“The Russian Tea Room Welcomes the Newport Jazz Festival” poster
Contributed by Florian Hardwig
on Jan 19th, 2025. Artwork published in
.
Established in 1954 in Newport, Rhode Island, the Newport Jazz Festival was moved to New York City in 1972. For the occasion, the Russian Tea Room commissioned Milton Glaser to design a poster:
The Cossack is pouring vodka into the saxophone, ostensibly being imbibed by the musician.
For the copy, Glaser picked Métropolitaines, a top-heavy typeface inspired by the Art Nouveau lettering for the entrances to the Paris Metro, created by French architect and furniture designer Hector Guimard. The typeface originated at the Fonderie S. Berthier & Durey in 1905. Metropolitaines saw several adaptations for phototype. I’d assume that the version used by Glaser is the one shown by Photo-Lettering in their 1965 catalog.
