The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe, Farrar Straus Giroux
Contributed by Florian Hardwig
on May 15th, 2018. Artwork published in
.
First edition of The Right Stuff, a 1979 book “about the pilots engaged in U.S. postwar research with experimental rocket-powered, high-speed aircraft as well as documenting the stories of the first Project Mercury astronauts selected for the NASA space program.”
The cover typography with the accelerating effect was probably created with phototype versions of Stymie and Gill Sans. Among digital fonts, Stymie Black as sold by Bitstream, URW++ and others comes close for the former. Apart from the square dot, the title face is similar to Gill Sans Display ExtraBold which also has the g with circular counter and short descender. Do you know who designed this book jacket? Please let us know in a comment.
RIP Tom Wolfe.
6 Comments on “The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe, Farrar Straus Giroux”
I think the g is raised, not short-ascendered. Never noticed what an unexpected pair of typefaces this was.
Oops, I meant short-descendered.
You’re right, of course: It’s the baseline shift for g that prevents a collision in the stacked and interlocked setting. What I wanted to hint at is the fact that the counters in the Display cut are smaller. However, the descender isn’t really shorter as I had assumed. Here’s a comparison of Monotype’s digital version of Gill Sans ExtraBold (top) and Gill Sans Display ExtraBold (bottom):
Gorgeous! Also interesting to note the cool swagger of that cap S on the front cover Stuff, as compared to the standard cap S on the spine. Also seems like the cover cap R is a bit higher-waisted (?) and boot-cut than standard Gill Sans Display Extra Bold. Fabulous. Would love the full story! Thanks!
Just got off the phone with Kiyoshi Kanai who designed this cover. I asked if any transfer or phototype was used, and he said he drew it by hand, including the perspective plane (rather than achieving that effect photographically).
Kanai designed many book jackets. According to him, “90%” used letterforms inspired by typefaces, but redrawn by hand. Some jackets, like this one, are uncredited, so I’ll get a list from him.
That’s amazing. Thanks for finding the design credit and introducing me to Kiyoshi Kanai.