American Gas Association

Publication: Family Circle

Issue Date: March 1948

I'm guessing it's a hand-lettered display face, based on the unique lengths of the serifs on the 'n's and the subtle differences between the 's' characters. Of course, I've been known to be wrong before...

Love that lowercase y.

yeah.. me too..
and the lowercased g's are goodcookin' & goodlookin' too!

but the designer must be really wicked if it is handlettered! it is so well done..

> but the designer must be really wicked
> if it is handlettered! it is so well done...

Those were the days, my friend...

Just a thought:
Some of the letterforms remind me of Dwiggins...

Isn't the letter spacing a joy in that ad. Alot of designers now could learn a lesson from that ad. Whats this 60s trend of running all the letters together.

Dwiggins????

what is... or who made Dwiggins?

To get back to the original question, I hunted through my old PhotoLettering catalog and found a raft of closely related styles to this lettering by lettering artists by the names of C.E. Coryn, Tony Stan and Ed Benguiat (!). One of Coryn's called Coryn Didot had a very similar 'g' except it had a normal 'ear', instead of this straight line. The 'y' was with a much longer, conventional tail. Which brings me to an observation about that y in the copy that Grant liked. Doesn't it look out of character? I think that was 'built' (mutilated) to keep it from cutting into the artwork below.

I don't know much about how PhotoLettering's (or their competitors') types were designed and made, but my presumption is that customized versions could probably be ordered the same way you do with digital fonts today.

Did Dwiggins do film type? Or is that a silly question? (I suppose a set of good drawings would be what you use for film type or metal type designs, in the era of this ad.)

Anyway, if anyone has any old film type catalogs, that might be a place to look for something more like this type.

Yves, if this is truly hand lettering, it's remarkably consistent. The effect of the lettering in the ad isn't the issue, in my comment about the 'y' -- it's just that that letter seems inconsistent (stylistically) with all the other letters (See the 'y' in the checklist copy? That's probably the normal y for this typeface). I also can't help feeling that it isn't a very attractive typeface, with its mix of rounded and sorta wedge serifs. The overall impression (to me) is a bit like ITC Fenice that couldn't decide what kind of serifs to use -- ruled, teardrop or triangular, so it used them all.

I realize such judgments are just my opinion, and I agree that this is wonderful draftsmanship if it is hand-lettered. If it was digital type, I wouldn't buy it for my collection, is all.

- - -
it isn't a very attractive typeface, with its mix of rounded and sorta wedge serifs.
- - -

Yanega.. you are cruel! : )
i like this font just because it isn't so supersmashingperfect and polished like most stuff i see in ads nowadays.. and it is so decorative too...
i guess i am being a bit romantic about this ad and a sucker for black-and-white design and old prints of Mr Rembrandt van Rijn.

well... what's my point?...
well... just like a lot of music produced nowadays, it is so overdone and too clean and polished with no mistakes. shiny shiny no dust and perfectly perfect.. that's why i still love the Beatles.. listen to it with headphones and you will hear a lot of mistakes.. and yet it sounds brilliant. However i am not so fond of the digitalizing on CD of their music...

and sorry Yves for bringing music into this forum!


finally... yes i would buy the automatic Gas range font if it was digital... so watch out Yanega... i may give it a try.. making a digital version of it of my own... and i promise you needn't buy it...
and Thanx for a great comment about the lettering and y's
This is why i like being here at Typophile! Here's so much knowledge and interesting posts + posters..

and i think the y rocks... because it is so different from the others. even looks a little Hebrewish letter..

I'd have to agree with Mike on this one. I love that y � on it's own. But set with
the other characters, the fact that it is the only glyph with that kind of weight to
a horizontal stroke just looks all wrong to my eye. I'm afraid that your 'yanega'
image just reinforces that for me, Jack.

Whoa, Jack! I said it was just my opinion.

No harm intended to you or anyone who likes it. I like oddities in type at least as much as the next person, it's just *this* type that doesn't appeal to me. My favorites types are ones that look hand-drawn, but that doesn't mean I like ALL hand-drawn types equally well. In fact part of the problem for me is that is *doesn't* look hand-drawn, because it is so precisely done. Goudy designs have 'irregularities', this one just has things that look out of place (to me).

It's OK for us not to be unanimous in adoring this lettering isn't it?

BTW, nice paste -up of my name . You went to a little trouble for that jab in my ribs.

: )
i wasn't jabbing.. and i would not dream of insulting you or any Typophilharmonic.. it was not meant to sound aggressive or hostile against you.. i amn't that kind of type.

by the way... which hand-drawn fonts do you like? and i am also curious about that PhotoLettering catalog of yours... what is that and where did you find it? is it an old catalog?

Clarification gladly accepted Jack. I kind of suspected as much, when I noticed the smiley in your post. I thought we were all friends here, but usually when I got called 'Yanega' instead of Mike it was in work and/or in annoyance.

Some hand-drawn fonts I like are those by the late Phill Grimshaw (Kallos, Obelisk, Tempus and a list of script fonts), Timothy Donaldson (Humana family and a list of script fonts) and Carold Twombly (Lithos and Nueva).

The Photo-Lettering Catalog is called "Alphabet Thesaurus Nine Thousand" and is copyright 1960, published by Photo-Lettering & Rheinhold Publishing. It breaks the works of about 120 lettering artists into 58 categories, in 18 major style groupings, spread over 740 pages. The only bad thing about it is that the type showings are not complete typefaces -- they are just lettering samples. I bought it from Oak Knoll Books, a great source of font treasures.

Mike Y
i know a lot of Mikes but no Yanega..
speaking of Y (as in Yanega)
i also love Twombly's Lithos... except for... yeah you have guessed it... the Capital Y.... otherwise it is so beautiful with its eggformed roundishness... is there an alternative Y in Lithos?

i will check Oak Knoll Books... thanx!

As far as I know Lithos has no alternate Y, but I think its curves are in harmony with the curves of the rest of the alphabet. I suppose the curve could have gone the other way and made a cup on top of the stem. Why couldn't you make your own Y, and what would it look like?

If there are too many Mike's for you, you could call me "Fishboy", which is a nickname I use. (I have always been a fish classification fanatic, and I have as many books on fish as I do on fonts. It's no coincidence that I picked Bowfin as part of my business' name -- the Bowfin is the sole surviving member of an ancient, once widespread family of fishes (Amiidae) that arose in the Jurassic era. They still thrive in the Eastern part of the US. Even though I moved to the West, I can relate to a fish like that.) :-)

This is slightly off-topic, but the type kept "cooking" in my brain and I decided to convert it to a font. (I'm not trying to do an accurate copy, just to catch the overall feel). Here is the font so far:
(What do you think?)

Good job Jan. One thing I notice is your 'a' doesn't seem as upright as the original, and the 's' serifs look smaller. Maybe it's my imagination. You've come very close.