A new Polyphonic Spree album is cause for celebration. The cover of "Together We're Heavy" features some sweet Ed Benguiat-style typography (also reminiscent of a certain MOR band's logo). Hear a couple of new tracks on the site, then head over to Quest For The Rest, and solve the mysterious Flash game to hear the rest of the tracks. Music, design, web action - these guys are firing on all 23 cylinders.
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Oh yeah! I knew I'd seen that style somewhere...
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Although Mr Benguiat arguably produced some of the more classic examples of swash-enabled typefaces (such as Bookman Swash), it was Herb Lubalin who was the master of interconnected lettering and animated typographic swooshiness.
Here's a wonderfully loopy example:
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If you just can't seem to get enough of this style of type, there's an interesting thread over at Typophile discussing Bookman Swash and other slightly more disturbing typographic anomolies. Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed Flair, anyone?
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For some reason, the questfortherest.com Flash site doesn't entirely work in Firefox 0.9.
The help screen doesn't display text, the music doesn't play, and the turtle doesn't, well, don't want to be a spoiler. I had to switch (with reluctance) to IE6 for Windows.
That said, it's a delightful addition to the Spree's already delightful oeuvre.
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I need this font! (And preferably for free, I am dirt poor...) Any ideas on where I can wrangle it?
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Susa, I cannot find any reference to the typeface which inspired the current Polyphonic Spree logo, but I am pretty sure that it is a custom design - especially given all of the ligatures and interlocking swashes. If it is based on an existing typeface, you can probably bet that it is a commercial one. I'll keep digging around to see if I can find more information for you.
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Amanita Design made the flash game. If you liked it you should also check out Samorost.
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