Nuclear Policy. The type on the cover is stacked with uppercase sans-serif
letterforms, one word per line. The top word,Toward,is printed twice with
the second imprint offset dramatically from the first. Each of the following
words is gradually more off register, culminating with the word Policy,
which stands alone. The overlapping letters hint at the later-developed
alphabet. But Chermayeff dismisses the Sanecover as an antecedent, saying
the solution was purely conceptual and achieved through overprinting and
not through the manipulation of films at all.
The alphabet was designed for the That New York booklet in
1960. Although it appeared in an advertisement entitled “Modern Banking
is Electronic Banking” in Fortune magazine in 1961 , it wasn’t until it was
applied to the Electric Circusposter in 1967 that it found its proper place.
Chermayeff said it was “the first totally appropriate client to come up to
take advantage of it.” The poster won awards and was published often. Of
course, it helped to have a client who intended it as an image builder for
the club, not a ticket sales generator, and who neither expected or needed
direct results. Although not born of the radical fringe, the Electric Circus
poster nonetheless established an image for a club in the heart of New
York hippiedom and stands as a bridge between alternative and
establishment cultures.
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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