Sagaland / Enchanted Forest board game
Sagaland is a fairytale-themed board game conceived by Michel Matschoss and Alex Randolph, and first published by Ravensburger in 1981. A year later, it received West Germany’s Spiel des Jahres (“Game of the Year”) award and has since sold over three million copies. In 1982, an English version followed, now renamed to Enchanted Forest.
The logo for both versions is based on Cathedral. This pen-drawn blackletter is an early design by Martin Wait and was released by Letraset in 1978. For the German version, the inline was eliminated. The logo of the English-language version has solid letterfoms altogether.
The Sagaland logo in Cathedral, loosely spaced, and minus its inline
The Sagaland board with game pieces, cards, and the manual
The back of the Sagaland box with info in five languages, set in the bold weight of Stempel Garamond (1927) with drop caps
Box design for Enchanted Forest, with solidified Cathedral in yellow, featuring its alternate swash E. “A treasure hunt for all the family in the land of myths and legends” is added in Times New Roman Bold.
On the side of the box, the name is shown in red Cathedral with contour.
The back of the box is the only place where Cathedral was used in its original form, with inline.
1 Comment on “Sagaland / Enchanted Forest board game”
See also this post about another game released the same year in the other Germany, which likewise uses a 1970s Letraset face for the name, and a typeface with roots in 1920s Germany for the instructions.
Happy German Unity Day!