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Miles Davis – We Want Miles

Contributed by Matthijs Sluiter on Jan 27th, 2018. Artwork published in .
Miles Davis – We Want Miles 1
Source: listen.tidal.com License: All Rights Reserved.

We Want Miles is a double album with recordings from Boston, New York and Tokyo, by jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, released by Columbia Records in 1982. Cover photo: Yoshihisa Yoneda.

The W/W image rhyme is completed by changing Miles’ M for a flipped W. The cover type was manually slanted (and made more bold?). It is derived from a bold extended style of one of the early-20th century grotesques from Germany, probably Aurora-Grotesk (Annonce) or Venus.

The red text on the back was set in a yet unidentified geometric sans serif with a straight-legged M.

Miles Davis – We Want Miles 2
Source: espdx.com License: All Rights Reserved.
Miles Davis – We Want Miles 3
Source: meshok.net License: All Rights Reserved.

Typefaces

  • Hallo-Kursiv
  • unidentified typeface

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2 Comments on “Miles Davis – We Want Miles

  1. The unidentified font looks almost like Sol Hess’s Twentieth Century, with the exception of the straight-sided M. I wonder if it ever came with the straight M as an alternate?

  2. I’ve adjusted the primary typeface credit from Annonce / Aurora-Grotesk V to Hallo-Kursiv. The latter was added by Ludwig & Mayer in 1961, and is the only italic version of this design made in the days of metal type. See a specimen at the Letterform Archive’s website.

    Castcraft showed a phototype adaptation as Hallo Italic in 1978. With a little stretching and using an upside-down W for M, this would come really close. Admittedly, slanting some version of Annonce would do so, too.

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