Astonish Me. Adventures In Contemporary Theater by John Lahr

This Use is an addendum to the poster for the Martha Graham Dance Company at the Royal Opera House which I posted last week. There, I wrote that ITC Busorama isn’t easy to use, and lauded the sophisticated use of the typeface’s alternates by Richard Bird and Michael Mayhew.

This uncredited book jacket design from 1973 likewise makes prominent use of the monolinear geometric all-caps design by Tom Carnase with Herb Lubalin, here in two weights, Medium and Bold. It also features some alternate glyphs, see the two forms for S in lines 1 and 2, for M in lines 1 and 3, for R in lines 4 and 5, and the A with and without protruding bar. They aren’t employed with an obvious idea in mind, though: the different inclination of the A’s and M’s creates neither a feeling of symmetry nor direction, making the result look agitated. The slightly different sizes (and hence stroke weights) don’t help. Also, five lines of sticks and curves is probably a little too much. The multiple contours around the main title are a nice effect, though.

Chances are this isn’t ITC’s original Busorama, but Omnibus, a knockoff made by VGC in or before 1972. Judging from the (limited) specimens I’ve seen, VGC’s version is different in some details and the provided alternates. This includes a more open C, an alternate narrow S and the A with protruding bar, a wide assymetrical M (ITC’s had such an alternate, but with more compact proportions), and an H with a bar protruding to the left. The fact that the letters C and O (in “Contemporary”) appear to be different in weight and that the bars in H and E (in “Theater”) don’t align is further indication that this isn’t the real thing from the hands of Tom Carnase. The VGC catalog from 1973 no longer lists Omnibus, but now has “Busorama” in three weights. They may have come clean and licensed the name, but the shown Medium weight still is their Omnibus.

Astonish Me is a collection of texts by theater critic John Lahr (b. 1941). It was published by Viking Press, with the same design used for both the hardback and the paperback edition.