A French release from 1978, featuring “If I Had a Hammer” on the A side. Written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays in 1949, the protest song was recorded by Trini Lopez (1937–2020) in 1963 and became one of his biggest hits.
The typography brings together Ad Werner’s all-lowercase Paperclip with Michel Waxmann’s all-caps Bronx. Both display faces were added to Mecanorma’s library of rubdown type around 1973. The top/bottom-heavy caps used for “Elenore” are from Droux. The designer of this face is unknown. It was issued by Mecanorma in circa 1976 and disappeared from their catalogs soon after. Photography by Hal Wilson.
Eagle eye – thanks, Jay! I’ve updated the typeface entry. Typony carried a lot of phototype copies of dry transfer faces, often under other names. Droux is shown in Mecanorma’s Graphic Book catalog from circa 1976 – the one with the metallic blue gradient on the cover. I suspect that the designer is mentioned there. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a person named Droux.
3 Comments on “Trini Lopez – “If I Had a Hammer” / “Elenore” French single cover”
Droux is also known as Stunt, which appeared in the 6th Typony Core book from 1980.
Eagle eye – thanks, Jay! I’ve updated the typeface entry. Typony carried a lot of phototype copies of dry transfer faces, often under other names. Droux is shown in Mecanorma’s Graphic Book catalog from circa 1976 – the one with the metallic blue gradient on the cover. I suspect that the designer is mentioned there. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a person named Droux.
Type aficionado Fontastique kindly consulted his copy of the Mecanorma catalog and confirms that it’s credited to “Droux” – no first name is stated.