STUDIO: HARDCORE PUNK TYPEFACE RESEARCH

I began researching into the two typefaces that prominently converted punk into hardcore punk found in my previous blog. This also effected the fashion, message and attitude of the genre. The first typeface 'City' was used on an album for SSD. This more simplistic approach to punk record cover design was incredibly different at the time. 

City is a slab serif typeface designed by Georg Trump and released around 1930 by the Berthold type foundry in Berlin, Germany. Though classified as a slab serif, City displays a strong modernist influence in its geometric structure of right angles and opposing round corners. The typeface takes inspiration from the machine age, and industry. A consistent application of repeated parts: an outer circle softening interior rectilinear spaces, results in a highly unified and refined typeface.

It's interesting to see a hijacking of this modernist design approach as its been westernised by the Hardcore culture. This design aesthetic still continues today throughout Hardcore punk and probably many other genres. 

After this typeface was used on this very early Hardcore punk record, similar western typefaces were used for albums of the same genre. The main one being 'Princetown', designed by Richard Jones in 1981, the typeface is known for being used in American sports contexts and university branding. The aesthetic that the modernist typeface 'City' gave was taken and heavily combined with the North American design aesthetic to create this new Hardcore punk aesthetic.