Vertigo Title

07/30/2018

Vertigo is a 1958 film by Alfred Hitchcock. It is a mystery thriller in which a strange relationship between an ex-cop suffering from acrophobia and vertigo and a woman with a secret leads to unexpected consequences. The abstract visual title is by Soulbass, and the spiral figures drawn by Lissajous curves are by John Whitney sr. The spiral staircase used in the work, the expression of vertigo, and the story that progresses through the spiral structure, symbolize the female body and the spiral figure. The typeface used is Clarendon in white outline, a font that was used on jazz album covers in the late 50s and early 60s, and which in a cultural context evokes abstraction and modes of American coolness of the time. It is likely that the font was used in the late 50s and early 60s for jazz album covers.

Typeface

Clarendon is the name of a slab-serif typeface that was released in 1845 by Thorowgood and Co. (or Thorowgood and Besley) of London, a letter foundry often known as the Fann Street Foundry. The original Clarendon design is credited to Robert Besley, a partner in the foundry, and was originally engraved by punchcutter Benjamin Fox, who may also have contributed to its design.Many copies, adaptations and revivals have been released, becoming almost an entire genre of type design.

News Gothic was created by Morris Fuller Benton in 1908 and presented by the American font foundry American Typefounders. Despite, or perhaps because of, the font’s unconventional relationships in proportion and form, News Gothic has long been a popular typeface for almost any use.News Gothic is similar in proportion and structure to Franklin Gothic, also designed by Benton, but lighter.