Given the time these were published I’d guess this was hand-lettered.

i thought of that, but with no obvious variation in letter forms, it seemed unlikely to me. why go to the trouble of hand-lettering if you’re not going to make it look hand-lettered? but i don’t doubt that you’re right.

why go to the trouble of hand-lettering if you’re not going to make it look hand-lettered?

Huh? Well, that’s a very post-modern point of view! :-D

If you wanted some ideas for fonts that are somewhat similar: Adrianna is fairly similar, except for the W; [http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/btn/register-sans-btn/|Register Sans]] has the W, but the M is not right; and Regulator has a Geometric Deco feel, but the vertices are pointed.

I also looked at House’s Neutraface family, but they also have pointed vertices, and other features further from the poster lettering.

- Mike Yanega

I’ve got loads of postcards of these London Underground posters. I can scan some if you want more examples. Most in this style are actaully from the 1920s but this could be ’30s especially as London Zoo’s fantastic art-deco penguin pool was opened in ’34.

Yes, it is hand lettering but based on Edward Johnston’s Underground typeface. wikipedia info

P22 do various weights.
They’d need a bit of tweaking to look more like this particular poster. The crossed W is an alternate in them. The M in that poster is slightly flared, more like Futura.

justin- i’d really love to see them.

” i’d really love to see them. ” Agree, look at long “A”

I’ve done a few scans which I’ll post soon, but there are good archives here:

Charles Paine who did the penguin poster in 1921.

Leslie Porter, a favourite of mine who did a nice inline style.

A A Moore, another favourite who had a slightly more ornate style.

well, i’m impressed already, justin.
i could make out the artist’s name as c paine, but you actually found the poster and date. earlier than i expected — 1921.
i wonder what this original poster is valued at.

anyway, let me know when you get your scans posted; i’m keen to see more!

The scans of the postcards didn’t work too well so I’ve trimmed them down to just the lettering. (Any advice on how to scan colour printing like this without it ending up all dotty is appreciated)

This third one is unusual for using a theatrical poster style rather than a Johnston-esque sans. I’m pretty sure the Underground logo would have been carefully hand painted rather than be a collaged bit of printing or photograph.

And since it has a nice bit if deco sans serif on it, this is the famous 1930’s Penguin Pool at London Zoo which made me think the penguin poster would have been from the same time.

justin-
i can definitely help with your scanning question.

when you are selecting your scan settings, almost every scanner will allow you to choose one of these options that will get rid of (or at least greatly reduce) the ’dotty’ moire patterns.

genereally, it will be under “original source” in which case you want to choose ’printed material’ but your scanner’s option may also be a check box that says “descreen” or perhaps “despeckle” or even “dust and scratches removal.” any of these options will help reduce the moire.

for more on moire patterns, and why they happen in the first place:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moiré_pattern

http://www.scantips.com/basics06.html