Didone-style font used for all text on the cover of A Certain Ratio's 'Four for the Floor' EP

Question

The design is attributed to Johnson/Panas and the EP was released in 1990, so the type is possibly pre-digital. The closest match I've found so far is Eloquent JF by Jukebox Fonts: https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/eloquent-jf

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Eloquent is an uncredited digitization of Pistilli Roman.

Comments

Yes, I'm aware of Eloquent's origins. But neither Eloquent nor Pistilli Roman are a match for the type on the above cover, hence my ID request. So, any idea as to what the font might be?

---

It is Pistilli Roman, most likely the Chartpak dry-transfer lettering version that is listed in the far right column titled “Info” on the page I linked to above.

---

I wish I could concur, but here's a comparison with the Chartpak dry-transfer lettering version of Pistilli Roman (in magenta on the bottom):

I can see fundamental differences in the letterforms, particularly the ball terminals of the 'f' and 'r' glyphs, along with flatter serifs.

---

Well, it doesn’t appear to be any of the other Pistilli-like fonts listed on Fonts In Use either (Didoni is close, but also not quite). Whatever it was, it doesn’t appear to have survived into the digital age. I’ve reached out to Trevor Johnson—we’ll see if he responds.

---

Trevor Johnson was kind enough to dig through his old job files, and let me know that the display type on this design was custom lettering by Pat Hickson (images of the rubylith key art are attached, downsampled slightly so they would upload).

 

While Pat and her husband, Paul, have designed a number of typefaces, this does not appear to be a design that was made into a commercial font.

 

If you look at the rest of the art, the terminal angles on the h and l are distinctive and not found in combination with the other details (the ball terminals, the straight serifs) in any typeface I can find.

 

Pistilli / Eloquent, with a bit of editing, is probably your best starting point for recreating the look.