MUFON UFO Symposium brochures, 1977–1979
1977’s cover makes impactful use of Helvetica Black atop a column of six illustrations of common UFO shapes.
MUFON (The Mutual UFO Network) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to cataloging and investigating unexplained aerial phenomenon. Founded in 1969, it currently boasts “more than 4,000 members worldwide with chapters and representatives in more than 43 countries and all 50 states,” according to Wikipedia.
These covers, uploaded to Twitter by the wonderful ephemera-conservation group We Are The Mutants, adorned an itinerary/annual research journal provided to attendees of MUFON’s annual symposium. Their typography is both delightfully 1970s and startlingly professional for a then- (and maybe still-) fledgling organization dedicated to “fringe” science, showcasing some very slick type-image combinations.
I was only able to find an interior scan of the 1978 booklet (although a few copies of the adjoining years are available on Ebay) and the interior typesetting is somewhat less careful, doing its best with pre-digital tools and ending up with page-sized blocks of Courier with almost no leading.
1978’s cover, pairing display-heavy-hitter Carousel with ITC Avant Garde Gothic, features a wonderful series of illustrations depicting the four types of close encounter as defined by Air Force ufology advisor J. Allen Hynek.
1979 gets a little more conceptual, merging a dense wall of Avant Garde with a photocopied magnifying glass (maybe to represent the practice of combing through spacebound radio signals for anomalies?). The display typeface is Stop.
An interior scan of the 1978 booklet, the only one I could find digitized. Headings set in Helvetica Condensed and body text set in Courier. The MUFON logo typeface remains unidentified (but does not appear to be flying).
