Re: issue by Julia Mendes

RE: ISSUE

Stables Cafe KONA

Four Ate Five KONA

E.T. THE 80’s

Pac-Man THE 80’s

Brian Setzer THE GOOD LISTENERS

Chat Atkins THE GOOD LISTENERS

Je T’aime. Moi Non Plus NOSTALGIA

The Vintage Circus NOSTALGIA

Cowbell 808 KONA

Rapha KONA

Packaging THE 80’s

Bananarama THE 80’s

Eddie Cochran THE GOOD LISTENERS

1940’s Pearl Harbour Posters NOSTALGIA

Sex, Type and Rock’N’Roll NOSTALGIA

OLD BECOMING NEW

four ate five by julia meendes

THE stables cafe by shirley cai

KONA

COWBELL 808 BY ryan shanahan

bright - shiny -newthings

m o d e r n - day - brand -identity

rapha by sharzad shahnia

Sydney’s Surry Hills is fast becoming home to a surge of new, modern and - dare we say it - trendy cafes. These new age babaies not only provide surry hils with a fresh face lift, but are the new game changers in the world of restaurant, namely cafe identity branding. We’re talking tasty new typography. We’re talking super succuent spacing. Grandeur grid designs. Lip-smackingly good layouts and horrendous attempts at alliteration (on our behalf). Here’s our take on the best cafes in the type game.

the stables cafe One of the youngest members to join the clan is The Stables The Stables Cafe Café. New initiative from Swedish clothing distributors We 352 Bourke St, Surry Hills Are the Stables, this cafe has only been around since early Monday to Friday, 8:00-3:00 September, but the great thing is – they know exactly what they’re doing. With menu layout and typography inspired by the simplicity of Swedish design, this cafe does no wrong. Words and photos by Shirley Cai

Nothing is simpler than a floor to ceiling menu laid out in white against a black tiled wall. The menu, located behind the glass counter is the centerpiece amongst the tastefully simple wooden décor of the café. While some may argue “too simple”, we think it’s ingenius. Not only is the menu the first thing you see, but the large typeset and font size, capitalization and sans serif font, combined with the white against black is what grabs your attention as soon as you walk in. You can see the menu from every corner of the room and honestly, you won’t want to take your eyes off it. The typeface used for the menu itself is soft and rounded, with a slight elongation. The font is similar to those used in comic books. Combine this with some italicization and you’ve got a satisfying treat for the eyes that captures the feel of the café and its food. With a modest menu of granola, croissants, breakfast muffins and gourmet sandwiches for lunch (all under $10), it’s no wonder their use of typography and layout was so simple. The cafe’s name sits on the black wall in a handwritten sans serif font; Shadowing and a colour palette of blue, yellow - it echoes the modern trends of hand typography.

There’s a separate printed menu available that screams everything that they’re about. The classic sans serif favourite, Helvetica font is used for the menu with plain black font on brown butcher’s paper. This menu is on point. All the quirky titled dishes are appropriately bolded – F.I.G.J.A.M anyone? – whilst their descriptions are italicized. It’s a simple way to help guide the eyes. Layout is effective, with generous line spacing, and gaps in between Morning and Afternoon options. Meanwhile, the header is framed neatly, by two thin lines. The name of the café, also in Helvetica is both bolded and beautifully kerned. The name that sits on the black wall contains more character. A handwritten sans serif font containing shadowing and a colour palette of blue, yellow and, it echoes the modern trends of hand typography. This place is clean and as simple as simple can get and yet it still manages to pack a punch. The typography, menu layout and designs effectively capture this little gem. This one takes the cake for “Most kickass use of typography and layout in capturing mood”.

The exterior of the café is rather simple, with small tiles and black painted brick setting us up to enter a dull space. However, this is not the case, the interior of the café visually explodes with elements of colour, graphic design and typography leaping off the walls, in the form of popular album covers. This seemingly crowded space, seen through the feature wall, entices the viewer to appreciate. Not only does it give us something interesting to look at while we nurse our lattés, but it captures the vibe and theme of the café as a modern collection of vintage and classic music.

COWBELL 808 Welcome to café Cowbell 808. Named after the popular electronic TR 808 drum machine, this café presents a uniquely vintage atmosphere, interweaving their business with elements of the modern era to create an immersive place for customers. Tucked away behind the trees of Bourke Street in the bustling city suburb of Surry Hills, Cowbell 808 is in no way short of competition, yet distinguishes itself from the crowd with an exclusive theme and inviting atmosphere. Open from early morning to mid-afternoon, this café offers the residents and workers of Surry Hills, not only coffee but a refreshing experience, different from most cafés we see today. Not only the retro décor, but the skilled cooks and methodical barista’s will have you craving more. For you foodies out there, I wouldn’t suggest adding this place to your wishlist, but they have a relatively ambitious menu, with a few surprises coming in the form of daily specials. The menu is simple and honest, sticking to the basics of breakfast and lunch foods like; toast, bacon, eggs and of course, coffee.

Cowbell 808 cafe have combined areas of modern life with their evidently vintage and musical theme, in order to create a nostalgic, yet contemporary feel in their café. If you’re looking for a reliable, friendly place to chill out and have a coffee, this is the right place for you. Be careful if you’re looking to stay on schedule though, because the café crawls with cool things to view and admire. For the moment, we award Cowbell 808 with the ‘most diverse range of typographic styles’ medal.

616 Bourke St Surry Hills

Typographically, Cowbell 808 utilises the sans-serif typeface named ‘Plaza’. This can be seen in their logo, as the stretched and thin type gives a modern, yet familiar feel. Their title also carries elements of graphic design, which offer customers visual clues as to the feel and vibe of the café. Putting this into practice, the character zero in ‘808’ is substituted for the obvious visual graphic of a vinyl record. As customers, we instantly recognise this, and are given insight into the café’s theme. This is the mark of simplistic and effective typography and design, one in which the reader subconsciously links elements of type together to create meaning that was implied by the designer. You would be hard pressed to find a café today that didn’t have a blackboard featuring specials and prices, and Cowbell 808 is no exception. Hand written type is used in order to update their specials frequently, and give regular updates. Here, clean design features like spacing and colour play a key role in presenting information to us as viewers.

Capturing the smooth, chilled out vibe that is Cowbell 808 cafe. Photography: Ryan Shanahan, 2013.

FOUR ATE FIVE

Right on the front door of the café you will find the take away menu printed on kraft paper, plasticized and stuck on the door’s glass with kneaded rubber. The typography: Glouces MT Extra Condensed Bold, from the Gloucester font family, a stub serif newspaper kind of typeface with ball terminals. Next to it, stuck on another see-through glass, hand-drawn sticky notes with bold, large, capitalized letters advertising the treats on display and their prices, a break from the formality of the printed adjacent transitional font mentioned previously. Stepping in, sprayed through a stencil in bright red, big hand-drawn unaligned capitalised characters (some with serifs, some not), the

hierarchy. Then, comes the choices of food in a smaller body size, but still bold. The details about the dishes served come along bellow, same body size; regular weight. No pictures. Nothing special, it looks like it was carelessly typed on a word document and printed out at home. The typographic highlight of this site is definitively its logotype. The words “four” and “five” in capital letters of DIN Condensed – a sans serif font of the DIN family (the German geometrical typographic family for the standardization of its country’s signage), designed in 1997 by Tagir Safayev – contrast

Entrance sign

The words “four” and “five” in capital letters of DIN Condensed contrast well with the word “ate” in the middle in italics in a smaller body size.

“Stepasaurus”

Front door

photos by Shirley Cai

Four ate Five is a classic café on Crown St, more precisely, on 485 Crown st (clever, huh?). The small, yet cosy and charming café serves your regular options of breakfast (with the exception of the Mexican breakfast, for the more exotic taste buds), such as French toast, bacon, eggs, banana loaf and so on. For lunch, you have different choices of gourmet sandwiches, burgers and salads. However, if you are one of those individuals concerned with your health, the environment and where your food comes from, do not panic, because it is organic (and free-range). The coffee, fair-trade. But, we are not here to talk about food. Typography it is, so, let’s move on.

word “STEPASAURUS” is a pun on the graffiti itself printed on a step beside the also stencilsprayed silhouette of a dinosaur, giving the right youthful, trendy/hipster atmosphere to the place. The menu typefaces although not identified, are also transitional fonts with round terminals, but their serifs are bracketed and the body width versus x-height rate is more proportional. The content of the menu is very simply laid out on an A4 size piece of kraft paper, aligned to the left, its title with the name of the place, address and meal referred is in a bold version of the font and in a higher body size, dominating the visual

well with the word “ate” in the middle in italics (typeface unknown) in a smaller body size, conceding a sleeker, less cold and more sophisticated feel. Bellow the name a humble line in the colours of what it looks like the Belgian flag, maybe symbolizing the influence of that nation on the café (on their website, however, the logo is simply the name in greywwhich makes it altogether very coherent. For those reasons, we rank Four ate Five as the café with the best logotype.

written by Júlia Mendes

Rapha cc.

Rapha CC.

Located in the heart of Surry Hills, the

Rapha is best known for it’s fine coffee, Everything Rapha does is informed by its passion for the glory and suffering that lie at the heart of the sport. From rides to events, from exhibitions to products, Rapha brings riders together to share this passion.

Rapha Cycle Club Sydney is perched on the edge of the CBD on the ever popular Crown Street. The first permanent location for Rapha in Australia and a home for the sport of road racing – serving the finest coffee, food and screening the world’s greatest races. Open from pre-dawn for the first shot of espresso through to late evening.

Rapha Cycling Club

By analyzing the logo, Rapha uses a script font for their logo which looks similar to “Pilgrim” which is a sans serif font. The logo is truly individual and represents the history of the club and it’s background; however, it has a modern twist in it which makes it stand out as a brand. The font that has been used in the menu is quite different to the logo, this time Rapha has decided to go Alternate Gothic Font The style of Alternate Gothic is in the 19th Century manner. All three weights of Alternate Gothic are bold and narrow. this face is essentially a condensed version of Benton’s other well-known sans serif types, like Franklin Gothic or News Gothic. Robust, dark, and coolly competent, Alternate Gothic is a good choice when strong typographic statements must fit into tight spaces. This is very clever choice as the menu is quite short and this font makes it fit on one page without changing the overall look of the menu or making it look compressed

Rapha has gone with the classic font families to establish the brand since it was found in the early 1900s ; however, it is quite surprising that the store is well known for it’s modern look and interior design, Rapha is bringing the classic side of riding and cafe life in the modern world and has been quite successful thanks to it’s phenomenal use of digital photography in visual branding. The combination of monochrome photographs and bright and fluoro colors just adds that extra aesthetic and luxury look to the cafe and the store in general. The compelling features and striking photography help reaffirm the relationship the customers have with the sport they love.

Photo by Ryan Shanahan

1980â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cassettes by Jessica Schmider Pac-Man by Rosanna L Leung E.T by Kie Kobayashi Queen by Eric Yeung

E.T. “E.T. revives the child of us but at the expense of the adult sense of wonder.”

UFO and its crew have mistakenly landed on the Earth. When the aliens are discovered by a reconnaissance patrol of curious scientists, they quickly flee. However, one of the passengers is unable to return to the mother ship in time and is left on the blue planet. At first, the small alien hides in the garden shed behind a suburban home, until one night the young Elliott discovers him. After Elliott has gotten over his fear of the strange life form, he lures him into the house with the help of a candy trail. A friendship slowly develops between the two and soon Elliott’s brother and sister, who are no less fascinated, are let in on the secret. The newcomer becomes a playmate of the children, but must continue to hide himself from the adults. He remains invisible to the eye of the children’s mother hidden in the wall closet underneath toys and dolls. The director of the film, Spielberg, successfully portrays the conflict between the head and the heart, between reason and instinct. From Spielberg’s perspective, when adults are given the choice between these concepts, they usually decide in favor of intellect. It is in this choice that he sees the destruction of the imaginative power that comes with childhood. What he offers with his films is a form of atonement. Even at the beggining of E.T. the adults are portrayed as a threat to the children’s world. With loud voices and flashlights, they chase the aliens, who only came to the earth to peacefully pick flowers. Spielberg films the adults exclusively from below, showing them from the ground to the hid, or from behind: only towards the end of the film are they given an actual face. The camera is thus always at the eye level of the children, from whose perspective the events unfold.

E.T. (The Extra-Terrestrial) “Movies of the 80s” December 2007; 27. Print.

E.T. (The Extra-Terrestrial)

P ack agin g E

asy to carry, and easy to use, the cassette tape was the most innovative invention for the 80’s. “cassettes are what brought about the move from listening to music in a group setting, to listening to music in a private setting while on the move. ” One of the most popular brands of cassette packaging, is by “rainbow Records”. The basic tape packaging can come into three sections:The Cassette Label (The information printed directly on the cassette shell itself), Cassette J-Card (The standard cassette cover. This template has two optional extra panels) and the Cassette O-Card (Usually used for promos and singles).

http://ministryoftype.co.uk/words/category/C8/P40/

BRIAN SETZER THE STRAY CATS Brian Setzer is one of those wild geniuses who keeps the Earth properly spinning on its axis – a consistent institution who you can count on while pretty much everything else comes and goes. If nothing else, he might be saving American history from the scorch of its own warped magnifying glass memory. We’ve screwed up the 50’s – reduced it into one giant goof cartoon of crummy over-fattening food, leather jackets and endless sock hops. And the 80’s showed up more or less mangled on arrival. But Brian Setzer, a punk rocker grinning across a gorgeous Gretsch splashed through the neon of the 80’s scene with a sound that channeled the earliest primal yelps of rock n’ roll. Then in the 90s when every guy within a fedora’s throw of Hollywood wanted to form a swing band, Setzer massed a bloody orchestra and launched a blistering assault on

are scorching, the drinks stay cold and the circle remains unbroken. Setzer Goes Instru-MENTAL! is another elegant affirmation of Setzer’s legacy and a beautiful betrayal of what we tend to expect from guitar records. Betrayal? Ok, look let’s admit something. Even people who buy guitar records made by guys who make guitar records for people who buy guitar records know that guitar records are often not all that much fun when you boil them down. Usually there’s a certain quota of “see, I can do this” fretboard pyrotechnics, a few “exercise in getting a certain guitar tone” kinds of exotic moves and then the inevitably boring retread of some song snatched from a different genre. As a guitarist, Setzer has basically nothing whatsoever to prove, so Instru-MENTAL! skips all of those games. Instead, it’s a richly lyrical spin through

“figures sound with a delivery that’s alarmingly effortless.” all the zoot-suited mannequins cruising the scene. With an astonishing consistency and quality of output, an honest reverence for the American musical tradition and an idiosyncratic swagger that is itself the kind of brand that defies all contrivance, Brian’s on that short list alongside guys like Billy Gibbons, Jeff Beck, or, hell, Hendrix who inhabit their own crazy little islands where the waves around them may change direction but the guitar licks

songs where Setzer (as usual) makes complex guitar figures sound organic with a delivery that’s alarmingly effortless. If anything, its instrumental-ness was something that revealed itself along the way.

Gretsch site, 2013

1960s ROCKABILLY Chester Burton Atkins was born on June 20, 1924, in Luttrell, Tenn. The youngest of four children in a musical family, he became enthralled by guitar at age six, and had become a talented and accomplished self-taught guitarist by the time he left high school in 1942. At age 15, while living in Georgia, he had heard the great Merle Travis on Cincinnati’s WLW radio, but couldn’t figure out how to play like him; he consequently invented and mastered his own intricate and complex playing style, using the thumb and three fingers of his picking hand (unbeknownst to Atkins, Travis used only his thumb and index finger). Atkins moved from radio station gig to gig in the mid 1940s, the shy guitarist was actually fired often because his sophisticated playing style was frequently deemed “not country enough.” Nonetheless, he always found work. Atkins became adept at pop and swing styles during this period, and he absorbed the playing of Django Reinhardt and Andres Segovia. Atkins didn’t consider himself solely a country/hillbilly guitarist rather he considered himself a guitarist, period. After WNOX in Knoxville, Tenn, WLW (where he replaced Travis) and WPTF in Raleigh, N.C., Atkins went to Chicago and joined Red Foley’s band, with which he went to Nashville and made his debut at the Grand Ole Opry on April 13, 1946. The Foley/Opry gig lasted six months, after which Atkins made his first record, “Guitar Blues,” an instrumental he wrote with his brother, Jim, who had played in the Les Paul Trio in New York, backed with “Brown Eyes Cryin’ In the Rain.” After Denver; Richmond, and Chicago, Atkins and his wife, Leona, moved to Springfield, where he took a job at KWTO and where their daughter, Merle, was born in 1947. Atkins was playing an electrified guitar by this time, and a young friend named Si Siman had taken to calling him “Chet” instead of “Chester.” It was Siman who first tried to attract major label interest in Atkins, and when the “too progressive” guitarist was fired yet again, it was Siman who landed interest from Steve Sholes, director of country music operations for RCA Records.

As guitarist with “Mother” Maybelle Carter and the Carter sisters; Helen, Anita and June, Atkins found increasing work, money and success, and he also resumed recording and producing for Sholes and RCA that year. Nashville soon beckoned to the Carters, and Atkins and his family left for their new home permanently, on July 1950. Through the mid 1950s, regular Grand Ole Opry appearances gave Atkins national exposure. He also had a heavy session workload in Nashville, and Sholes relied on him more and more as a producer. As his own records were beginning to sell, Atkins soon parted company with the Carters, whom he counted as dear friends. Gretsch sales rep Jimmie Webster met Atkins in Nashville in 1954 and tried to persuade the guitarist to try a Gretsch instrument. Atkins initially resisted, insisting that he was happy with what he’d been using, but relented when Webster suggested an Atkins-designed Gretsch guitar. Atkins had strong ideas about guitar design and jumped at the chance, being eager to have his own model. He quickly inked a deal with Gretsch. Significantly, the Gretsch model bearing Atkins’ name was present at the birth of rock ‘n’ roll, and popular and influential players such as Eddie Cochran and Duane Eddy used the model extensively. The Chet Atkins Hollow Body model quickly found itself at the very forefront of rock ‘n’ roll and rockabilly a potent look, sound and tradition that continues today.

Mederick, 2012

Eddie Cochran Gretschguitars.com

1950s Rockabilly One can only speculate on the musical heights Eddie Cochran might have reached had he lived beyond the age of 21. As it is, his all-too-brief career has left an indelible mark on rock music and rockabilly music, two forms for which he is equally revered as a talented pioneer.

half a dozen enduring hits that perfectly encapsulated the experience of being a teenager. These include classics such as “C’mon Everybody,” “Twenty Flight Rock,” “Something Else,” “Sittin’ In the Balcony” and Cochran’s biggest hit, the immortal “Summertime Blues.”

As a guitarist, Cochran played with strength, finesse, energy and authority, and the enduring image of him is of a handsome, sharply dressed young man with a charming smile, swaggering stance, self-confidence, and an ever-present Gretsch® 6120 guitar. As a songwriter, he co-wrote more than 50 songs and recorded

In July 1956, Cochran recorded his first rock ‘n’ roll single, a spirited Cochran/Capehart composition titled “Skinny Jim.” In addition to the ace guitar playing, the single also featured Cochran’s rough-edged but rapidly improving lead vocal style. As Capehart shopped for a record deal for the young artist, Cochran’s big break soon came in

the unexpected form of Russian-born B-movie writer, director and producer Boris Petroff, who stopped by the studio one day and was immediately taken by Cochran’s good looks. Petroff offered Cochran a bit part in a 20th Century Fox musical comedy called “The Girl Can’t Help It” which was released in December 1956 and became Hollywood’s first big-budget rock ‘n’ roll picture and a big hit, especially in Britain. It won a whole new and much bigger audience for Cochran, who by that time had signed with Liberty Records from which his single, “Sittin’ in the Balcony,” hit the Billboard’s Top 100 chart on March 23, soon peaking at #18.

On Saturday, April 16, 1960, at about 11.50 p.m., while on tour in the United Kingdom, 21-year-old Cochran died as a result of a traffic accident in a taxi. The speeding taxi blew a tire, lost control, and crashed into a lamp post on Rowden Hill, where a plaque now marks the spot. Posthumously, Cochran achieved enduring icon status, with subsequent generations of rock musicians heavily influenced by his work. It is perhaps a testament to his uncanny knack for zeroing in on both the joy and the angst of being a teenager that the greats such as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Sex Pistols, and many others emulated Cochran to great extent.

NOS FELIX OUN MANON CAMILLE

TALG-

... an exploration of typographic elements in the 1940s and 1950s.

Je t’aime, moi non plus The

modern woman considers herself to be strong, independant and seemingly no longer requires to utilise her charms to get ahead in society. This woman is seemingly no longer defined by her appearance and the way she holds herself, nor is her role in society defined by men as it once was. In an era where women decide everything for themselves, including work, children, money and other life choices, there is now room for them to freely decide what they can wear for themselves. But are they making these choices out of free will or out of spite?

In a world where intimate apparel has become more comfortable and less of a duty, the modern woman has distanced herself from the male expectations of the 50’s. Based solely on men’s fantasies and concepts of THE ideal woman, intimate apparel of the time would confine and accentuate a woman’s form to acknowledge her natural curves, or create them in their absence. Today, we are spoilt for choice. From the sports brassier to the simplicity of cotton or the sex appeal of lace, every woman can take her pick and make the choice their own. In this, women have found a very powerful symbol of their newly acquitted (less than a 100 years) independence and freedom. However, in this taking of power, women are now taking the complete opposite route, and purposely choosing simpler options, just for the sake of going against men’s previous preferences. Now, I am all for girl power and women doing exactly what they want, however, I do believe that there is some sort of stigma that remains when it comes to traditional intimate apparel. The beauty and utility of a girdle remains ignored nowadays, as for corsets, they are commonly referred to as torture or men’s way of keeping a woman tied down or tied up. Either way, vintage wear is no longer considered preferrable.

Nevertheless, I find that women are now letting go of their subconscious row with the man’s fantasy and are coming back to classics, not in an attempt to please the male companion, but to please themselves and their inner needs. After all, a wise woman once said, “you can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.” Lingerie, like everything else, is a way to express oneself. What must be remembered, is that whether you like a flash of the past, or a more contemporary version, each piece is a one of kind symbol of womanliness and will remain a symbol for the remainder of eternity.

The Art of Being a Well Dressed Wife Anne Forgaty, V&A Publishing 1959

“You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.”

I believe this to be an unfortunate situation, as vintage wear remains one of the most flattering sources for shapes, materials and designs that are not only complimentary to a woman’s shape, but also celebrates its beauty and differences for its manly counterpart.

1940s Pearl Harbor PosterS

Left- the Year 2001 Movie Poster Right - the 1940 World War II Poster after the Peral Harbor Attacked

Man

5000 posters from the momentous war years of 1940-1945 can be viewed on this site. The subject matter is very diverse: German propaganda campaigns, Mussert and his NSB party, recruitment notices for the Waffen SS, instructions for protecting the population against air-raids, leisure activities and German death sentences. Mayors informed their citizens of new German measures. The underground used placards to encourage resistance. In Dutch Indonesia, the Japanese occupier circulated propaganda posters. American War Bonds promotion from 1941. During the period 1941 to 1945 85 million Americans bought $187 billion worth of war bonds, a major support for the American war effort.

courageous the people to join to the wars.

Pearl Harbor font here refers to the font used in the poster of Pearl Harbor, which is a 2001 American war movie based on the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7th December in 1941.

Posters were an important propaganda tool during World War II. The Germans gave a lot of care and attention to propagating the National Socialist message in occupied Holland by using colourful placards. Signs, walls and advertising pillars were plastered full of propaganda posters with loud slogans and gripping images that were supposed to influence public opinion.

Original poster from 1940s World War II Poster after the Pearl Harbor attacked to

the Guns - Join the Fight is an 1940s quote which they used their quote into thier 2001 movie called the PEARL HARBOR. The reviews were not kind to this supposed tribute to the victims of that fateful day. ‘Bombs away!’ seemed to be the general consensus from most critics, and deservedly so. In fact, it’s rather difficult to resist the urge to fast-forward to the spectacular special effects supervised by Australian CGI artist Ben Snow. But if you do that, you’ll miss the incomparable Jon Voight delivering Roosevelt’s heartfelt post-attack speech about anything being possible, rising from his wheelchair like Peter Sellers in Doctor Strangelove (1964). Something else you don’t want to miss is the look on Ben Affleck‘s face when he returns from the dead to find Kate Beckinsale in the arms of his best mate Josh Hartnett Truly, Michael Bay is a gift to us all – if on ly he wasn’t serious.

TYPOGRAPHY & IMAGE STYLES

Movie Poster from 2001’s Pearl Habor, Starring Ben Afleck as Capt. Rafe McCawley.

“ Something else you don’t want to miss is the look on Ben

More of 2001 movie and World War II posters

Affleck‘s face when he returns from the dead to find Kate Beckinsale in the arms of his best mate Josh Hartnett.” Photos: Nurses are needed now.

Photos: Victory of Navy.

Photos: Buy War Bonds.

Left photo: Starring Kate Beckinsale.

left photo: Starring Cuba Gooding Jr.

left photo: Starring Josh Hartnett.

Picture taken from ‘The Circus. 1870s-1950s’ by Dominique Jando.

Clowns and showgirls, 1955

“The circus was indeed

the magic, the madness, the circus

the greatest show on an unwired earth.”

Ringling Bros & Barnum Bailey At the big top, ‘the greatest show on earth.’

The

magic, madness, the weird, and the wonderful; a concoction of human cannonballs, oddities, contortions, clowns, sword eaters, fire breathers, and anything and everything imaginable – the vintage circus. It’s the midtwentieth century, the Second World War had begun, TVs were not widely available, and there definitely was no Youtube or Facebook to accompany you on your bored days. The circus was the ultimate form of entertainment, bringing excitement and joy to men , women, and children of all ages. Promising to transcend the heights of wonder and provide the sights and sounds you will never forget, “the circus was indeed the greatest show on an unwired earth.”

With the greatest show on hand, there comes a task of selling it. Circus posters and flyers had to be electrifying and reflect the exoticness of their shows. These large poster with bright reds, yellows, and blues were pasted around town, inducing curiosity and excitement in the public weeks before the show. Like the circus scene, the myriad of typefaces and styles used in these posters were nowhere near ordinary. Coupled with quirky hand drawn illustrations and phrases such as ‘death defying’ and ‘world famous’, there is no doubt these posters were the loudest thing in town. Before radio, TV, and technology, advertising these shows was a challenge. Each circus company had to have a unique and recognisable name, style and slogan to attract repeat patrons. Featuring a medley of outlined, non-linear, decorative, bolded sans serif, big, small, narrow and wide typefaces, these posters were designed to set themselves apart from their competitors.

Unlike mass produced advertising posters today, most of these posters were designed by a combination of hired artists and used less convenient printing methods. Stock posters with illustrations of clowns, elephants and acrobats were commonly available in catalogues with subordinate typography such as date, place and time added later. These were less costly than specially customised ones and was widely provided by printers of that era.

Today, because of its uniqueness, many circus items are highly sought after by collectors. Of course, with rich, fun, and quirky illustrations and typefaces, these vibrant posters have also become one of the hottest items circus collectors want.

Self-titled album - ‘ELVIS PRESLEY’ — March, 1956. Photograph taken at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa, Florida (July 31, 1955). Photographed by William V. “Red” Robertson of Robertson & Fresch.

Before

1938, all albums came in plain brown wrappers —Alex Steinweiss revolutionised the music and design industry with an idea to create a package with a visual element that would lure the consumer in and demonstrate the stylistic content of the album. His idea now seems arbitrary as we are so used to associating music with a visual identity, however he created a new field of illustration and thus the era of album art began.

SEX , TYPE AND ROCK ’ N ’ ROLL "I love music so much and I had such ambition that I was willing to go way beyond what the hell they paid me for. I wanted people to look at the artwork and hear the music." —Alex Steinweiss During the 1950s, Figurative Typography established itself as a revolutionary way of integrating type and images, thereby challenging the assumption that type could only be used as a functional text form and not as a key visual element in graphic design. Design leaders of the movement Gene Federico and Herb Lubalin created masterpieces where anthropomorphic type interacted with imagery and other type — “new options were explored to create designs that communicated content while expressing values, emotions and individuality” — enabled largely due to developments in phototypesetting technologies. Whilst album cover art is often distinctive for its strong visual elements and use of illustration, it also makes use of graphic and typographic traditions. Thus it is essential to have an understanding of the global context of typography in the 1950s and it’s reaction to a broader cultural context. During the early 1950s America adopted Helvetica and the Swiss style as “the backbone of corporate communication” — a style which was so deeply ingrained in the consumers’ consciousness that it caused a reaction, leading to developments in graphic design that were highly “anti-establishment”. Parallel to graphic design’s reaction to universal design was American youth and popular culture — art, music and literature were reacting against the constraints of a conservative previous generation and thus the era of rock’n’roll was born.

The most iconic album art covers are so successful because they create a clear visual link to the music of the artist. A well designed cover should give the viewer a clear representation of the musical style/ content and should be a distinct artwork themselves. Thus the best album covers are not merely good looking but are also extraordinarily well designed — they are not promoting a single product to the viewer but are a physical manifestation of what the band, the music and the brand represent. Thus the integration of both visual elements, the advances in phototypesetting technology and a strong sense of playfulness enabled album art covers of the 1950s to become some of the most iconic today — not only because they represent a pivotal point in the history of music, but because through analysing their typography and graphic design, one can gain an understanding of the culture of an era.

‘SHAKE RATTLE and ROLL’ — 1955. Album cover art designer / illustrator unknown. Image later reused by Bear Family Records for a 2006 re-release.