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Bowie General > The Bowie Typefaces

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MossGardenPosted at 2016-03-03 17:49:19(424 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)


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Hi Rob

I had a look at the Black Tie White Noise cover.
This is what I found:

The title is DIN Alternative Bold. DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normung) it is a German standard typeface, you will see it on a lot of highway and street signs, there are different versions of if DIN Medium looks almost the same, I think the S might be very slightly different.

David Bowie is written with Akzidenz-Grotesk BQ Light Reg, but a tiny bit heavier, to find the right Akzidenz-Grotesk BQ checking out the O it is the key. And the spacing needs to be adjusted to at least around -50.

The Occidental Bold you found looks very much like DIN but it is not smooth in the curves, I like it.
I hope this helps you.

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steve23yhPosted at 2016-03-03 19:35:38(424 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)
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I reckon I did three BTWN covers in HG, and I used bog standard Arial for David's name and Arial Black for the track listing.  Gill Sans for the titles.  They all seemed to do the job.


Don't blame me, I didn't do it!
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MossGardenPosted at 2016-03-03 21:35:38(424 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)


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What HG covers were they for, was it for TV shows?

Gill Sans looks a lot like the title text, but the letters are a bit too wide and check the C and the O they are much rounder than what is on the cover, I’m sure it is DIN they used.

The Arial for David Bowie is very good, it has the perfect shape and weight for everything except from the O that is more condensed on the cover, The O looks pretty right in Arial Narrow, but then the rest is off and mixing them looks a bit weird.
I know we are talking about the small details here.
I am surprised how much Arial and Akzidenz-Grotesk BQ Light Reg looks like each other, the weight of Arial is better, but Akzidenz-Grotesk BQ Light Reg has the perfect shape all the way through,
I have tried to see if I could find an Akzidenz-Grotesk bq light Medium, but I have not found one, that one would be perfect.

I think you are right about Arial Black being the track listing font, that also makes it more likely that it is Arial being used on the front, there might be an Arial that I don't have where the O is right, makes me want to look for it.

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steve23yhPosted at 2016-03-03 22:47:41(424 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)
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They were HUG129CD, HUG302DVD and HUG307DVD - both DVDs are TV compies.


Don't blame me, I didn't do it!
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MossGardenPosted at 2016-03-04 17:09:22(424 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)


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I could not stop thinking that something was wrong with the Black Tie White Noise typefaces.

Besides the problem with the O, I had not noticed the E, all the typefaces we were talking about had the same length of all the horizontal lines, but the middle line on the cover is shorter.  And the thickness of the legs of the A and V does not have the same thickness, as it did in the typefaces we had found.

I am now sure that is all fonts of the typeface ITC Franklin Gothic Std

The font for David Bowie's name is ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book.
The song title texts is ITC Franklin Gothic Std Heavy
The credit in the title texts are ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book
It is also ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book that is used with all caps for the title on the front.

I must say it can be difficult spotting the subtle differences in the small print on a CD, it would have been better looking at an LP.

ITC Franklin Gothic Std Book was drawn in 1902, with added fonts in 1952 and 1967.
The ITC version was drawn for digital use in 1991.

So that is it for an album he didn't tour so I properly wont be doing any covers in that style  :-)
It is a really good album thou, it would have been fun to hear how it would have sounded if they had made a real tour of it.

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MossGardenPosted at 2016-03-04 19:08:38(424 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)


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I was looking for a better typeface for Aladdin Sane than Castellar, and found that someone was mentioning Cristal, it is almost spot on.
Cristal was designed in 1955 by Rémy Peignot and was digitally redrawn in 1998, the main difference is the shape between the lines inside the letters, the original was more elegant, I think this was down to sloppy redrawing for the digital version.
It is still missing the tear drop over the i, but that might have been handmade anyway.

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RobBK90Posted at 2016-03-06 04:52:29(424 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)


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Space Oddity is Cloister Open Face https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/tilde/cloister-open-face/open-face/

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MossGardenPosted at 2016-03-07 22:12:19(424 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)


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RobBK90 wrote:

Space Oddity is Cloister Open Face https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/tilde/cloister-open-face/open-face/

Hi Rob

I'm starting to feel a bit like the typeface nazi here, that was not my intend starting this list  :?
I really like that I'm not the only one that find this stuff interesting.

Cloister open face is extremely close to the one used on the UK David Bowie that became Space Oddity,
If you look at the A, the one on the cover is not pointy, it is flat on top and there is an outline throughout all the letters, there are no solid lines.
I don't know of any typeface that is closer to the one used than Cloister open face thou.

The cover from illustrated DB:  http://www.illustrated-db-discography.nl/forum/download/file.php?id=1219&mode=view/front%20cover.jpg

There is an interesting article about Cloister here: http://centerforbookarts.org/tuesday-typefaces-cloister-font-family/

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dhsugarbladePosted at 2016-03-09 04:42:52(424 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)


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https://fanart.tv/artist/5441c29d-3602-4898-b1a1-b77fa23b8e50/bowie-david/

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RobBK90Posted at 2016-03-12 05:09:18(423 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)


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well if it helps, i am getting my suggestions by cropping the texts and looking them up at https://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

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RobBK90Posted at 2016-03-12 05:11:55(423 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)


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dhsugarblade wrote:

https://fanart.tv/artist/5441c29d-3602-4898-b1a1-b77fa23b8e50/bowie-david/

not gonna lie, i saw this and started crying.

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mistersussexPosted at 2016-03-15 10:17:23(423 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)


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Not an album cover typeface as such, but I'll add it here anyway: the font used by Jonathan Barnbrook for the 'David Bowie Is' exhibition is called Albertus and was designed in the 1930's. It's been used on British coins, London street signs and Kubrick used it for the Dawn of Man title card in '2001 A Space Odyssey'.

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jonesnatalyPosted at 2016-03-16 06:27:56(423 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)


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dhsugarblade wrote:

https://fanart.tv/artist/5441c29d-3602-4898-b1a1-b77fa23b8e50/bowie-david/

OMG! This is sooo awesooome!

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mistersussexPosted at 2016-03-20 03:52:54(422 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)


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Was the typeface used on the cover of The Man Who Sold the World based on David's handwriting?  His name looks quite similar to his signature on the early letter to an American fan.

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MossGardenPosted at 2016-03-20 07:18:44(422 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)


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mistersussex wrote:

Was the typeface used on the cover of The Man Who Sold the World based on David's handwriting?  His name looks quite similar to his signature on the early letter to an American fan.

My guess is that you are talking about the cartoon cover of The Man Who Sold the World. I think that is the only one with handwriting of the different covers.
That one was made by Mike J Weller, I'm pretty sure he also did the writing.
To me it looks intentional to be a bit naive, like how a kid would be writing wile in class, not paying attention to what is going on around him ( a lot of my school time  :D ).
I was trying to find a place where I once a long time ago read what Mike J Weller had to say about the cover, but it looks like they updated the page after Bowie's passing. I recall there being more details, but that might just be my bad memory.
Anyway it's still a fun link, it is to Mike J Weller's publishing website, and they have a page on the cover.

I would love too see the letter you are talking about, can you post it here or do you have a link to an image?

http://www.homebakedbooks.co.uk/visualassociations.htm

I found another interesting page of Weller about the album:

http://metrobolist.com/blog/metrobolist-5-blessed-boys-and-girls

Sorry I don't know if it's possible to scale down an image from the net in this forum




Last edited by MossGarden on 2016-03-20 07:39:01


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mistersussexPosted at 2016-03-20 11:01:22(422 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)


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I was talking about the original dress cover. The title is in a neat handwriting type script which reminds me of David's signature on his letter to Sandra Adams:

http://sandradodd.com/bowieletter.html

It's much neater than his usual handwriting which has lead some to believe that it was actually signed by Kenneth Pitt. But that makes no sense to me. I think it is an example of David's 'Sunday best' handwriting. The 'e' is very distinctively his even compared to his later looser style.

I wondered if perhaps TMWSTW's lettering (dress cover) could be derived from this right leaning style of his handwriting. But I can't find any info on it. Presumably the lettering was designed by Keith Macmillan (Keef) who also took the cover photo.

Last edited by mistersussex on 2016-03-20 11:26:57


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MossGardenPosted at 2016-03-20 12:46:36(422 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)


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I see what you are saying about the UK dress cover.
I doubt that they made a typeface especially for the cover. It is not one I have been looking for, so I don't know what it is. it is not hand written, you can see how the letters are repeated perfectly.
They might have looked at Bowie's handwriting when choosing it, it could also just be a choice to make it feel more home made, that being in style at time of the release.

That is a fun letter, very innocent.
I have no clue about Bowie signatures, I don't have any, would be nice thou.
I don't see why he should not have signed it, unless he didn't type the letter himself, them somebody else might have done it just to get it done.

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mistersussexPosted at 2016-03-20 13:35:36(422 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)


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It's obvious he did type it himself. It's very personal and immediate and he even states that he is typing it in the letter. So I think the signature is genuine. It also matches another one from that period which is almost identical. Generally though his autographs from the late sixties/early seventies were a bit more 'scrappy' and in a bigger more flamboyant style.

Incidentally, while doing a bit of background research on the MWSTW album cover, I discovered that the designer (who also took the dress photo) later did a lot of work with Kate Bush and directed a lot of her early videos.

But I digress, I'll  let this thread get back to typefaces now

Thanks for all the great info.

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MossGardenPosted at 2016-03-20 19:14:21(422 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)


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mistersussex wrote:

But I digress, I'll  let this thread get back to typefaces now Thanks for all the great info.

No worries, interesting detours are welcome, and its fun to dig into the covers in various ways.
I did also read your post about the signature on db-illustrated and found it intriguing.
I didn't know about the Kate Bush link, I will have to check that out.
:D

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mistersussexPosted at 2016-03-20 23:33:47(422 wks ago) (Bowie General / The Bowie Typefaces)


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MossGarden wrote:

I did also read your post about the signature on db-illustrated and found it intriguing.

Yes - that little book has turned me into an expert on Bowie's handwriting in all of it's variations   :)
I now think that the book did belong to Bowie and it is his handwriting on it - but I may be alone in that belief  :D

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