The Thriller of the Dune Font

Within the six many years because the publication of the unique Dune novel in 1965, the science fiction franchise has gone via many various typographic identities. Notable examples embody using Giorgio for the British paperbacks by NEL (c. 1968) and Albertus for David Lynch’s movie adaptation (1984). However one other typeface has even stronger ties to Dune and its creator. It appeared on the covers of dozens of books, together with the basic Dune trilogy and its sequels, and in addition on different titles by – or about – Frank Herbert, from varied imprints. Surprisingly sufficient, the identify of this typeface is barely recognized even amongst die-hard followers.

Davison Art Nouveau was drawn by lettering artist Meyer M. “Dave” Davison for Photo-Lettering (PLINC), a typesetting firm in New York Metropolis. It was first proven in PLINC’s 1967 Alphabet Yearbook. Mainly a daring all-caps roman with lengthy bracketed serifs, Davison Artwork Nouveau is available in three variants of accelerating ornamentation: Artwork Nouveau with Thrives, Modified, and Ornate.

Every variant contains further alternates, a few of which sport swashes, fox tail extensions, and curlicues that attain above and beneath the road. Relying on which glyphs are chosen, the look of phrases set in Davison Artwork Nouveau ranges from sober to discreetly flowery to full-blown carnivalesque. That’s one motive this face isn’t simple to trace down – it could actually tackle so many various appearances. The opposite motive is that it was unique to PLINC. And PLINC was a service supplier, not a font retailer. You couldn’t purchase or license a duplicate of Artwork Nouveau. For those who needed to have some textual content set on this font, you needed to place an order at their Manhattan workplace at 216 East forty fifth Road, in individual or by telephone or submit.

The liaison between Dune and Davison Artwork Nouveau began in September 1975, when the typeface was utilized by Berkley Medallion for a paperback version of the primary two novels. On the time, the Berkley imprint was owned by New York-based writer G.P. Putnam’s Sons. When Berkley Putnam revealed the primary hardcover version of the third novel, Youngsters of Dune, in 1976, the brand new typographic id was utilized there, too. Afterward, Putnam used the typeface on the jackets for hardback editions of different, unrelated books authored (or coauthored) by Frank Herbert.

After Berkley acquired Ace Books in 1982, Ace took over as Putnam’s writer for science fiction paperbacks. Throughout this era, a few of Herbert’s books additionally appeared beneath the Del Rey imprint. Regardless of the change in imprints, although, the hyperlink between Herbert and Artwork Nouveau lasted – that’s, till round 1988. Such “creator branding” was relatively widespread, particularly with science fiction and fantasy writers. Different examples on Fonts In Use embody Roslyn Gothic for Philip K. Dick, Dynamo and Corporate for Arthur C. Clarke, and Pipeline for Robert Heinlein.

The uncredited typographer labored with the Modified variant – at the least that’s what the A with curved bar and the E with curling center bar proven within the restricted typeface samples I’ve been in a position to examine recommend. The letterforms have been used with various levels of condensation, one thing that was simply accomplished with phototype. Provided that Artwork Nouveau got here with so many alternates, its use for Dune and past is impressively constant. Throughout the handfuls of functions, solely a handful of variant glyphs have been employed: see for instance the 2 kinds for A, one in all them with a proper stem that curves inward; the R with the curling terminal for “Trilogy” versus the one in “Frank Herbert” on the field set beneath; or the S with and with out ball terminal on the high.

Proper from the beginning, Friz Quadrata was launched because the supporting typeface, a alternative that was maintained for many of the following books.

This submit showcases a substantial variety of ebook covers and jackets that includes Artwork Nouveau, roughly in chronological order, with out aiming for completeness. The credit score for choosing Artwork Nouveau most likely goes to an unknown artwork director working on the Berkley Publishing Company. My analysis didn’t flip up any names. When you have any further perception, please depart a remark.

Davison Artwork Nouveau within the digital age

Picture-Lettering, Inc. didn’t make the transition to digital typesetting and went out of enterprise in 1997. Davison Artwork Nouveau disappeared along with the corporate and hundreds of different alphabet designs. In 2003, House Industries bought the belongings. The Delaware design studio partnered with Erik van Blokland and Christian Schwartz and started digitizing numerous typefaces by PLINC, with the assistance of pals and colleagues. These have been initially made available in 2009 by way of a special web service that replicated the unique PLINC expertise for the digital age. Home Industries later switched to providing them for typical licensing. On the time of writing, Davison Artwork Nouveau shouldn’t be among the many digitized designs.

In 2009, a Dune aficionado who goes by the moniker DuneFish (DFUK) and/or MEP made a digital font known as Orthodox Herbertarian, “painstakingly traced from scans of the typeface that was used on the American Ace editions […] of Dune and lots of different Frank Herbert books”. This novice digitization is freely obtainable at kullwahad.com. The font is caps solely (A–Z), with a fundamental set of punctuation characters and scaled-down caps within the lowercase. As a result of it’s based mostly on the ebook covers (versus the unique typeface), it naturally adopts the narrowed proportions. Orthodox Herbertarian is a laudable effort, but it surely doesn’t embody any of the alternates or the numerals. In 2020, Reddit consumer purgruv added lowercase letters and numerals to this freebie and offered it for download as Prolonged Herbertarian. The additions aren’t devoted to the unique and sadly aren’t properly drawn, both.

Orthodox Herbertarian arguably covers the wants of most Dune followers. Nonetheless, I hope to see an expert, absolutely featured digitization of Davison Artwork Nouveau at some point.

Due to B., G., and Justin Hoggard, who all advised I write an article about this use; and to Caren Litherland for the dear edits. Kudos to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, which helped loads in figuring out and relationship the quite a few editions and printings.