César Franck – Psyché album art
Psyché is a symphonic poem based on the Greek myth of Eros and Psyche, written by Paris-based composer César Franck between 1886 and 1888. This recording was performed by the Residentie Orchestra (Hague Philharmonic Orchestra) together with the Nederlands Kamerkoor, conducted by Willem van Otterloo. The record was released in the Philips World Series, featuring a logo in Binner. Unfortunately, the cover design with the Rorschach test-like art in loud colors in uncredited.
The title is set in tightly spaced Chippendale. This all-caps face is shown by Lettergraphics in catalogs dated 1968 and 1976. The design is several decades older, though: Chippendale is an adaptation of a capital alphabet designed by Detroit lettering artist Charles Jay Strong (1866–1910). It’s shown without name in the second edition of Strong’s Book of Designs from 1917. Digital interpretations of this historical source include Key West (Kalynn Campbell for Roulette Studios, 2000) and MFC Petworth Monogram (Monogram Fonts Co., 2015).
The second typeface on this cover is an interesting one, too: it’s Neu-Kabel a.k.a. Cable perfect, a revision of Rudolf Koch’s Kabel with Futura-like forms for a e g W 7, issued by Klingspor in 1953 [edit: in fact, it’s Monotype’s Sans Serif with alternates, see comments].
2 Comments on “César Franck – Psyché album art”
I don’t think that’s Cable Perfect, but rather what looks like Monotype’s Sans Serif Bold, with Kabel Light & Bold being used on the top (as far as I can tell.)
Monotype’s face is distinguished by more extensive character sets that differ visually from Cabel Perfect’s; this includes the Futura-style t seen in the picture.
Speaking of which, were there any phototype or dry transfer adaptations of Sans Serif?
Thanks for catching this, Bryson! Yes, on second look, I agree that Neu-Kabel is not a match. In addition to the t you mentioned, its Norm weight has diamond-shaped dots (the Grob weight has square ones, but seems to be too bold). Judging from the size of the counters, the line below the title appears to be set in Sans Serif Medium. And the line above it is in Monotype’s version, too – in caps from the Medium and the Light – no? In Kabel, the leg of R starts closer to the stem.
One detail that made me say Neu-Kabel initially is the characteristic narrow W. The glyph sets of Monotype Sans Serif shown by McGrew include three forms for this character, but none is as narrow as the one seen on the record cover.
… but then I realized McGrew’s showing is not exhaustive. Below is a specimen of Sans Serif Bold #330 from the Monotype Catalog & Specimen Book issued by Swamp Press in 2023, which does have a narrow W:
Maybe it was a size-specific thing – in this 1931 showing, the W in the small size is much narrower than the larger one (in “WEST”):
Maybe Monotype retrofitted the Medium with such a narrow W at one point, too. Or maybe it’s indeed the Bold after all. Anyway, typeface credits adjusted. Kudos!
No, not to my knowledge.