Space Circus – Fantastic Arrival album art
This is the second and last studio album by the Japanese fusion band Space Circus. Tsunehisa Kimura created the artwork cover for the front and back, which is titled Divine Retribution and Earth Fantasy. Both artworks are currently in the collection of the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum.
The album title is set in an extra compressed variant of Helvetica Compressed [edit: or rather Schmalfette Grotesk, see comments], while the band’s name is set in Neo Script.
The track titles on the back cover are set in a bold weight of Futura, while the track numbers, song credits, and staff credits are set in Optima. The Japanese sans serif typeface on the bottom left and the serif typeface on the bottom right are Ishii Gothic (石井ゴシック) and Ishii Mincho (石井明朝).
3 Comments on “Space Circus – Fantastic Arrival album art”
I don’t think that condensed sans is Helvetica Compressed. It looks more like Schmalfette Grotesk.
Agreed, and adjusted. Thanks for the catch, Nick!
Identifont lets one compare the two similar designs. It needs to be taken with a grain of salt, though, as the service uses digital interpretations. It’s always better to consult the originals. While Schmalfette CP – Jason Walcott’s digitization of Schmalfette Grotesk – has an A with evenly weighted legs, the original reproduced in Lettera as well as the adaptation by Photoscript have the letter with a heavier right leg – just as on the album cover. Helvetica Compressed (and Bitstream’s digital Swiss 911) has such an A as well, but it’s different in other details.
Thank you for correcting me about the typeface used on the album title!