Fleet Foxes — Crack-Up
Crack-Up, the latest album by Seattle folk superstars Fleet Foxes, took me by surprise this morning with some curious typography. The album art, designed by singer Robin Pecknold, features a photograph by late Japanese artist Hiroshi Hamaya, framed by white and a minimal use of typography.
A quick glance could easily mistake the yellowish letters for something along the lines of Century Schoolbook. However, closer inspection reveals the monospacing and light color so characteristic of the Latin glyphs that often accompany CJK (Chinese Japanese Korean) typefaces. Indeed, what we have here is the Latin portion of SimSun, a simplified Chinese font drawn in Mincho-style available as standard on Microsoft systems. A curious combination of American folk with two different Asian cultures.
The use of the typeface goes further into the Fleet Foxes website, gig posters, videos and merchandise.
To quote the man himself:
Still just pumped on SimSun sorry other fonts
