Mandrill – Just Outside Of Town album art
Just Outside of Town is the fourth album by Brooklyn-based soul/funk band Mandrill. Released in 1973, the cover typography featuring ITC Pioneer with hyper-extended glyphs may have been inspired by the identity of the Wattstack concert that took place in August 1972, which in turn followed the typographic choice made for the Shaft movie and soundtrack from 1971.
On this record cover, the extended strokes seem to be applied haphazardly. In particular, the descending T that crashes into the third line looks a bit messy, adding another layer to the already three-dimensional letterforms — maybe the idea was to create a typographic metaphor for the “town” with its high-rises.
The booklet presents all seven band members with a photograph and a two-colored setting of their names. The ascending and descending glyphs used here are alternates that were included in the film versions of ITC Pioneer. ITC’s digital “Pro” version sadly has none of them.
Design: Davis Fried Krieger. Art direction: Ron Nackman. Cover photography: Don Anderson.
