Houdini’s Magic Kit
In 1931, Les Editions Guérinet in Paris brought out a book titled Publicité Vignettes Lettres Chiffres Monogrammes (“Advertising, Vignettes, Letters, Numerals, Monograms”). One of the alphabets reproduced in it is titled “variante de la ‘Boule’ en moderne” and credited to lettering artist A. Bardi. Sometime between 1950 and 1960, Photo-Lettering in New York turned it into a typeface named Halloween (shout-out to Jay Mellor for finding the source).
In 1967, the Halloween typeface was used for Houdini’s Magic Kit. This beautifully designed paper assembly kit was issued by Platt & Munk, a publisher of children’s books, jigsaw puzzles and educational materials, probably best known for The Little Engine That Could. The box set includes a magician’s wand and a forty-eight page instruction book and allows for 75 different magic tricks.
The other typefaces on the box lid are from Photo-Lettering’s library, too: the sans-serif caps used for the words “Amazing” and “Delightful” in the ribbons are from Ventura. The numerals for “75” belong to Xenotype 3471, PLINC’s adaptation of Neptun. Last but not least, the rounded sans is the Shaded A style of Republic, a family that appeared already in PLINC’s 979 Basic Alphabets catalog from 1946.
See the Peculiar Manicule for more images of the kit.
A. Bardi’s “variante de la ‘Boule’ en moderne” as shown in Publicité Vignettes Lettres Chiffres Monogrammes
The contents of the kit
The cover of the instruction booklet pairs Halloween with a hand-drawn bottom-heavy serif of condensed proportions.
The titles on the sheet are in bichromatic Graphique, with instructions set in News Gothic.
“Magic Mask” is free-form lettering, patterned after Kalligraphia.
3 Comments on “Houdini’s Magic Kit”
Could it have been designed by Seymour Chwast?
I don’t know. There’s no designer credit. It does have some traits that can also be found in works by Push Pin Studios (and Milton Glaser, Chwast’s colleague, did use Halloween more than once), but there were others working in such a style as well.
A framed print with Bardi’s La Boule alphabet was hanging in Jim Parkinson’s studio in 2010, when Stephen Coles and Chris Hamamoto interviewed the lettering artist and type designer for the FontCast series. The print below is plate no. 13 from the same album, by Atelier Plumereau. You can see ’em in the second video, at 2:22.
Jim Parkinson died today at his home in Oakland, California. See Stephen’s obituary on Typographica.