A Nonesuch Christmas album art
Front cover.
A Nonesuch Christmas from the Baroque, Renaissance, and Middle Ages was released in 1970. Cover design by Bob Heimall, with art by Abe Gurvin and art direction by Bill Harvey.
The title typeface is a rare bird: West Latin Playbill Swash was drawn in two weights in or before 1967 by Dave West for Photo-Lettering, Inc. The bold weight used here appears to be derived from his West Cooper Nouveau Swash 10, but is distinguished by flared stems and pointed terminals.
Nonesuch was “created in 1963 as a budget label for classical releases licensed from large classical record companies in Britain and France that did not have a cost-efficient means to distribute their releases directly in North America.” [Discogs]
“Merry Xmas And Happy New Year” – when LTypI is the moniker for picking a typeface because its name matches the content, what shall we call it when a typeface was chosen because of the specimen text? (It doesn’t add up here. The record was released prior to this specimen.) West Latin Playbill Swash in PLINC’s One Line Manual of Styles (1971). The line below shows the similar and more popular West Cooper Nouveau Swash 10, with a lower catalog number, suggesting a (slightly) earlier date.
Back cover.
Front cover (alternative image).
Back cover (alternative image).
Inner sleeve with track listing and liner notes by Joshua Rifkin, set in justified Helvetica.
The nonesuch Records logo is Crayonette, but the n below appears to be from a source or custom.