Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run album art and 40th anniversary poster
Born to Run is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on August 25, 1975, by Columbia Records. From Wikipedia:
The cover art […] is one of rock music’s most recognizable images. It was taken by Eric Meola, who shot 900 frames in his three-hour session. These photos have been compiled in Born to Run: The Unseen Photos.
The photo shows Springsteen holding a Fender Telecaster with an Esquire neck, while leaning against saxophonist Clarence Clemons. That image became famous as the cover art. “Other things happened,” says Meola, "but when we saw the contact sheets, that one just sort of popped. During the Born to Run tours, Springsteen and Clemons would occasionally duplicate the pose onstage for several seconds after a song while the stage lights were dim. As soon as the audience recognized and responded to what they were doing, they immediately broke the pose.
“For the record, the typeface I used was Lightline Gothic. I wanted a typeface I could use large but which would not impose itself on the photo.” — John Berg, Backstreets News
40th anniversary poster by Dave Bett
“The gatefold album cover was originally designed by legendary art director John Berg, who was at Columbia Records from 1961 to 1985. For the new remastered edition, Bett had the challenge of recreating a classic: ‘When we were reworking the cover art and packaging, there was no exact match for that typeface anymore, which originally had been done in the days of going to a typesetter, pre-Mac. We worked with a typographer to recreate the alphabet from scratch, paying special care to match the letterforms and kerning.’” — Backstreet Records
John Berg with the 40th anniversary poster.
1 Comment on “Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run album art and 40th anniversary poster”
The font used for the anniversary poster is indeed Lightline Gothic, but the one for the original album cover is another, even thinner one. It also has different terminals, see C or S. It’s one of the styles from Hamilton Gothic Fineline, the lightweight range of Photo-Lettering’s Hamilton Gothic. I’ve adjusted the typeface credit and also replaced the image with a larger one from Bart Solenthaler.
Now Hamilton Gothic leans heavily on older designs like Lightline and its sturdier siblings like News Gothic, of course. And in the capitals, the differences are minute. There are various differences, though, and it also offered a number of alternates that bring it closer to other designs, including Helvetica.