Sunday Best Recordings house bag

All the fonts your typography teacher has warned you about!

The house bag of Sunday Best Recordings is a smorgasbord of extreme display typefaces; from the ornamented 19th-century classics Romantiques No.2 aka Carnival and No.5 aka Bracelet, to Roger Excoffon’s ingenious Calypso from the 1950s and Michel Jarland’s dreamy Astral from the 1970s, to downright cheesy faces that look as if they are formed out of wood planks (Slapstick) or ties (Necktie). Each on its own is already quite flashy. Together they form a ridiculous cacotypography … that warms the cockles of the font IDer’s heart. To me this looks so colorful, it’s hard to admit that the design is actually in black and white. It’s reminiscent of ads by manufacturers of pre-digital display typefaces like this one by Mecanorma, where every word is competing for attention and yet the message is always the same. The generic sleeve was used for several releases in the mid-2000s. Boomclick’s Follow Love from 2003 might have been the earliest one. Ten years later, it was referenced again for Lazyboy’s Pica Disco. The designer is uncredited.

Originally founded as a leftfield club night in 1995 by Radio 1 DJ and Bestival co-creator Rob da Bank, Sunday Best the label emerged in 1997. New partners Sarah Bolshi & Ben Turner joined in 2000 – Sarah running the label day to day, whilst all three influenced the label’s shape and direction. Renowned for its expansive and eclectic roster, as well as an unswerving dedication to the leftfield, roster includes early releases from Grand National, Max Sedgely & Dan le sac vs Scroobius Pip, as well as more recent outputs from the likes of David Lynch, Valerie June & Kitty, Daisy & Lewis. — sundaybest.net