VOLUME TWO: ALPHABET THESAURUS
Edward Rondthaler and the staff of Photo-Lettering, Inc. [Editors]
New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1965. Second printing 1970. Quarto. Decorated cloth. Printed endpapers. 936 pp. Elborate graphic design throughout. Binding cloth lightly rubbed. Textblock head dusty with faint moisture marks. Binding tight and secure — a very nice copy of an oversized book whose form and content invite use and abuse: a very good copy.
9.25 x 12.25 hardcover book profusely illustrated with 936 pages of one-color alphabets, borders, cosmographs, and special effects. Design by Edward Benguiat, Victor Caruso, and Wilford Griffin. From the book: "There is nothing dogmatic or provincial about this manual of Photo-Lettering alphabets. It is replete with style, the kind of style that comes from many different people dreaming individually, competing with one another, and trying not to be trapped by anybody who does their dreaming for them. That is the style of Photo-Lettering: as exciting and diversified as Fifth Avenue from Washington Square to Fifty-Ninth."
Contents
- Visual Index of Categories
- Editorial Foreword
- Participating Letterers and Designers
- Introduction to Volume Two
- Spectrakrome
- How to Use This Book
- Photo-Lettering Alphabet Showings: 43 categories, pp. 10-797
- Step and Repeat
- Precision Rule Borders
- Decorative Borders
- Cartouches, Ornaments, etc.
- Cosmographs
- Reproportioning
- Circoflair Techniques
- Outlining Techniques
- Perspective Techniques
- Trick Photography
- Alphabet Directory
- Photo-Lettering Operation
- History of Photo-Lettering
- Alphabetical Index
The 43 type styles include Free Brush, Brush Scripts, Art Nouveau, Square Serifs, Typewriter, Coopers, Cheltenhams, Bookmans, Torinos, Didots, Bruce, Lithos, Old English, Medievals, Barnums, Ornaments, Whimzitypes, Interlocks, Advernturous, Zip-tops, Pop-Types, Novelties, Outlines, Contours, Xylo Woodtype, and many more.
"I am a designer of letterforms as a business. I mean, let’s be realistic. When the psychedelic period arrived in the ’60s, man, I made psychedelia until everyone, including Timothy Leary, wanted it. My profession is designing alphabets for this new thing, the computer. But I have another profession: I do about 20 logos a year -- I’m talking about big corporate identity stuff. I wouldn’t use psychedelia for that; I only use three typefaces too, you know: Helvetica, Helvetica, and Helvetica." -- Ed Benguiat
Ed (Ephram Edward) Benguiat's contributions to typography and design are awe-inspiring. His background includes working as associate director of "Esquire" magazine, typographic design director at Photo-Lettering, Inc., and vice president of International Typeface Corporation where he worked on the in-house magazine U&lc with Herb Lubalin. In addition to reviving Art Nouveau typefaces, he's responsible for creating over six hundred typefaces including Souvenir, Avant Garde Gothic, Korinna, Bookman, Caslon 224, and Panache. He has produced logotypes for the "New York Times", "Playboy", "Reader's Digest", "Sports Illustrated", "Esquire," "Look," and the films "Planet of the Apes," and "Super Fly."
From Luc Devroye, McGill University on Extinct 20th Century Foundries: "New York based photocomposition, lettering and digital type business active from 1936-1997, cofounded by Harold Horman and Edward Rondthaler in 1936 . . . . It was one of the earliest and most successful type houses to utilize photo technology in the production of commercial typography and lettering."
“Founded in 1936, Photo-Lettering was one of the earliest and most successful type houses that utilized photographic methods to produce commercial lettering and typography. In the go-go golden age of Madison Avenue advertising, Photo-Lettering’s proprietary workflow and vast library provided significant technological and stylistic advantages over its competitors. From World War II propaganda posters to iconic rock album covers and blockbuster movie logos, Photo-Lettering’s body of work represents a quintessential visual history of twentieth-century American advertising and design. Photo-Lettering eventually closed its doors in the mid-90s, failing to keep up with the digital publishing revolution and leaving some of the most illustrative display typography to gather dust and slowly decompose. The company’s ubiquitous colorful case-bound catalogs and specimen books, however, survived and became a key part of our (and many other graphic designers’) swipe file/reference library.
“PLINC, as it was affectionately known to art directors, was a mainstay of the advertising and design industry in New York City from 1936 to 1997. In the days before facsimile, flatbed scanners and email, copper borne telephone instructions buzzed beneath the streets while couriers beat a well-worn path between Madison Avenue advertising agencies and Photo-Lettering’s Murray Hill facility.
“Photo-Lettering is best known by today’s graphic designers for its ubiquitous type catalogs. Cast off at the beginning of the digital revolution as obsolete relics, designers soon began to see the books as an oasis of lettering, typographic and design influence.
“Sixty years worth of brilliantly-designed marketing collateral combined with work submitted from A-list designers and pop artists formed a lithophotographic legacy that would keep any modern-day reference blogger’s intern busy for years. While each combination of alphabet styles, colors and shapes may evoke a certain time period in PLINC’s illustrious history, these visual lessons are relevant in any era.” — House Industries