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Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Type Tuesday - Cooper Black




Today's Type Tuesday features Cooper Black. The type was designed by Oswald Bruce Cooper and offered by the Barnhart Brothers & Spindler type foundry. Upon its creation in 1921 the type was promoted as the font "for far-sighted printers with near-sighted customers" and labled "the Black Menace" by its disparagers. In 1966 Cooper Black was favored by a series of Los Angeles-based musicians.  



The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds, released May 1966

Frank Zappa,Freak Out!,UK,Deleted,DOUBLE LP,416698

The Mothers of Invention, Freak Out!, released June 1966



Buffalo Springfield, Buffalo Springfield, released late 1966

A few years later, in 1971, The Doors released L.A. Woman, also using the Cooper Black font on their album cover. 



Although a seemingly straightforward type, Cooper Black captured the aesthetic imaginations of these more psychedelically inclined musicians. 

Jaime Henderson,
Archivist

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