The American Jazz Ensemble – New Dimensions album art
Contributed by Stephen Coles on Apr 4th, 2016. Artwork published in
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“Cover art: Bob Cato.” The design is not explicitly credited, but it is likely Cato who did many other covers for Columbia.
I was surprised to see Miller & Richard’s Grotesque No. 3 used in a 1960s American design. It was my understanding that Stephenson Blake replaced M&R’s Grotesques with their own when they absorbed the foundry. But maybe this style survived at phototypesetters in the US. Digitally, the closest thing is Founders Grotesk.
Source: www.discogs.com License: All Rights Reserved.
3 Comments on “The American Jazz Ensemble – New Dimensions album art”
Just discovered that ATF’s Times Gothic appears to be a revision of Grotesque No. 4 (which is essentially No. 3 with a lowercase). This is more likely the font used by Columbia/Epic in the U.S.
Times Gothic was also digitized as BN Times Gothic by Brandon Nickerson in January 2021.
Thank you, Jay! Brandon mentions he based his version on wood type specimens (i.e. not ATF’s foundry type), and “updated the tapers to include more contrast and included/trimmed down certain characters to enhance digital and print legibility.” The attached image shows a comparison of ➊ ATF’s Times Gothic (which exhibits major differences between the sizes), ➋ Jordan Davies’s digital version (Wooden Type Fonts, 2009) which likewise is said to be based on a wood type version, and ➌ BN Times Gothic. The latter is much smoother, but also quite far removed from the source. There is a double-storey g, but the default form is monocular.