Chairlift, Typefaces, Dazzle Ships, and OMD
This album cover got me thinking:
Was the typeface hand-drawn specifically for Chairlift, or did the designer choose it from the zillions of existing typefaces already out there? It’s so articulated, almost greebled, that I doubted it existed as a proper typeface.
Indeed it does exist. It’s called Dazzle Ships, designed by Ray Larabie.
Dazzle Ships is also the name of an album by Orchestral Manoevers in the Dark (OMD)*. That led me to this blog post (Seriously, go read it. The video is great. I love what happens when the two kids rip apart the Genetics textbook). Dazzle Ships was very avant garde, an odd record for OMD to put out at the time. But as Dazzle Ships (the camouflaged WWI vessels, not the album) were designed to throw the observer off, so it seems was OMD’s album.
I love it when bands put that kind of thought into their work. So back to Chairlift. In an interview, totally crushworty frontwoman Caroline Polachek said:
A chairlift is a long slow panoramic trip over changing terrain.
Sigh. Move over, Natalie, I want to have Caroline’s babies now.
So yeah anyways, if you were wondering what font Chairlift used on the “Does You Inspire You” cover, it’s called Dazzle Ships.
*When I was in high school I dated a girl who was really into OMD. They came to Houston on their Sugar Tax tour in 1991, but they played a 21+ club on Westheimer and we were both under 21. She wrote a letter to Andy McCluskey and he personally got us into the show. That was kind of awesome.