Album cover fonts (Who's next)

Feel free to discuss album cover fonts in general.

I'm trying to determine the font used on the Who's next album cover by The Who (of course).

I haven't found anything yet, but I did find this cool website in the process: Album Art - Fonts In Use

Anyone know this font? (The vertical apostrophe is the tricky part.)

 

Looks like Futura. The apostrophe is not from the font but put in manually.

 

Thanks, but not quite. I've tried that, but the apostrophe is slanted and the letters are a bit too bold.

 

I can believe that the apostrophe was put in manually, but when I try to overlay Futura on my Mac (in Powerpoint), it doesn't quite work. The 'W' is not wide enough and all of the letters are too bold. Maybe Futura in Powerpoint on a Mac isn't representative enough of 'professional' typography?

 

I'm sure that it is Futura Light:


Perhaps your screen makes it appear a little to bold.

 

Thanks for your help! I downloaded Futura Light and that did the trick (with a few minor modifications). Using a 12" x 12" image of the album cover I used a 39 pt font and then condensed the natural character spacing by 1.2 pt to get it to match the tighter spacing on the actual cover. You are right that the vertical apostrophe seems to be customized. I can see that they must have typed "Whos" and then manually widened the gap between the "o" and the "s" ever so slightly. Typing "Who's" instead and only changing the apostrophe from diagonal to vertical would have left far too great of a gap between the "o" and the "s" on the actual cover, but if I just focus on "next" or "Who" I can get it to match very closely.

 

Blue Rodeo's 3rd album, Casino (1990), used 2 different fonts for their band name.

 

Looks like the font that was used on quite a few Chess releases (Muddy Waters, "Sail On"; Buddy Guy, "I Was Walking Through the Woods"; Sonny Boy Williamson, "Bummer Road")

 

Keep in mind that, before digital fonts, type was manufactured in various analog media, including phototypesetting, dry transfer (e.g. Letraset) and of course metal. Futura came from different foundries and was also knocked-off by others. So when it comes to details like, spacing, weight, and the shape of apostrophes, it probably won't match the digital Futura you have on your computer.

I'd guess that the cover art for Who's Next was made with phototypesetting, but it could be something else.

Even today, digital Futura fonts have a convoluted history and come from a variety of different foundries, each with their subtle (or not so subtle) differences.

 

The squiggly font at the top and bottom with the legal mumbo-jumbo: can anyone tell me what it is?
Cheers.

 

The all-caps version is what came out in Canada on WEA. The US version on Atlantic opted for the stylized lower case, which was lifted from their previous album, Diamond Mine. Guess Atlantic was trying to establish a trademark look.

 

To my eyes, it just looks like someone wrote it. Fonts weren't as numerous or freely available then as now; all the capital 'P's and lower-case 'a's look slightly different, but the question is ... who wrote it and when were they last interviewed?

 

Derek Taylor, maybe?

 

I have an original copy from 1990 (on the left). But I like their lower case logo better.

 

I have just looked at and listened to this and for my money, the apostrophe actually dresses very slightly to the left!
DD

 

the hand of the late, great Alan Aldridge.

 

Thanks! Alan's lettering fits the label quite well, I think.

 

I admit, I have also loved that writing for decades. How odd we are!