ABC fall 1977 promo graphic
Contributed by Stephen Coles on Jun 26th, 2016. Artwork published in
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Source: www.myfonts.com License: All Rights Reserved.
Released by Compugraphic in the 1980s as Zarana, this typeface also appears in a ca. 1981 Fotostar catalog as ABC Gothic and ABC Sans, which indicates it was perhaps a custom typeface for ABC (American Broadcasting Company). It was frequently used in broadcast and film, hinting that it may also have been included in video titling equipment of the period.
7 Comments on “ABC fall 1977 promo graphic”
ABC used this for its fall 1977 promotion. Not 1975.
Thank you! I’ve adjusted the date from c. 1975 to 1977.
The mentioned Soap is the sitcom series that ABC aired from September 13, 1977.
Here’s another still from another Soap promo from 1977, featuring Zarana:
Zarana appears to be ABC Sans, ABC Gothic/ABC Special and S & M Bold according to Fontastique. Dunno if this might be a custom font for ABC.
That definitely sounds plausible. Thanks for the link, Jay!
I have asked Fontastique Faces whether they can add dates to the information, and detail which company used which name.
Fontastique kindly responded with more info from their research (thank you!).
They suspect that ABC Gothic is the basis of Zarana (in or before 1990).
ABC Gothic with Outline and ABC Sans (with lowercase) is shown in a FotoStar catalog from the early 1980s (in or after 1981).
ABC Special is shown by Castcraft in their Supplement B from 1986.
S & M Bold is shown in an undated TSI catalog, probably from the late 1970s.
Yasaburo Kuwayama’s Pictograms and Typefaces of the World 2 shows a custom variation designed by Kuwayama and Ikuo Masubuchi for auto parts manufacturer Nihon Denso in 1981.