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Flic Flac poster

Contributed by Florian Hardwig on Oct 18th, 2013. Artwork published in .
Flic Flac poster 1
Photo: Florian Hardwig. License: CC BY-SA.

A modern circus poster for a modern circus (“men, muscles and motors”) – just like many of its historic precursors, it is not exactly an example for fine typography, but rather a loud mix of numerous flashy letterstyles, rivaled by eye-catching imagery. I have included it here because I am fond of Metalista. Tomáš Brousil created this pseudo-blackletter “as a sign of undying admiration of the persistency of metal culture” (Suitcase Type Foundry) and made it available for free.

The grotesque caps used for the months could be from Interstate.
Source: www.grafisch.de Grafisch. License: All Rights Reserved.

The grotesque caps used for the months could be from Interstate.

Typefaces

  • Metalista
  • XXII BLACK-BLOCK
  • Wanted M54
  • Klavika
  • Turnpike

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6 Comments on “Flic Flac poster”

  1. Boa, this one is really close to the edge of bad taste and design. Good use of type and combination or just random?

  2. I don’t think this is a good use of type. In fact, for me, this one is definitely over the edge of bad taste – maybe I didn’t make myself clear enough above. It is a typical example for real world poster design of our time. What I find interesting about this use is that it is the direct 2013 equivalent of circus and sideshow posters from one hundred years ago: it likewise exhibits a tawdry mix of typefaces of almost Victorian dimensions, with too many styles in too many sizes, with lettershapes of extreme proportions, reversed or arranged on curves. We have a soft spot for the old handmade posters and tend to frown upon the current digital creations, but mostly because the latter don’t have the allure of vintage. (Not that there aren’t any nicer examples for contemporary eclecticism.)

  3. Agreed. Guess I just wouldn’t have posted it, love for Metalistia hin oder her, because one doesn’t see your commentary on the homepage while wondering.

  4. But the name of this site is “Fonts In Use”, not “Fonts Used Well”.

  5. Thanks for reminding me. I’ll look up the initial mission statements in our archive.

  6. Ah, let’s not get worked up over this. I understand Indra’s concern, and I am thankful for her reminder to keep out an eye on interestingness. I will continue to add uses that are not top-notch in quality, because I believe that they still can be valuable for our archive, and that many things can be learned from “bad” uses as well. But I will try harder to provide context and be more explicit in my criticism, where necessary.

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