Barcelona pam a pam by Alexandre Cirici
Barcelona Step By Step by Bert and Frances Strauss
Barcelona pam a pam is a city guide written by Alexandre Cirici Pellicer (1914–1983) and first published in 1971 by Editorial Teide, with photographs by Oriol Maspons (1928–2013) and drawings by the author. Bert and Frances Strauss translated the book to the English, as Barcelona Step By Step (1974). A version in Castilian Spanish, Barcelona paso a paso, followed by 1975.
Barcelona pam a pam (original Catalan version), with Cirici’s name in Akzidenz-Grotesk
Barcelona paso a paso (Castilian version), with Cirici’s name in Helvetica
All three editions feature the same cover design by Victor Rahola – with the title set on a curve, in A.M. Cassandre’s Bifur – albeit it with different colors for the hat of the man peering in from above. The interior pages are set in Folio and two typefaces by Simoncini: Karlgeorg Hoefer’s Permanent and Francesco Simoncini’s Aster.
Table of contents in Permanent. The colophon on the left is set in Monotype Grotesque.
Detail with text set in two weights of Aster
Chapter opening with the number from Folio’s extrafett and the title in the mager.
Text is interspersed with bits of history that are presented in a smaller size, also from Permanent.
Spread from chapter 11 on Antoni Gaudí, with one of the photographs by Maspons. The caption is in Aster Italic.
Detail with text set in two weights of Permanent
Glossary of special terms
2 Comments on “Barcelona pam a pam by Alexandre Cirici”
Thanks for sharing this! Permanent is my favorite classic grotesque.
You’re welcome, Nicolas! In case you haven’t done so already, I can recommend to get your hands on a copy of Footnotes E. This issue of Mathieu Christe’s periodical bulletin of applied research in type design contains my article on Permanent’s story. You can see some spreads in the post on Fonts In Use.