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“The Carefree Girl” ads

Contributed by Florian Hardwig on Aug 31st, 2017. Artwork published in .
    Roller coaster ad, published in Redbook magazine, November 1968, Vol. 132, No. 1
    Source: www.flickr.com Classic Film. License: CC BY-NC.

    Roller coaster ad, published in Redbook magazine, November 1968, Vol. 132, No. 1

    A series of late-1960s magazine advertisements for Carefree Tampons features “The Carefree Girl”, typographically personified by Crayonette.

    Many specimens from the phototype era show Crayonette’s caps (and the ‘f’!) aligned to the baseline, ignorant of the fact that they were designed to descend. This is the case here, too. The ‘f’ was lowered a little — probably to prevent its ascender from colliding with the line above — but not far enough: The crossbar should actually sit on the x-height, of course. Well, I guess you can get away with that when the topic literally is “carefree”.

    Rowing boat ad in Hairdo 11/1968, starring the young Cheryl Tiegs.
    Source: www.thejumpingfrog.com The Jumping Frog. License: All Rights Reserved.

    Rowing boat ad in Hairdo 11/1968, starring the young Cheryl Tiegs.

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    • Crayonette
    • Eurostile

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    1 Comment on ““The Carefree Girl” ads”

    1. In addition to Photo-Lettering’s Crayonet, there was also a phototype version that included a horseload of alternates, with extra swashes, terminal forms and whatnot. It is shown in the catalogs of Berthold Fototypes (as Crayonette Flair, 1974) and Lettergraphics (as Crayon Flair, 1976). It is not known who can be held accountable for this extension.

      Glyph set from a specimen by German typesetting company Fürst where it is listed as Crayon. It includes the simpler caps that appear in the Carefree ads as well as on the album cover by The Feminine Complex.

      One-line showing of Lettergraphics’ Crayon Flair — again with the caps aligned to the baseline.

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