Kyriakos and His Orchestra – Mediterranean Holiday album art
A rather cheesy if not to say sexist cover design, back from when people in marketing thought the appropriate way to promote Greek folk music was to show a lightly dressed blonde chewing on her sunglasses.
The type is interesting, though: It’s a rather rare Art Nouveau face shown in Photo-Lettering’s One Line catalog (1971) as Ringling Brothers (4465). Another apparently identical sample in One Line is labeled Staudel Xenotype N (3488). It already appeared in Alphabet Thesaurus Vol. 2 (1965) as Xenotype 3488. Stylistically, it sits somewhere between Auriol and Herold. Variants include Staudel Weinerschnitzel A (solid with contour) and B (outlined). Judging from the glyph set of 3488, the M is an upside-down W — the actual M has a crossbar. The designer is unknown. The inclusion of an eszett (ß) hints at a German source. Any pointers about its origin are welcome.
1 Comment on “Kyriakos and His Orchestra – Mediterranean Holiday album art”
See the post about a series of Fritz Leiber paperback covers for more info about the origin of Ringling Brothers. It appears to be loosely based on an alphabet by lettering artist J.M. Bergling.