Artwork by Corky McCoy who frequently illustrated Miles Davis sleeves. It is not clear who did the design/typography as Columbia often did not credit sleeve designers. The ultra light weight of L&C Hairline allows for large type without obscuring the artwork. 

CD reissue

Venus Extended

This portfolio from Bauer Alphabets Inc. (the U.S. arm of Bauersche Gießerei) contains about 30 sheets showing examples of Bauer types in use. The publish date is unknown, but the style of the design, the imagery, and the release dates of the typefaces shown indicate mid 1950s.

Horizon (Imprimatur in Germany)

Bauer Topic (Steile Futura in Germany)

Bernhard Cursive (Bernhard Schönschrift in Germany) and Bauer Bodoni

Elizabeth and Weiss (Weiß-Antiqua in Germany)

Hellenic Wide and Venus Extended. The Leica M-3 was introduced in 1954, and these ads appeared as early as 1955, indicating that this specimen must have come sometime after.

Cartoon (Fresko in Germany) and Futura

Corvinus and Stradivarius (Symphonie in Germany)

Trafton Script (Quick in Germany) and Weiß

“Newspaper in Marin County that was founded by a crusading journalist Steve McNamara.” — Roger Black

Fred Lambert’s unicase Linear sees use on this German single sleeve from the 1970 single “Sally” by US actor/one-time singer Michael Parks.

I believe the author type is in News Gothic Extra Condensed, but I’m not certain.

“This is a wonderful pre-release use of Domaine Sans Display. It perfectly suits the “fashion-forward” nature of the issue, delicate harlines, stacked caps and super-tight-to-overlapping tracking. Very interesting indeed. I particularly like the ‘EARTHENWEAR’ page, the subtle colour gradation and overlapped type is striking.” — Klim Type Foundry

This pharmacy on Krakowskie Przedmieście, right next to the Holy Cross Church, has a neon sign with letterforms based on Amazone. This light-hearted elegant script was designed by Leonard H. D. Smits and originally released in the late 1950s by Lettergieterij Amsterdam. It has been revived digitally by Bitstream. Amazone’s characteristic pointy loops here have been preserved quite well, considering that neon tubes don’t really lend themselves to such sharp bends. If you look closely, you’ll see that the neon sign covers the ghostly remains of a previous (painted?) sign.

Cover of the German vinyl single re-release (Polydor, 1976), reusing the artwork from the self-titled debut album (Island Records, 1972).

The last two images show the inner sleeve of the original LP. Cover concept: Bryan Ferry. Art: Nicholas deVille. Photography: Karl Stoecker. Artwork by C.C.S. “The cover features model Kari-Ann Muller, one of the rare Roxy models who didn’t date Bryan Ferry. She later married Mick Jagger’s brother Chris and appeared in the James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”—Discogs

A loosely spaced Gotham adds to the vintage look of this packaging. The logo for the Carluccio’s chain (founded in 1991) uses a modified Commercial Script.

As part of retail expansion and hitting new markets, the founders of Donna Dolce® approached me to come up with a new identity that reflects their taste and appeal, a lingerie shop that would provide its A-class customers the luxury they deserve.

Centrefold uses Monotype Modern Display (a custom cut of Monotype Modern) for their logo and throughout this issue of the print magazine. The turn-of-the-century typeface sets a striking, classical tone for the publication and brand. Monotype Grotesque is a fitting companion from the same era. The website designers could have simply gone with the webfont version of the typeface (available at MyFonts and Fonts.com), but they chose Playfair Display instead. Playfair is a fine alternative with a similarly high stroke contrast, and its large lowercase helps it work for the midsized copy on the web, but its readability is really stretched at small sizes. I would consider bumping up the text or using a family like Benton Modern RE that is specifically for screen text.

W is turning 40 this year, which prompted me to take a closer look at the magazine. I’m glad I did. Perhaps it is part of their anniversary celebration, or the fact that it’s the “Big Fashion Issue”, but September was particularly typographically rich — filled with interesting type choices that reach beyond the usual grasp of “mainstream” fashion glossies. Of course, it’s probably owed to the direction of Anton Ioukhnovets, who was always playing with type in his designs for GQ.

“Who” section opener using various optical sizes of Benton Modern and Graphik. See below for more info about the type.

Table of contents.

Three optical sizes of Benton Modern Italic compared: Display, Titling and Banner. The thin strokes (hairlines) get thinner, spacing gets tighter, and shapes get narrower as the intended size increases. Click to enlarge.

With ultra thin hairlines designed for extra large settings, Benton Modern Banner is put to good use for this anniversary feature.

Benton Modern Display in use for a deck (between text and headline sizes).

A pair of department pages. Click to enlarge.

 

Besides Benton Modern, the only staple typeface used throughout the issue is Graphik, a fairly rigid Grotesk that has the necessary, unadorned plainness to contrast with Benton Modern’s spike-heeled glamour. Together, the two expansive font families offer enough variety, weights, and widths to facilitate text-heavy pages like those of W’s departments, where multiple short articles need to be distinct, readable, and attractive.

Benton Modern and Graphik Narrow set a series of blurbs in the “Most Wanted” section.

Each of the features in the September issue showcases its own typeface that suits its subject perfectly. Let’s start with the cover story…

FF Pitu for a feature on Penelope Cruz. The two pages on the right are cropped. Click to enlarge.

Penelope Cruz wears FF Pitu, a strikingly sharp and assertive number that not only fits her well, but also happens to be a nice pairing with the thick-thins of Benton Modern. It’s a showy accessory, the well-placed hat or scarf that caps a thoughtfully assembled outfit. The W designers set it unabashedly huge for the opening page, letting it break in a way that emphasizes the rhyming title.

W gets medieval with LTC Goudy Text. Click to enlarge.

For a delightfully dreary fashion shoot set in the Dark Ages, an English Blackletter like LTC Goudy Text is an obvious choice. But some of the shapes of this particular Textura even have the same wilting posture as the models, who stand slack, as if held up by marionette strings. The whole look is inspired, I suppose, by the nodding heads and lifeless bodies of medieval folk art.

P22 Bifur. Click to enlarge.

Fast forward to modern times where the hard edges of retro-futuristic ensembles are introduced by P22 Bifur. The design originates in the ’20s, a digital interpretation of A.M. Cassandre’s first typeface, but for today’s audiences it is a flashback to the mechanical geometry of the techno 1980s.

A feature opener using Neutraface Slab and an uncredited illustration.

One more feature that is worth a mention opens with Neutraface Slab and a typographic illustration (spelling out “Large”) that immediately reminded me of Stefan Kjartansson’s absurd and amusing Cumulus and Foam. Whoever drew this strange and lovely lettering for W (likely Ioukhnovets himself), with its hairline slab serif letters ballooning into abstract amoebas, could have been inspired by C&F. The fashion is strikingly reminiscent of the typeface, too. So much so, that I felt compelled to add my own comparison (below).

The fashion styling of Edward Enninful paired with a typographic interpretation in Cumulus & Foam.

W magazine is celebrating its 40th anniversary with 4 different covers, each representing a decade of fashion. The magazine uses extra large cuts of Benton Modern Display drawn just for W by Richard Lipton. More about these custom styles and the rest of the magazine’s typography in an upcoming blog post.

Advertising Agency: Tapsa, Madrid, Spain
Chief Creative Officer: Adolfo Gonzalez
Creative Directors: Antonio Botella, Manuel Pérez de Camino
Art Directors: David Pascual, Angela Romero