Roy Clark – The Entertainer album art
Cover for an album by country music artist Roy Clark (1933–2018), released in 1974 on Dot Records. Art direction by Bill Levy, with photography by Albert Watson.
The display typeface is one that I haven’t seen in use before. It is Stan Staneon, drawn by Tony Stan for Photo-Lettering sometime before 1971.
At first glance, it looks as if ITC Neon had a condensed cousin. ITC Neon originated around the same time, in 1970, and was devised by two other NYC-based designers who, like Stan, were closely associated with ITC, Ronné Bonder and Tom Carnase. While ITC Neon as well as Letraset’s Piccadilly (1973) elaborate on the basic letterforms of existing typefaces – Rudolf Koch’s Prisma (1930) and Morris F. Benton’s Broadway (1927), respectively – Staneon appears to be a fully original design. The all-caps face came in a number of styles including Shadowbox and Encased variants that help to emulate the look of physical neon signs with greater precision.
Unlike ITC Neon, which was licensed to all kinds of manufacturers of phototypesetting equipment as well as other delivery formats including Letraset’s rub-down type, Staneon remained exclusive to Photo-Lettering’s service in New York City and never saw wide dissemination.
Style range of Stan Staneon, as shown in Photo-Lettering’s One Line Manual of Styles, 1971.
Back cover. Track list, credits, and liner notes are set in Optima.
1 Comment on “Roy Clark – The Entertainer album art”
Among digital fonts, Tal Leming’s Ohm (bottom) probably comes closest to Staneon (top). It’s not a revival, but a very nicely done neon typeface of similar condensed proportions. Ohm is available from Type Supply.