Bei uns in der kleinen Bar album art
The cover of this 10-inch record published by Philips Records uses Ultra Bodoni Italic for the title of the record. It looks like the type was modified photographically to tilt the angle even more. The letters are not merely rotated but skewed by shearing them. The tell-tale sign is that all the stems stay flat along the baseline. The letters are also shifted off the baseline to create a bouncing baseline look, common in the 1950s. The bouncing probably alludes to this being a bar-themed record.
The album is a showcase of the Philips label instrumental pop catalog, ca. 1955, in combination with a ‘bar’ concept: added background noise, chatter, clapping, glasses clanking, interrupted by the Polychord organ of Conni Amberg. It’s like a radio play without the speakers—you hear only the background sounds.
The illustration on the front is by well-known German illustrator, Hans Jürgen Press. Michalke:
I’ve loved the drawing style of Hans Jürgen Press since I was a child, so I recognized it immediately when I saw the album cover of this 10″. The clear, slightly broken lines, the big noses and the light-hearted humor are typical for this outstanding German artist. Probably because it was not directed towards children, the design is not as overcrowded with detail as his usual work. There is a well hidden small signature in the far upper right corner. Just as well hidden as the clues that Press was known for placing in his picture puzzles in The Adventures Of The Black Hand Gang.
The back cover of the record is set in Futura and Futura Condensed (used on the catalog numbers).
