Lettering and Type at Push Pin: A Preliminary Investigation

The link below is to the video of my talk on “Lettering and Type at Push Pin” for Poster House (via Zoom) on November 16, 2021. There are a few errors in it. Here is the correct information:

• the “Chicago has a great lake” poster by John Massey is shown in an untrimmed state. The white circle at right should bleed. Thanks to Greg D’Onofrio for pointing this out.
• The small type on the cover of Our Crowd is Cheltenham Oldstyle, not Bookman Oldstyle.
• for the Push Pin Graphic 49 Dream Book (1966) “Dream” is set in Novel Gothic not Eagle Bold. Thanks to Stephen Coles for catching that.
• the Help book was designed by Tim Lewis, not by Seymour Chwast Thanks to Angelina Lippert for that information.

Also, Stéphane Darricau of Paris has suggested that the typeface used for the Che Guevara poster advertising The Evergreen Review (February 1968) is one called Times Modern. He provided me with a link to Fonts in Use. The visual evidence there is compelling, though no one has yet nailed down the origins of the typeface. If a version was used for the poster it had to be one that existed prior to 1968. It should also be noted that although Paul Davis painted the portrait of Che Guevara, he was not necessarily responsible for the typography. It may have been specified by the art director.

And thanks to Ed Fella who sent me this nice note a few weeks ago:

Hi Paul, Saw your amazing lecture on Push Pin Typography and happy someone is focusing on their typography. It meant more to me, back in the late 50’s 60’s than their illustration, wonderful as it was! / Ed