Heartbeat (November 1981) utilises contoured Helvetica and Eurostile Extended for the album title and artist names respectively.

Chris & Cosey, sometimes known as Carter Tutti, are a musical duo formed in 1981, consisting of couple Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, both previously members of industrial music pioneers Throbbing Gristle. Shown here are the covers of their first four albums, released between 1981 and 1985 on Rough Trade.

[More info on Discogs]

Trance (May 1982), featuring Caslon Antique for the title and artist name, and Melior for the name of their side project at the time, Creative Technology Institute (CTI)

Songs of Love & Lust (January 1984) features Phyllis, alongside University Roman.

Techno Primitive (stylized as Technø Primitive, 1985) keeps things simple; using only Antique Olive in two weights, Black and Nord.

“It Looks Just As Stupid When You Do It.” poster (17½″×25″). This trademarked slogan was first used in August 1990. The “Youth Against Tobacco” text appears to be done by hand.

This anti-smoking campaign was developed in 1990 by Minneapolis-based agency Martin Williams for the Minnesota Department of Health.

Wendy Solie Hansen takes credit for the art direction, with copywriting by Lyle Wedemeyer and photography by Rick Dublin of Dublin Productions. In a feature in Print Casebooks 9, Teresa Reese writes:

For the copy line, […] Hansen chose Caslon Antique because it reminded her of smoke, “kind of wavy and jagged and not clean-looking.”

The small print sometimes is in Helvetica (or similar), but that varies between the various printings.

These two posters are dated 1989. Left: “If You Smoke, You Might As Well Start The Day With A Mouthful of This.” poster (17½″×25″). Hansen comments:

“Once we decided to go with a Scope look-alike,” she reports, “we tried to make it as close as possible

without getting into legal trouble. We changed the shape of the label somewhat but used the same typeface, Optima Medium […].”

Right: “If You Smoke, Your Expensive Perfume Won’t Smell So Expensive.” poster (17½″×25″). The label text uses Helvetica.

“Butts Are Gross.” poster (17½″×25″). This printing includes the logo of the American Cancer Society. This trademarked slogan was likewise first used in August 1990.

“Butts Are Gross.” poster variant in landscape format (13″×30″)

Front cover

From Wikipedia:

In 1962, Golden Records released a record album of six ghost stories for children titled Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Ghost Stories for Young People. The album, which opens with the Charles Gounod Alfred Hitchcock Presents theme music, is hosted by Hitchcock himself, who begins, "How do you do, boys and girls. I'm delighted to find that you believe in ghosts, too. After all, they believe in you, so it is only common courtesy to return the favor."

Hitchcock introduces each of the stories, all the while recounting a droll story of his own failed attempts to deal with a leaky faucet (which at the conclusion of the album leads to Hitchcock "drowning" in his flooded home). The ghost stories themselves, accompanied by minimal sound effects and music, are told by actor John Allen, four of which he wrote himself and two of which are adaptations:

1. "The Haunted and the Haunters (The Pirate's Curse)"
2. "The Magician ('Til Death Do Us Part)"
3. "Johnny Takes a Dare (The More the Merrier)"
4. Saki's "The Open Window" (special adaptation)
5. "The Helpful Hitchhiker"
6. Walter R. Brooks' "Jimmy Takes Vanishing Lessons"

The album title combines Photo-Lettering’s Deckel Edge, a design by Davis Pennington which is a textured variant of Pennington’s Slanted Sable, and Kress Interlock, a design by George Kress. Additional text on the front cover appears to be set in Microgramma. The back cover features a lengthy note on ghosts from Alfred Hitchcock set in a rather soft Caslon Antique. The tracklisting pairs Akzidenz-Grotesk (a.k.a. Standard) with Trade Gothic.

Designer/s unknown.

Further album information at Discogs.

Back cover. Compare to this alternate (original?) back cover with no tracklisting and only previews of other Golden Records albums.

Front cover of original 1962 Golden Records issue without Wonderland as second label.

Never Caught is the story of “the Washingtons’ relentless pursuit of their runaway slave, Ona Judge”, as told by Erica Armstrong Dunbar. The book was published in 2017 by 37 INK, an imprint of the Atria Publishing Group and Simon & Schuster, Inc. 37 INK was founded by Dawn Davis, an African-American woman, and specializes in books by and about Black people.

The cover shows the text integrated into the image, set in caps from Caslon Antique and Besley Clarendon. Interior design (not shown here) by Amy Trombat. The National Book Award sticker uses Palatino.

Fontamara is the first novel by the Italian author Ignazio Silone, written when he was a refugee from the fascist police in Davos, Switzerland, and first published in 1933. This is the cover of a paperback edition published by Signet Classics in 1981, in a translation by Eric Mosbacher and Gwenda David, and with an introduction by Irving Howe.

The cover typography pairs two typefaces that carry the name of Caslon. The eroded one used for the title has nothing to do with the types cut by William Caslon and his successors, though: designed by Berne Nadall, it was released by Barnhart Brothers & Spindler in Chicago around 1896, originally as Fifteenth Century. Only later was it renamed to Caslon Antique.

Those Were The Days, 1968. Cover design by Studio Five. [More info on Discogs]

The Exotic Guitars were a group featuring session guitarist Al Casey (1936–2006). They recorded a number of easy listening albums, produced by Randy Wood and issued on his Ranwood label.

On all ten (!) albums released between 1968 and 1972, the band name is shown in Victory, which was a phototype revival of Flinsch’s Victoria (before 1900), made by Lettergraphics in the second half of the 1960s. Later, in 1976, Freda Sack would do a reinterpretation for Letraset under the name Victorian. On four of the first five albums, the track names are in all-caps Caslon Antique.

The Ranwood Records logo with Fantail and Craw Modern was covered in a previous post.

The Exotic Guitars, 1968. Cover design by Studio Five. [More info on Discogs]

The Exotic Guitars, 1968. The back cover additionally features Venus and De Roos.

Everybody’s Talkin’, 1969. Cover design by Studio Five with illustration by Don Lalingo. [More info on Discogs]

Indian Love Call, 1969. Track titles are in Anzeigen-Grotesk. [More info on Discogs]

Holly Holy, 1970. Cover design by Studio Five. [More info on Discogs]

The Sounds of the Electric Guitars, March 1970. The first part of the album title is in bichromatic Uncle Bill, the track names in all-caps Peignot. Cover design by Studio Five. [More info on Discogs]

I Can’t Stop Loving You, 1970. The titles are again in Anzeigen-Grotesk. Cover design by Studio Five. [More info on Discogs]

Exotic Country Music, 1970. Cover design by Studio Five, with Figaro. [More info on Discogs]

All-Time Guitar Hits, 1971. The title is in Pretorian, the track names in Helvetica Bold. Cover design by Studio Five. [More info on Discogs]

The Exotic Guitars, 1972. On this album, the article in the band name is in Pretorian. Cover design by Charles Cordell Jr. thru the art division of Fanfare Studios, Del Compton, Director. [More info on Discogs]

From Graphic Design Herstory (with added links):

In 1968 Barbara Baranowska moved to Paris, where she created a series of posters for important Paramount movies. Signing herself Basha, she painted some of the most surreal and iconic posters of the period for films including Possession (1981), by her ex husband Andrzej Żuławski.

The typeface chosen for the poster is Caslon Antique, an eroded roman designed by Berne Nadall and originally released by Barnhart Brothers & Spindler around 1896 as Fifteenth Century. Caslon Antique saw some other horror-related uses around 1980.

See also a previous post about the British poster for this film, featuring Arnold Böcklin and ITC Souvenir.

Hardback edition, 2012

Red Country by Joe Abercrombie is one of a number of books set in the First Law fantasy world. This edition was published by Gollancz in 2012. The use of Kratos for the author’s names is quite striking. Caslon Antique is used both for the title and the text on the inner flaps.

Jacket design by Laura Brett, featuring knives by Didier Graffet and a map drawn by Dave Senior with custom lettering. See the design evolution on Abercrombie’s blog.

[More info on ISFDB]

Paperback edition, 2013

Full jacket with flaps, Orbit Books editon

A 1989 edition reprint of the 1981 book Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a set of three horror-themed books aimed at younger readers, which became wildly popular in the 1980s and 90s due to outlandish and creepy illustrations by artist Stephen Gammell. The book series has sold over seven million copies as of 2017. The picture above features the 1989 reprint softcover edition of the first book.

The cover of the 1989 reprint of the first book shown at the top of this post is set in Caslon Antique, with Berling Italic used for the author name and illustrator. A first edition hardcover version of the book can be seen lower in this post, and uses Caslon Antique together with Palatino Italic in a slightly different cover arrangement.

The second and third book, share a similar cover arrangement as the first book, though the use of Berling has been replaced by a combination of Helvetica and Caslon Antique. It should be noted that some softcover printings of the first book (not shown in this post) also use a combination of Helvetica and Caslon Antique for the author and illustrator names.

This is an excellent application of Caslon Antique, in my opinion, as it provides a suitably creepy (but not too creepy!) feel to these children’s ghost story books.

The books have attracted some controversy in the 80s and 90s, with many parents trying to ban the books due to their imagery. The Smithsonian Magazine has an interesting article on this subject.

More recently in 2011, another minor controversy occurred when the book's publisher printed new editions which replaced Stephen Gammell's scary illustrations with more toned-down illustrations by artist Brett Helquist. Comparisons can be seen on AIPT Comics. The controversy led the publisher to revert to the original Stephen Gammell illustrations in subsequent reprint editions of the book series.

From left: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (1989 reprint of the 1981 book), More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (1984 cover), Scary Stories 3 (1991 cover)

Interior book illustration by artist Stephen Gammell. Text is set in Palatino.

A first edition 1981 hardcover printing of the first Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book published by J.B. Lippincott, which has a different cover layout than the softcover edition which came out the same year. The accompanying italic here is from Palatino.

The inside title page of a first edition hardcover printing of the first Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book. Illustration by artist Stephen Gammell

A terrorist’s secret … a teenager’s revenge –

Raiders of Living Dead is a film about a mad scientist who’s creating zombies on a remote island. A teenager (played by Scott Schwartz) pursues the walking dead with a self-built weapon made from a LaserDisc player’s laser. It was directed by Samuel M. Sherman and distributed by Independent-International.

On the poster shown above, the title combines Tintoretto and all-caps Pendry Script, both available from Letraset at the time. The intro text is set in caps from the eroded Caslon Antique. Pendry Script (Martin Wait, 1981) also appears in the trailer, here paired with Helvetica Black in faux small caps.

[More info on IMDb]

Title card from the trailer

Print ad

He leads the way to the Torment of the UNDEAD —

Publicity Gothic with Caslon Antique for the poster of Doctor Dracula.
From The Holding Coat:

When it comes to Independent-International, nothing is ever simple. Doctor Dracula is edited from Lucifer’s Women (1974). Director Al Adamson shot some new footage in 1981, edited it into the film and released it under its present title.

Credits are set in a phototype version of Deepdene Bold. The Independent-International logo uses Brush Script.

Source: www.flickr.com oopswhoops. License: All Rights Reserved.

UK release on Hybrid Records, 1985

Mystery Caps is bizarre display typeface from the phototype era, featuring pictorial letterforms and numerals made of bowels, with an eyeball as i dot. It appears in several type catalogs: under the name Grog Caps in Solotype’s Special Effects and Topical Alphabets (Dover Publications, 1978), in Castcraft’s Encyclopedia of Phototype Styles (1978), and also in an undated German Typeshop catalog, always without further information. The earliest appearance that I’m aware of is in the 1970 catalog by Californian phototype manufacturer Lettergraphics, there as Mystery Caps, and likewise without designer credits.

Despite the wide dissemination, it’s difficult to find this gutsy typeface in use. One notable exception is the cover of The Axeman’s Jazz, the debut release by Australian garage rock band Beasts of Bourbon, which was the best-selling Australian alternative album for 1984. Grog Caps is used for the band name, and is combined with art – credited to singer Tex Perkins – that depicts various ominous items, like a bone, a coffin, an axe, and daggers. The (poorly printed) band photo is by Tom Takacs.

The coarse roman used for the album’s title is another design of unclear origin. In the early 1990s, FontBank offered digital versions both as Ticonderoga and Parchment – but it apparently existed already in 1984 under some name. [edit: Ticonderoga is shown in two weights in the 1976 catalog by Lettergraphics.]

There are various international variants of the cover, printed in different colors.

[More info on Discogs]

Source: www.discogs.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Original Australian release on Green Records, July 1984

Source: www.discogs.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Scandinavian release on Big Time, 1985

Source: www.discogs.com License: All Rights Reserved.

US release on Big Time, 1985

Source: twitter.com Letterform Archive. License: All Rights Reserved.

Grog Caps as shown in Special Effects and Topical Alphabets: 100 Complete Fonts Selected and Arranged by Dan X. Solo from the Solotype Typographers Catalog, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1978.

Source: artrockstore.com Artrockstore. License: All Rights Reserved.

The release on Big Time Records from 1984 (as well as several later reissues) features a different typeface on the cover: instead of Grog Caps, the band name is set in Caslon Antique. This eroded roman has similar qualities as Ticonderoga.

Beetlejuice puzzle. The green text in Treacherous Corners;

This line of Beetlejuice merchandise, made by Hasbro, was inspired by the 1988 Tim Burton film Beetlejuice. Featured here are a few items that use typefaces such as Meltdown and Treacherous created by Comicraft and a modified Caslon Antique for the Beetlejuice logo.

Monopoly, Beetlejuice edition. The line of text on top uses ITC Kabel, which is also the basis for the MONOPOLY logo. The two lines of text in the lower corners are set in Meltdown.

Back/bottom of the Monopoly box set, with most text set in Gotham, and Meltdown used for “Contents”.

“Floaty pen” set in Treacherous (the N in “PEN” is a flipped U from Treacherous Curves); use instructions are set in Chiller and the text on the pen itself uses Helvetica.

Beetlejuice is a 1988 American fantasy comedy film directed by Tim Burton, produced by the Geffen Company, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The plot revolves around a recently deceased couple (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) who become ghosts haunting their former home, and an obnoxious, devious poltergeist named Betelgeuse (pronounced and occasionally spelled Beetlejuice in the movie and portrayed by Michael Keaton) from the Netherworld who tries to scare away the new inhabitants (Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones, and Winona Ryder).

The movie title and tagline use font Caslon Antique. The letter J in “Beetlejuice” has been modified by the graphic designer. The bouncy high contrast serif used for credits is Filmotype Puritan, the bold companion style to Pacific.

[More info on IMDb]

“Birthday” (No. 307). Illustration by Tom Sawyer. The typeface is Davison Dimensional.

Covers for various clip books of line art issued in 1978 by Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio, Pleasantville, New Jersey. Each booklet features another face for the cover, typically in an attempt to echo the topic in the typeface choice, see e.g. the graphic Futura Black for “Graphic Arts”, the 19th-century Bracelet for “Western”, or the engraved Bond Shaded for “Money”. This volume uses Kabel Black for the bottom line, framing the logo designed by Herb Lubalin in 1976. The heavy border with rounded (and sometimes inset) corners was introduced in 1976, too, but wasn’t seen on most issues from 1977.

See the previous post about the clip books issued in 1955 for more information on Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio.

“Wedding” (No. 304) ft. Tintoretto.

“Holidays” (No. 305) ft. Caslon Antique.

“Homes-Buildings” (No. 306) ft. caps from Compacta set on an arc. The fanning suggests this was set with phototype, as ooposed to dry transfer lettering.

“Graphic Arts” (No. 308) ft. Futura Black.

“Expressions” (No. 309) ft. Archie in all caps.

“Religion” (No. 310) with what looks like some sort of Normande Italic. Berthold’s phototype version comes close except for the n.

“Winter” (No. 311) ft. Goudy Heavyface in italic all caps.

“Occupations” (No. 314) ft. Dynamo. Originally issued in 1930, this design was revived and extended at Letraset in the late 1970s.

“Spring” (No. 315) ft. Mania. Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Marine” (No. 700) ft. Tip-Top.

“Western” (No. 701) ft. Romantiques No. 5 / Bracelet. This ornamented Tuscan originated in the 19th century. It was available for dry-transfer lettering from Mecanorma (as Tuscan Ornate) amd Letraset (as Romantiques No. 5).

“Executives” (No. 704) ft. Columna Solid.

“Tourism” (No. 705) ft. Solemnis. Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Couples” (No. 706) ft. Yagi Double.

“Safety” (No. 707) ft. caps from Compacta Outline.

“Christmas” (No. 712) ft. the ornate Green Buzzard.

“Transportation” (No. 715) ft. Compacta Italic.

“Family” (No. 716) ft. Benguiat Caslon with swash alternates.

“Landmarks” (No. 717) ft. Saphir.

“Environment” (No. 718) ft. all-lowercase Charter Oak, tightly spaced.

“Money” (No. 719) ft. a version of Bond Shaded, probably Bond Shaded. Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Children” (No. 720) ft. all-caps Mistral.

“Groups” (No. 721) ft. a bunch of people pointing at tightly spaced caps from ITC Zapf Book Heavy.

“Circus/Fair” (No. 722) ft. West Barnum Ultra.

“Contests” (No. G86) ft. more Benguiat Caslon, this time in all caps. The logo of the Grafika subseries is in ITC Fat Face with ligatures for ra and fi, accompanied by Kabel Light with omitted tittles.

“Design Devices” (No. G87) ft. Harlow, a Letraset release from 1977. “ZAP” is probably custom lettering.

“Something Extra” (No. G89) ft. Slim Dandy, a variation of the Mansard theme, by Lettergraphics.

“Lankies” (No. G90) ft. Churchward Design Sparkly.

“Symbols” (No. G91) ft. Cucumber

“Printed Forms” (No. G93) ft. Gonzales Jeanette with Akzidenz-Grotesk Condensed and Windsor.

“Big & Strong” (No. G94) ft. Atlas and more Mania, set on a curve.

“Announcers” (No. G95), again with Slim Dandy.

This catalog was issued by Letraset, the British manufacturer of dry-transfer lettering sheets and other graphic means, in 1975. The front and back cover show fifteen examples for how to use their display faces. Each typeface is presented in a different setting alongside illustration that complements the letter style.

The example for Broadway (first image, top left) features a frame made from elements of the Stripes typeface. In 1977, this device was referenced in a cover design for an album with music by Bing Crosby, see the post contributed by Pampa Type.

Another example of note is Buster (first image, bottom left) which employs the text buildup technique as sometimes seen in concrete poetry. Stripes also appears on the back cover (bottom right), with hyper-extended glyphs. Both Stripes and Buster were desiged by Tony Wenman and are Letraset originals. Many of the other faces were either licensed from contemporary manufacturers of phototype, like ITC Pioneer by ITC, Pluto by Face Photosetting, or Yagi Link Double by FotoStar/Facsimile Fonts; or were adaptations of metal typefaces. The Letraset logo uses tightly spaced Helvetica.

Photos courtesy of Peter Smith – thanks a bunch!

Couldn’t see this thing at the flea market and not pick it up.

A VHS tape distributed by the Yomega company in 1998 showcasing various yo-yo tricks, ranging from “basic” to “advanced”. In line with Yomega’s intended target audience of kids and teens, the packaging is a radical extravaganza of “xtreme” ’90s typography.

For the title, two lines of Stencil sandwich a wild combination of Letraset's Quicksilver and Caslon Antique (only Quicksilver escapes this pileup un-stretched), with everything coated in hot-dog colors to jump off the faux-paint-splattered background. While I have no solid evidence of this, I have to believe that the choice of Caslon Antique (with added cross hairs) for “ZONE” is inspired by its use in the 1985 Twilight Zone series.

The yo-yo itself features livery in Serpentine & ITC Souvenir—although it appears based on Yomega’s website that the Fireball has since been redesigned.

After some relatively dull center-aligned Helvetica the front cover goes all-in on the bottom-left bubble, skewing “FUN” (set in an unidentified sans; my best guess is slightly-stretched Helvetica Compressed or maybe Haettenschweiler?) into a zany trapezoid and committing a virtual typographic felony by smushing that poor Benguiat “37” almost beyond recognition to fit a shape that’ll fit beside the “cool kid” mascot.

The side panel reuses the same assets in a new arrangement (The repeated emphasis on “OFFICIAL” leads one to wonder if there was a wave of bootleg yo-yo training tapes they were trying to undermine). The back is, somewhat disappointingly, just a lot of Helvetica, although I appreciate the included timestamps for if you'd like to skip the baby stuff and get right to the "advanced" tricks.

The label on the tape can’t resist adding one more font to the mix by using Tekton Bold to remind us again that this video features yo-yo-trick champions Jennifer Baybrook and Chris Ciosek. The Yo-Yo Wiki tells me that Baybrook was the first female world champion, and a local news article claims Ciosek, apparently a Yomega employee, performed 31 tricks in 60 seconds at a 1999 competition in Hawaii. He seems pretty cool about it:

“Not only did I get to retain my Guinness Book title,” he said with a smile, “I had a nice vacation to boot.”

While I lack a working VCR, I’ve found the video in full online and its highly late-90s “corporate grunge” graphics use a distressed typewriter font that I’ve searched extensively for a match to but haven't identified yet. It's also worth watching for the opening segment explaining the yo-yo’s inner mechanisms if you’re a fan of primitive CGI.

Somewhat clunky reading order on the spine.

Very dramatic split in this list between names where you can sort of guess what the trick looks like and names that clearly just sounded cool.

I did the math on that runtime—it's a little over one trick per minute. What a value!

The graphics in the video itself use some kind of grunge typewriter face, although the shifting glyph sizes, bevel effect and VHS fuzz make it tough to identify.

“Spring” (No. 291), ft. all-caps Benguiat Caslon with swash alternates, set on an angle. The small type in the arrows is in reversed Helvetica caps.

Covers for various clip books of line art issued in 1976 by Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio, Pleasantville, New Jersey. This year marked their silver anniversary, see the “Spring” booklet above, indicating that the company was established in 1951. The celebration continued in the following year, see the covers from 1977. According to Bart Solenthaler, Volk went out of business sometime in the 1980s.

See the previous post about the clip books issued in 1955 for more information on Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio.

Coinciding with the silver anniversary, Volk introduced a new logo, featuring rounded sans-serif letterforms. The right arm of V extends to a hand holding a pencil and drawing on the o, turning it into a globe. The Herb Lubalin Study Center points out that this logo was designed by Herb Lubalin – “not his greatest logo, but charming”.

“Vote” (No. 280) ft. Pacella Monitor. The new Volk logo here is framed by tightly spaced caps from Kabel Light.

“Holidays” (No. 281) ft. ITC American Typewriter.

“Homes – Buildings” (No. 282) ft. Bronstein Bold. Like Letraset’s Lazybones, this bold script by FotoStar/Facsimile Fonts is a close follower of PLINC’s West Cooper Nouveau Swash Swash Bold.

“Birthday” (No. 284) ft. Davida.

“Expressions” (No. 285). ft. Bookman Swash Bold Italic with alternates.

“Religion” (No. 286) ft. Pretorian.

“Winter” (No. 287) ft. Norton Chocolate Frosted, a snow-capped variant of S.E. Norton’s series of bold grotesque caps for Photo-Lettering.

“Holidays” (No. 289) ft. Advertisers Gothic.

“Men” (No. 290) ft. Buxom, again by FotoStar/Facsimile Fonts, a copy of Baby Fat, distinguished by less deep notches in M and N.

“Marine” (No. 652) ft. Bobo Bold.

“Summer” (No. 655) ft. Abbey Scroll.

“Old Fashioned” (No. 656) ft. Romantiques No. 5 / Bracelet.

“Crime” (No. 658), with Gill Kayo caps set on a circle.

“Transportation” (No. 659) ft. Dynamo.

“Autumn” (No. 660) ft. Hobo.

“Do-It-Yourself” (No. 661) ft. ITC Ronda.

“Insurance” (No. 662) ft. Microcircus.

“Fall & Winter Sports” (No. 663) ft. Kabel Black.

“Christmas” (No. 664) ft. Tintoretto. The hooked I reveals that this face was not intended for all-caps settings.

“Menu” (No. 665), ft. Bookman Italic in all caps, with an initial swash M.

“Homemaker” (No. 666) ft. Wexford.

“Senior Citizens” (No. 667) ft. caps from Eurostile Light Extended.

“Save!” (No. 669) ft. Mania.

“Executives” (No. 670) ft. Hess Neobold.

“Family” (No. 671) ft. more Benguiat Caslon.

“Crowds” (No. 672) ft. Banco.

“Mail” (No. 673) ft. Buster.

“Circus-Fair” (No. 674) ft. Filmotype Van Horn.

“Spring & Summer Sports” (No. 675) ft. Eurostile Bold Extended in all caps.

“The Little Patriot” (No. G62) ft. Caslon Antique. The logo of the Grafika subseries is in ITC Fat Face with ligatures for ra and fi, accompanied by Kabel Light with omitted tittles.

“Sly Sayings” (No. G63) ft. Paprika.

“Animal Clichés” (No. G64) ft. Thalia.

“Trivia” (No. G65) ft. Advertisers Gothic.

“Villains” (No. G67), ft. a money-grabbing octopus and Bob Quinzel’s Cucumber typeface.

“Printed Forms” (No. G69) ft. Futura Black, ITC Avant Garde Gothic (with alternates), Cooper Black, and Windsor.

“Drop-Ins” (No. G68) ft. Davida complete with its ornaments.

“Time” (No. G70), ft. Optex and Cooper Black.

“Impact!” (No. G71), featuring a version of the triline face designed by Lance Wyman for the 1968 Mexico Olympics, see Mexico Olympic. This is probably Photo-Lettering’s adaptation that went under the name Olympic, or the Lettergraphics version known as Hotline. Note how the type echoes the vibration caused by the jackhammer.

“Cartouches” (No. G72) ft. Arnold Böcklin in all caps.

“Ad Animals” (No. G76) ft. more Thalia.

A rare cover in color, celebrating the United States Bicentennial. “The King-Size Clip Book of Bicentennial Art Volk Corporation” appears to use lettering, or heavily modified type. Several details like the swash caps for G and Z suggest that a version of Cloister (Bold) Italic was involved. Other glyphs don’t match a showing of the Monotype cut, and might come from different sources.

Surely, when Adrian Frutiger designed Herculanum for Linotype he could not imagine that it would end up serving as the title for a catalog of graphic works by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes. Likewise, an enlightened intellectual like Don Francisco would hardly identify with the beautiful Roman cursive buried by Vesuvius, that inspired Mr. Frutiger.

The choice of the designer can be understood (although I do not necessarily appreciate their taste) because of the expressive force shared by the type and the artist’s graphic work, but, undoubtedly, the look of the title could be improved significantly by carefully kerning the name.

Herculanum is paired with Caslon Antique. The wordmark of publisher Editorial Casariego uses caps from Optima.

The image of Cosette used for the iconic logo of the Les Misérables musical is based on an etching by Gustave Brion, which is in turn from an illustration by Émile Bayard (1837–1891) for the first edition of the book. Dewynters creative director Russ Eglin adopted the art for the 1985 London production logo, pairing it with Caslon Antique. (Eglin went on to design for other Cameron Mackintosh productions such as The Phantom of the Opera and Cats.)

As vital as the Cosette image is to the franchise, the logotype may be even more so, having survived for several decades, even up to the recent Hollywood film in which the classic illustration is replaced by a photo of the actor playing Cosette.

The Les Misérables logo is almost certainly the most famous modern use of Caslon Antique, a typeface by Bernd Nadall that was released in metal by Barnhart Brothers & Spindler way back in the late 1800s. The design has nothing to do with Caslon which was likely applied for marketing reasons more than anything. The various digital interpretations of Caslon Antique vary widely, probably because they used different sizes as their sources, but also because some versions appear to smooth out a few of the original’s rough contours.

Most recent branding for the stage production. Why the desert chrome?

Program from the original 1985 London production.

First poster or playbill from the original 1985 London production at the Barbican Theatre.

Teaser poster for the 2012 film. Design by Ignition.

Poster for the 2012 film. Design by Ignition.