The Charleston City All-Stars – The Roaring 20’s album art

The Roaring 20’s is a series of records with “great hit songs of the 20’s, excitingly performed by Enoch Light and the Charleston City All-Stars”. It was started by Grand Award Records in 1955. Most of the covers shown here were designed for pressings from 1957: four LPs, a double LP, and a 7″ EP. The series also included the EPs Vol. 7, Vol. 8 and Vol. 9, some of them with art reused from the LPs.

All covers in this series feature a wordmark based on Metropolis. Willy Schwerdtner’s design from 1928 is shown in caps of increasing size, virtually creating a gradient from the Bold to the taller Titling cut. Although it was already possible to create such perspective effects through photographic means at the time, chances are it’s handlettering.

The Grand Award logo uses Caslon 540 Italic, with roman capitals. The label’s art director Casper Pinsker, Jr. worked with various illustrators. For the secondary texts, he employed a range of standard typefaces, most of them sans serifs.