Man of La Mancha is a 1965 musical adaptation of Don Quixote, with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion, and music by Mitch Leigh. The libretto was published by Random House in 1966, featuring an illustratin by Al Hirschfeld and Caruso Roxy for the title. Its amorphous glyphs allowed the jacket designer to knead the words into place, squeezing the second M down to x-height so that the two lines fit snug together.

Detail from the inner flap of the book jacket, with credits in Bodoni

Don Quichotte et les figures de l’auteur (“Don Quixote and figures of authorship”) is the first publication in La petite collection (“The small collection”). This text proposes a parallel between “revival” in typography and in literature, through the figure of Don Quixote and its reuses in different texts. This text is taken from a lecture given in 2017 by Thomas Huot-Marchand at the Atelier nationale de recherche typographique (ANRT).

To design this booklet, Roman Seban used his Bertin typeface and Henry by Matthieu Cortat. La petite collection is co-published by the Association Presse Offset and the École européenne supérieure d’art de Bretagne (EESAB), site de Lorient, in partnership with the type foundry 205TF.

Man of La Mancha is a 1972 film adaptation of Dale Wasserman’s Broadway musical based on Don Quixote. Produced and directed by Arthur Hiller, the film stars Peter O’Toole and Sophia Loren.

For this Hungarian poster from 1973, István Bakos shows Don Quixote’s head floating over the iconic windmills. Above the illustration, the typography is set in two typefaces that were both designed by Bob Newman for Letraset: Manuscript Capitals (1972) and Pump Bold (1970) – with Dulcinea’s face tucked between the names. The contoured caps are used with both forms of A and partly overlap; the ultrageometric sans is used with barely any word spacing.

“Old Fashioned” (No. 186), featuring a modified version of Othello or similar for the headline. It’s distinguished by notches in the counters, descending stems, and tiny serifs (like Rubens or Hess Neobold). [Edit: It’s Davison Bolero, see comments.] Like the pictured locomotive, Othello was old-fashioned at the time of this booklet’s publication: Originally designed by Gustave F. Schroeder in the late 1800s, it was revived by Morris Fuller Benton for American Typefounders (ATF) in 1934.

Covers for various clip books of line art published in 1969 by Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio, Pleasantville, New Jersey. See the previous post about the clip books issued in 1955 for more information on Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio.

“Science” (No. 523) is at the opposite end of the spectrum. The depiction of an astronaut in front of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle is accompanied by the futuristic Eurostile Bold Extended, Aldo Novarese’s extension of Microgramma, originally designed by Alessandro Butti for Nebiolo in the 1950s. As in “Old Fashioned”, the bottom lines use Alternate Gothic Compressed and Helvetica.

“The Wedding” (No. 178) ft. Koch-Antiqua-Kursiv.

“Office” (No. 180) ft. illustration by Tom Sawyer and the trendy Amelia.

“Famous Folk” (No. 181) ft. Don Quixote and Visa.

“Winter” (No. 185) ft. Filmotype Quentin.

“Entertainment” (No. 187) ft. Tacan.

“Crowds” (No. 502) ft. Grotesque No. 9 in italic caps.

“Senior Citizens” (No. 503) ft. Eurostile.

“Circus/Fair” (No. 504) ft. West Barnum.

“The Farm” (No. 506) ft. Neil Bold. Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Summer” (No. 507) ft. York. Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Medicine” (No. 508) ft. York.

“Industry” (No. 511) ft. Giorgio (VGC). Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Executives” (No. 518) ft. Filmotype Veteran.

“Service” (No. 519) with what looks like an apocryphal Cooper Black, obliqued with a fancy S.

“Women” (No. 521) ft. Calendar.

“Couples” (No. 522) ft. obliqued caps from Futura Dot.

“Occupations” (No. 524) ft. more Eurostile Bold Extended.

“Ad Starters” from the Paste Pot & Scissors series (No. PP117), featuring Corvinus and a regular width of Microgramma. The small print here includes Futura, Futura Condensed, and News Gothic.

“Time” (No. PP118) ft. Filmotype Quincy.

“Hands” (No. PP119) ft. Thalia.

“Animals” (No. PP120) ft. Neuland.

“Elfie & Gremmie” (No. PP122) ft. Whimzitype 3600, stretched.

“Eye, Ear, Mouth” (No. PP124) ft. an early use of Davison Jumbo.

“Design Devices” (No. PP128) ft. Urban.

“Homes • Buildings” from the Paste Pot & Scissors series, ft. Twentieth Century.

Don Quixote is very hard to read: it's quite long, boring, old and it's written in old Spanish. The intention of this magazine is to modernize Cervantes' classic and make it attractive to younger publics, placing it out of context and using photography and typographic variations. The editorial concept and the art direction are based on the mental distortion and inconsistency of the main character. He maximizes or minimizes everything according to his own interests, seeing everything in black and white, just believing nothing but his delirious truth. To foster its reading, the complete novel would be divided into 12 issues; this is number 1.

See the full mag on Behance.