Mdou Moctar / Brainstorm split single
Contributed by Frode Helland (Monokrom Skriftforlag) on Nov 19th, 2015. Artwork published in
August 2012
.
“Mdou Moctar is a guitarist from Tchin-tabaradene, Niger. Anar is an autotuned love ballad, a huge success on cellphones throughout the Sahara. In 2011, Portland band BRAINSTORM recorded a cover of the hit complete with homophone English lyrics.”
2 Comments on “Mdou Moctar / Brainstorm split single”
Sintra might be related to Tape Don (by Hans Donner and Sylvia Trenker for Mecanorma in 1975).
Oh, absolutely! Great addition, Jay, thank you. Actually, the font used here is not Sintra, but the original Tape Don. I’ve adjusted the credit.
According to T-26, “Sintra was created by BANKTM / Sebastian Bissinger and Matthieu David in 2009. Sebastian Bissinger was inspired by the sign of a shoe shop in Sintra, Portugal.”
It looks like this is another indirect revival, unconsciously based on (an in-use example of) an existing typeface. Other fonts in this odd category include Mobley Sans (Neil Bold), Snorkel JNL (Lucky), and Gallery (Quirinale). Who can think of more examples?
This approach – drawing a full alphabet based on a few given glyphs – is a great educational exercise, as it allows one compare the result to the original designer’s take. For commercial releases, however, it can be problematic, especially when the original is still available.