Charade was designed by Al Elliott and released in
the late 1960s or early 1970s by Headliners. [McDonald] Shown as
neo-Charade with Outline and Shadow styles as well as
alternates (‘A’, ‘o’), ligatures, and a terminal swash form.
[1977
specimen] Copied by Castcraft as Gaston Agency
(“similar to Charade”). [Castcraft
1978] Also adopted by Formatt as Gaston. [1978,
1981 catalogs]. Homage to the Alphabet shows it as
Brandywine
Bold, together with the similar but unrelated Brandywine.
There are digital versions of Gaston by Opti/Castcraft
Software Inc. (mediocre) and Dan X. Solo (useless). Jason Walcott’s
Groovin’
(2005) is a better interpretation. Profonts’ Charade
(before 2009) has all 3 variants and a higher glyph count, but no
alternates – and it doesn’t join up.
Charade More…
Charade was designed by Al Elliott and released in the late 1960s or early 1970s by Headliners. [McDonald] Shown as neo-Charade with Outline and Shadow styles as well as alternates (‘A’, ‘o’), ligatures, and a terminal swash form. [1977 specimen] Copied by Castcraft as Gaston Agency (“similar to Charade”). [Castcraft 1978] Also adopted by Formatt as Gaston. [1978, 1981 catalogs]. Homage to the Alphabet shows it as Brandywine Bold, together with the similar but unrelated Brandywine.
There are digital versions of Gaston by Opti/Castcraft Software Inc. (mediocre) and Dan X. Solo (useless). Jason Walcott’s Groovin’ (2005) is a better interpretation. Profonts’ Charade (before 2009) has all 3 variants and a higher glyph count, but no alternates – and it doesn’t join up. Charade has a lot in common with Benguiat Charisma (Photo-Lettering Inc., 1969?) and Alan Meeks’ Candice (Letraset, 1976).