TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Wed Nov 20 11:44:08 EST 2024

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ABOUT

Franklin Photolettering

Photolettering foundry in the 1970s, located at 211 43rd Street, New York City 10017. One of my correspondents explains: Franklin Photolettering was the smaller film type joints catering to the major publishing and advertising industries in New York City in the 60s and 70s. They started out with a few originals to get into the game, but within a year or so they started putting out copies or slight modifications of existing stuff from Photolettering and VGC (you can see how that happens---someone comes in for some ad copy in Barker Flare, for example, and he asks if they have something like Eightball, so they say "sure, we can do that"). Even though they did have a bit of original stuff, they didn't have not enough to stand out like PL, Mecanorma, VGC or Letraset---also the sheer number of film fonts available on the market by the mid-70s meant that unless you dumped a lot of money on marketing, big-time design would ignore you----so not much room was left for smaller film type houses.

Their catalog is published in binder form in Film Alphabet Compendium Franklin Photolettering. In 1974, Paul E. Kennedy published Modern Display Alphabets: 100 Complete Fonts Selected and Arranged from the Franklin Photolettering Catalogue (Dover).

Typefaces by them included

• Barker Flare, one of their early 1970s retro typefaces. Digitally revived as Plywood (2007, Patrick Griffin, Canada Type).
• Pinto Flare. Digitized as Jazz Gothic (2005) by Patrick Griffin at Canada Type.
• Urban (early 1970s), a Curvy Blocked Lettering typeface in the Alfred Roller / Wes Wilson style popular in the hippie era. Digital revivals include Rebecca Alaccari's Jonah (2005) at Canada Type.
• Viola Flare. Digitized as Omaha Bazoo NF in 2007 by Nick Curtis and in 2005 by Canada Type as Tomato.

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INTERNAL LINKS
Extinct 20th century foundries ⦿ Photo and film type era ⦿ Nick Curtis ⦿ Type scene in New York ⦿ Books on type design ⦿ Psychedelic types ⦿