Allen Stingray in use

Power Through Witchcraft by Louise Huebner

Florian Hardwig — Sat, 08 Mar 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Power Through Witchcraft is the first of several books by Louise Huebner (1930–2014). According to Wikipedia, the American psychic and astrologer was “the only officially appointed Official Witch in the entire world.” First published by Nash Publishing in 1969, this is Bantam’s paperback edition from 1971.

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

The Stars at Noon by Denis Johnson

Florian Hardwig — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 16:13:15 +0000

Contributed by Florian Hardwig

This dust jacket was created for the first edition of The Stars at Noon by Denis Johnson (1949–2017), published by Alfred A. Knopf in September 1986 as a Borzoi book:

The novel follows an unnamed American woman during the Nicaraguan Revolution in 1984. It was adapted into the 2022 film Stars at Noon, starring Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn.

In my previous post about the Esther Phillips album cover, I wrote that Allen Stingray needs to be used in big sizes to really shine.

Prolific book designer R.D. Scudellari (1933–2022) got the message: he used the mesmerizing 3D face in appropriately giant letters. The interplay of positive and negative shapes nicely corresponds to the book’s title. Scudellari further extended its eponymous features – the fin-like boundaries and the blade-like stripes – to the design as a whole. As a finishing touch, he added contour lines to better define a few letters, compare T S R to a specimen of the unmodified Stingray.

The author’s name is added in caps from a phototype version of Binner, possibly PLINC’s Brass Band.

Via @that.covers.it, a inspirational collection of book jackets and covers maintained by Amanda Weiss.

The title page features Weiß-Initialen Serie I, with Electra for the publisher line.

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

Esther Phillips – Burnin’ (Live at Freddie Jett’s Pied Piper, L.A.) album art

Florian Hardwig — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 15:47:00 +0000

Contributed by Florian Hardwig

Source: archive.org Internet Archive. License: All Rights Reserved.

Allen Stingray was added to Photo-Lettering’s catalog sometime after their Alphabet Thesaurus, Vol. 2 came out in 1965. Here it can be seen in early use on an album by R&B singer Esther Philips (1935–1984) from 1970, recorded live at Freddie Jett’s Pied Piper Club, Los Angeles.

Stingray is a face that needs to be used in big sizes. In Loring Eutemey’s cover design, the typography isn’t exactly tiny. Still, it’s already too small and too much for John S. Allen’s banger to really shine. Photography by Emerson-Loew.

[More info on Discogs]

The back cover pairs Helvetica and Century Expanded for liner notes (by Carmen McRae), track list, and credits. The reprinted newspaper clippings feature a number of additional typefaces including Spartan and Bodoni.

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

Bruce Haack – Captain Entropy album art

Florian Hardwig — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 15:44:46 +0000

Contributed by Florian Hardwig

Captain Entropy is a children’s album by Canadian musician and composer Bruce Haack (1931–1988). The spectacular three-dimensional letterforms on this album cover were not custom drawn by designer Jack Wolff. They are from a ready-made alphabet named Allen Stingray.

Created by John S. Allen, it was added to Photo-Lettering’s library sometime between their 1965 and 1971 catalogs. In 1958, Fonderie Olive in France had issued Calypso, which might have provided some inspiration. Stingray is not quite as breathtaking as that, and being a photo typeface, it was much easier to pull off technically than Roger Excoffon’s 3D halftone extravaganza – which had to be engraved and cast in metal.

Photo: Florian Hardwig. License: CC BY-NC-SA.

Allen Stingray as shown in Photo-Lettering’s One-Line Manual of Styles, 1971

Allen’s design nevertheless is adorable, and has qualities of its own. The three-dimensional look is achieved by two sets of parallel stripes that run diagonally in opposite directions, defining the folded letterforms with hardly any extra interior lines, and often without explicit counters or apertures. In most glyphs, the border between “foreground” and “background” runs in a sweeping curve, much like a ray’s flapping fin. Take that feature and combine it with the shape of the stripes that taper like blades – and you know where Stingray got its name from.

All additional text is set in a couple of styles from Univers.

[More info on Discogs]

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use