The Market Shelf ad (1969)
This double-page ad by The Market Shelf Inc., New York was published in Life magazine’s issue from 21 November 1969. It uses a number of interesting typefaces from the phototype era.
“The Market Shelf” is in Bethany. This face is shown in a single black upright style in Lettergraphics’ 1976 catalog, together with the italic Parker Connie, which is an adaptation of Resolut (Nebiolo, 1937) with closed stencil bridges. Bethany is not yet listed in the Letter-Fan from 1969, indicating that this ad represents an early use. The words are set on a wavy baseline, demonstrating the (then relatively new) possibilities of distorting the letterforms with the use of lenses. There is no digital version of Bethany, but the heavy weight of Nashville – another adaptation and expansion of Resolut that originated at Brendel / Typeshop – comes close.
The display type in blue features two more typefaces from Lettergraphics. The condensed sans with high contrast at the top right is Radius. The other, even narrower sans is Bailey, one of the earliest releases by the phototype company from Culver City, California.
Detail. “Hey, Girls …” appears to be a lighter phototype variant of Grotesque No. 9, set in four curved lines.
Detail. The compressed sans used for “will send you … in cash!” is Bailey Light Condensed with its alternate a and s. The price is probably handlettered. Filmotype Wave is a similar face with such tiny serifs. “Buy these fine products” uses extrabold Helvetica caps.
Prices use Cheltenham, product descriptions are in News Gothic or similar.
Detail. The blue headline features caps from Radius. This family is shown in Lettergraphics’ 1968 catalog in 16 styles.
4 Comments on “The Market Shelf ad (1969)”
Brandon Nickerson made a digital interpretation named BN Bungie.
I just noticed the difference that the a in the ad poster doesn’t appear in the glyph set
Do you mean the glyph set for BN Bungie? It’s not a 100% faithful digitization of Bethany, and rather an interpretation with some liberties.
The font does have an alternate for a (and C and G), but for some reason it’s not included in the graphic by Brandon Nickerson Studio’s shown above. Also, there are no matching two-story alternates for derivative glyphs like ä å ã æ etc.
Okay now I see