Bernstein Meets Broadway by Carol J. Oja
A little tilting to the left, some skewing to the right – that’s about all what designer Benjamin Shaykin needs to emulate a perspective view of Broadway’s neon signs with typographic means. No cheap glow effects, no flamboyant multitude of colors. Just a carefully composed interplay of angles and sizes, in two shades of red, with sprinkles of illuminated windows in the background that hint at the depth of the nocturnal streetscape.
The typeface choice is perfect. Ohm by Type Supply comes in three weights; Light, Medium (outlined), and Bold (multiline), all of which have here been used together. A stray O from the Light was sneaked into a word set in the Medium, representing the inescapable broken letter, nervously flickering high above the night owls. Ohm’s blocky caps with their tube-like contours are contrasted with the hundreds of light bulbs from Superpois, a dotted sans by studiocharlie that is used for the subheading. The author’s name is shown in caps from Router by MCKL.
Bernstein Meets Broadway. Collaborative Art in a Time of War “offers an in-depth look at the emerging career of Leonard Bernstein”. The book by Carol J. Oja, William Powell Mason Professor of Music and American Studies at Harvard University, was published in Oxford University Press’s Broadway Legacies series.
