Bold.

Hank Ketcham’s Dennis the Menace made its debut as a daily syndicated newspaper comic strip on March 12, 1951. It has subsequently been published in comic book form by various publishers, including Standard/Pines (1953–58), Fawcett Comics (1958–80, and Marvel Comics (1981–82).

Shown here are covers for the mass market paperback collections by Fawcett Crest, published in their Crest Book and Fawcett Gold Medal imprints. The main title is set in Filmotype Accent. Volume titles and secondary text use a variety of typefaces. More often than not, the former is added in the form of hand-lettering.

Source: www.ebay.com Lost Cellar Found (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

In This Corner… Small text is in Venus Extended.

Source: www.ebay.com Tom Ray’s Pop-Culture Roadshow (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Make-Believe Angel. The volume title appears to be lettering. At the very bottom, News Gothic Bold.

Source: www.ebay.com Spook’s Monster Mayhem y Mas (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Rides Again. Accent is here used for the whole tite and for the author’s name.

Source: www.ebay.com Tom Ray’s Pop-Culture Roadshow (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

…Teacher’s Threat

Source: www.ebay.com CarolinasTrader (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Household Hurricane

Source: www.ebay.com SattyFamilyCards (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

…Who Me?

Source: www.ebay.com CollectiblesAgain (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Ambassador of Mischief, featuring all-caps Dom.

Source: www.ebay.com MCL’S Closet Treasures (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Everybody’s Little Helper, again with Dom

Source: www.ebay.com OnTimeBooks (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Dennis the Menace and Poor Ol’ Mr. Wilson

Source: www.ebay.com Tom Ray’s Pop-Culture Roadshow (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Surprise Package

Source: www.ebay.com Shy Girl Thrifts (dited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Short ’n Snappy

Source: www.ebay.com Tom Ray’s Pop-Culture Roadshow (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Dennis the Menace and his Girls

Source: www.ebay.com Tom Ray’s Pop-Culture Roadshow (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Perpetual Motion

Source: www.ebay.com Iris of Versi (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

…Here Comes Trouble

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

All-American Kid

First edition (hardcover) by Bartholomew House, 1967, illustrated by Bill Wenzell. The illustrations on the front of jacket are by Roy E. LaGrone. Secondary typefaces include Craw Clarendon Condensed, Filmotype Harmony (or Photo-Lettering’s copy, Almadine Script), and Century Expanded Italic.

Coffee Tea or Me? was advertised as “the uninhibited memoirs of two airline stewardesses”, and credited to Trudy Baker and Rachel Jones. In fact, it was ghost-written by Donald Bain. The 1967 hardcover dust jacket features Caruso Roxy, set in all caps. The same typeface was also used for the paperback cover, now bigger and in mixed case, as well as for the three sequels published until 1975. In 1973, the book was made into a film.

Caruso Roxy is a typeface that we’ve come to associate with the swinging 60s.

Coffee Tea or Me? The uninhibited memoirs of two airline stewardesses. First Bantam edition (paperback), November 1968 with cover art by Bill Wenzel and small text in all-caps News Gothic.

The Coffee Tea or Me Girls’ ’Round the World Diary. First edition (hardcover) by Grosset & Dunlap, 1970. The multilingual toasts are stereotypically added in more or less fitting typefaces: Peignot (French), Post-Antiqua (Hebrew), Cloister Black (German), Centaur (Spanish), Akzidenz-Grotesk Extended (Scandinavian), Jessen-Schrift (Greek), Americana (English), Mandarin (Japanese), and Century Schoolbook (Italian).

Jacket and cover with spine lettering

The Coffee Tea or Me Girls’ ’Round the World Diary. Paperback edition by Bantam Books, April 1971, with small type in Alternate Gothic.

The Coffee Tea Or Me Girls: Lay it On The Line, Bantam Books, 1973. The fat years are over: the main typeface now is Caruso Roxy’s light weight. Secondary text is in italic caps from Caledonia.

The Coffee Tea Or Me Girls Get Away From It All, Bantam Books, 1975, with Helvetica used for the text in red.

Man of La Mancha is a 1965 musical adaptation of Don Quixote, with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion, and music by Mitch Leigh. The libretto was published by Random House in 1966, featuring an illustratin by Al Hirschfeld and Caruso Roxy for the title. Its amorphous glyphs allowed the jacket designer to knead the words into place, squeezing the second M down to x-height so that the two lines fit snug together.

Detail from the inner flap of the book jacket, with credits in Bodoni

This book written by Maurice Darmon and published by the Bordeaux-based publisher 202 éditions is about the films made by Anne-Marie Miéville between 1976 et 2002. It is the first monograph devoted solely to her own work. As Jean-Luc Godard’s partner since the 1970s, her collaborative work with the filmmaker has been more widely distributed and recognized. Designer Paule Palacios-Dalens used Borges (by Loche, PampaType) for all main texts and titles, and Akzidenz-Grotesk (Berthold, 1898) for pagination and some subtitles. The cover titling is set in Punto (by Arne Freytag, Fontador).

Armin Hofmann designed this 127×90 cm poster for a 1961 exhibition at Gewerbemuseum Basel entitled Basel und die Stadtstrassen der Zukunft (“Basel and the urban roads of the future”).

This poster beautifully demonstrates Hofmann’s ability to create effective and powerful images with the simplest elements. Here, Hofmann restricts himself to one typeface and four triangular shapes in one shade of red, yet produces a poster that is at once functional, relevant, and visually striking. The alignment and sizing of the type leads the reader’s eye in a logical order and at a pleasant pace. The negative space around the shapes is dynamic, almost creating an illusion of movement. Despite its abstract nature, the negative space is evocative of the poster’s subject matter (urban roads). Through its contrasting point sizes, alignment, and its relationship to the four shapes, the typography creates a sense of perspective or depth – without ever resorting to overlapping elements. Rather than simply being smaller, text at smaller point sizes appears to be further away.

The powerful effect of the typography is demonstrated further by comparing the poster to the accompanying exhibition booklet that Hofmann also designed, see the website of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich. The shapes and their placement in the frame are the same. The booklet’s title is positioned in a similar place as the poster’s headline. The composition thus remains satisfyingly dynamic (now with the flow of the negative space predominant). However, due to the small size of the cover (20.8×14.8 cm), there is no supplementary text and only one point size is used. Without contrasting typographic sizes, the poster’s incredible sense of depth is lost.

Cover of the mono release, with the number (LM-2896) at the bottom, in Akzidenz-Grotesk

Julian Bream (1933–2020) was an English classical guitarist and lutenist. In the fall of 1965 he recorded an album with his interpretation of the Lute Suites that Johann Sebastian Bach composed in the first half of the 18th century. It was released by RCA Red Seal in 1966.

The uncredited cover designer selected a typeface from the late 19th century. With the exuberance of decorative tendrils, it may still be described as baroque. It’s Nymphic, designed by Herman Ihlenburg and first cast in 1889 by MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan. Or rather, it’s Xenotype 3799, a phototype revival of Nymphic made at Photo-Lettering in the first half of the 1960s. The spacing is decidedly of its time: tight-not-touching – much tighter than what was possible with metal type in previous decades.

[More info on Discogs]

For the stereo release, the number (LSC-2896) was moved to the top, pushing the typographic composition down. “Stereo” is added in all-caps Venus Extended.

A sample of 18 point Nymphic as it was presented in Inland Printer, volume 7, issue 2, from November 1889, here with its lowercase characters and the alternate oversized display caps, or initials. The four arrow-spoked asterisk used on the album cover can be found back as well.

Live! At Caesar’s Palace is the debut album by the Checkmates Ltd. It was released on Capitol Records in 1967. The cover shows the band name in purple Smoke, featuring a custom drawn castellated T that alludes to a rook piece.

Wikipedia has the following information about the band:

The Checkmates, Ltd. were an American R&B group from Fort Wayne, Indiana. The group, discovered by Nancy Wilson, was named such because the group included both black and white members, and their various skin tones evoked a chessboard; their one major hit was 1969’s “Black Pearl”, produced by Phil Spector.

The album title is in pink and red caps from Helvetica Black.

[More info on Discogs]

Cover for the 1972 album Euro Jazz by the Václav Zahradník Big Band, released on the Czechoslovakian label Supraphon. Designers Josef Zich and Miloslav Žáček used Juke-Box for a somewhat abstract but striking title treatment, paired with Akzidenz-Grotesk for the artist credits and featured musicians.

[More info on Discogs]

While the title on the front cover is lettering, the blackletter seen on the back and the flap is Deutsche Schrift, used in two weights with both forms for the letter s (see “Ausſtellungshallen”) and the mandatory ligatures for ch, ck, tz. Note that the S in “S-Bahnhof” was added from a bold roman that approximates the logo glyph. Berthold’s Halbfette Lateinisch is a likely source.

A folder advertising Third Class fares on the Berlin S-Bahn to visit the exhibition grounds and Funkturm adjacent to the city's S-Bahn station at Witzleben. The diagram is interesting in that the system’s stations include the Third Class (3. Klasse) fare to Witzleben from the station of origin.

The folder is not dated but there are some clues and others with sharper eyes and better knowledge than me may offer more information! But the station Deutschlandhalle was named as such from Eichkamp in May 1936, and the Nord-Süd links through the city centre are not shown here; the S-Bahn station at Unter den Linden, shown here, opened in 1936 as the provisional terminus (following the catastrophic collapse of the railway excavations in the locality in 1935) and it was 1939 before the S-Bahn through to Potsdamer Platz was opened.

The folder gives other information including the advice that you can travel to the exhibition grounds by S-Bahn (suburban train, that the exhibition halls at the radio tower (Funkturm) are quick and easy to reach from Witzleben S-Bahn station and that you should purchase your return ticket when you travel to the exhibition grounds.

The folder is printed on stout card and, after some discussion with more knowledgable Berliners, it is likely to be original. It shows no ‘reprint’ data and the folds are well worn suggesting some age. The folder also shows both versions of the S-Bahn symbol or logotype; that of the S in a circle and that of the S in a tombstone shape – the latter being the original design by Fritz Rosen in 1930 that was changed to the circle in c.1936. There is also the Adler or eagle symbol used by the Deutsche Reichsbahn.

The station names aren’t typeset, but written by hand, in an inclined Blockschrift (cf. DIN 16). The fare info underneath the S-Bahn “tombstone” appears to be set in Berthold Block and Akzidenz-Grotesk.

The large black heading is written in a simplified textura. Interestingly, the letterforms don’t really follow the model drawn by Friedling in May 1935 for the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft, nor are they particularly close to any of the typefaces of this genre. The F with vertical, descending stem resembles the one in Element, but other details are off.

The cover photo of the Golden Gate Bridge is by Joe Norton.

A classic Columbia Records LP cover for Tony Bennett’s 1962 album I Left My Heart in San Francisco, featuring Normande Italic.

The design uses the high-contrast fat face for all text on the front cover, from the city name to the song titles, echoing 19th‑century display types.

The images show different pressings and crops of the sleeve, all retaining the same typographic hierarchy.

[More info on Discogs]

Title and artist’s name are shown in three lines of alternating colors. The colors are echoed in the slashes that separate the song names. Note also the sign painters’ quotes.

The back cover of this US pressing pairs Univers Italic for the bigger lines with Akzidenz-Grotesk a.k.a. Standard for the liner notes and track listing.

The back cover of the British release uses Gill Sans Italic and Monotype Grotesque. It was printed and made by the E.J. Day Group, London.

Cover art of the Mono Mind album Mind Control

Mono Mind – yet another side project of Per Gessle – have released one album and seven singles. They all feature designs that follow almost a cookie-cutter template, with coarsely halftoned images of the band characters on random backgrounds in bright colours. The band's name has always been set in David Kerkhoff’s Dirrrty, with the release title in Bureau Grot Medium Compressed. The sole exception to this is the album which has its title set in Akzidenz-Grotesk Extended. From the third single onwards, the single titles have been mechanically skewed 15° to create a faux italic.

[More info on Discogs]

Cover art of the first Mono Mind single “Sugar Rush”, featuring a different design to all the singles that followed

Cover art of all the versions of the Mono Mind single “Save Me a Place”, featuring a slightly evolved design from the first single

Cover art of both versions of the Mono Mind single “I Found My Soul at Marvingate”, featuring a design template that would be followed by all their subsequent single releases

Cover art of all versions of the Mono Mind single “LaLaLove”

Cover art of the Mono Mind singles “Down by the Riverside”, “Fighting for the Future”, and “All Over Your Body”

Las Killer Gringo is the debut novel by Jarol Ferreira Acosta, an artist born and based in Villanueva, La Guajira. The story follows a group of young people through their dangerous and radiant adventures in a coastal city where desire, violence, and friendship converge under the same sun. With a voice that is both direct and poetic, Ferreira captures a youth growing at the edge of danger—between music, heat, and the search for meaning.

Published by Rey Naranjo Editores, the book was designed by Raúl Zea and Isabella Viracachá. The cover features Akzidenz-Grotesk BQ Extended, while the interior is set in Lyon Text, a typographic pairing that reflects the contrast between the story’s urban energy and its intimate, contemplative undertones.

Cowboys to Girls is a 1968 album by Philadelphia soul group The Intruders, released on Gamble Records. The album includes their breakthrough hit title track Cowboys to Girls. The cover design is uncredited. The album title features an early use of Village. The chosen style is Other Village, distinguished by a solid shade to the right.

The band name is in Akzidenz-Grotesk. Text on the back cover appears to be set in the Selectric version of Univers and Courier.

[More info on Discogs]

The names are set in a different, older sans of German origin: it’s Akzidenz-Grotesk mager. Peter Trunk’s name lacks an R.

Folio breithalbfett in use with its biform alternates for an album by the Klaus Doldinger Quartet featuring Attila Zoller. Released in 1965 on EmArcy Records, it shows influences from Latin music which the group had gained on their tour through South America.

Klaus Doldinger died this week at the age of 89. Outside jazz circles, the saxophonist and composer is best known for the film scores to Das Boot (1981) and The NeverEnding Story (1984). In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, his musical theme for Tatort can still be heard regularly on television – first aired in 1970, the crime series is the longest-running German-language TV drama.

[More info on Discogs]

Track list, credits and liner notes on the back cover are set in different styles from Monotype Grotesque.

The Big Jump is a science fiction novel by Leigh Brackett (1915–1978), the “Queen of Space Opera”. Originally published in the February 1953 issue of Space Stories, it first appeared in book form in Ace Double D-103 from 1955. Shown here is the 1976 paperback edition.

[More info on ISFDB]

ITC Busorama as designed by Tom Carnase with Herb Lubalin was released by ITC in 1970 and became a staple in the following decade. Busorama Prisma is a multiline variant that is less well known. In fact, this book cover is the first time it appears on Fonts In Use. Busorama Prisma was shown in 1973 by Photo-Lettering, the company that produced many of ITC’s fonts. Unlike the plain release, it came with a lowercase. I’m not aware of a digitization.

Busorama Prisma as shown in Photo-Lettering Number Two (Alphabet Directions #21) from 1973

Fonts from the Flea Market 1421

This single by the Dutch group around singer George Baker a.k.a. Hans Bouwens was released in 1970, from their second album, Love in the World. A follow-up to their 1969 hit “Little Green Bag”, it made the Top Ten in the Netherlands and Belgium.

[More info on Discogs]