Typophile

Help! I need some Vaudeville-esque typefaces!

cocijo5000

Hiya, so I'm pretty new to this forum (I just joined) but I've been a lurker here and there for the past few months or so...

I'm a student whose working on a book about theater in San Francisco, and I've been struggling with getting my previous work for the topic, to read as "theater". I've decided to scrap nearly everything I've worked on up until this point, and I've decided to shoot for a vaudeville aesthetic because vaudeville always seems to capture that theatrical essence that resides in most people. Plus, "vaudeville conquered the West" as they say...

So, I was wondering if you can point me into the right direction with regards to typefaces? Currently, I've been experimenting with Copperplater and a font called Vonfont, but I know there are loads more.

Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

Thanks in advance :)

~C

Johan Palme

The question is, which Vaudeville aestetic? It's rather different in the late 19th century compared to the Jazz age! :) For the 19th-century stuff (which gels rather well with many people's idea of vaudeville today), Letterhead Fonts has a good range of display types, but perhaps this sort of thing with grotesque woodtype (or similar) would make an interesting alternative?

Riccardo Sartori

http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/larabie/budmo/
http://new.myfonts.com/search/broadway/fonts/

Nick Curtis

Straight from the Ziegfeld Follies of 1921...

http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/nicksfonts/ziggy-stardust-nf/ziggy-stardust...

cocijo5000

Thank you so much for your responses! I would have responded sooner, but I'm currently battling some computer issues :s

The era I'm shooting for is the turn of the century (roughly, 1906-1920). I can't believe I neglected to narrow that down in my OP T_T.

So far, I've narrowed it down some of my typefaces: Egyptienne Black, Bodini Poster, and Didone. I've been experimenting around with some other typefaces, more artful ones anyway. I'll post my end results in the next few weeks!

Nick Shinn


Bedini.

cocijo5000

A quick question. I was wondering if anyone can identify the fonts on this flier?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55333013@N00/4670353768/

I can't seem to narrow them down :s

Nick Shinn

Those are probably wood type.
I wouldn't worry too much about exactly matching such fonts.
If you use any bold ultra-condensed (compressed too) styles in that kind of "set to fit" layout, the effect will be sufficient.

cocijo5000

You have a point, Nick. I was looking at Geometric 415 and experiment with it. I was trying to use Univers, but something about it didn't quite look right.

Joshua Langman

Poplar (comes with InDesign, I think) is a very close match.

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