Cooper Black was designed as a very bold advertising typeface with rounded shapes, highly readable from a distance. Its creators humorously presented it as a typeface "for far-sighted printers with near-sighted customers".
At a glance
Origin: Barnhart Brothers & Spindler, Chicago, United States.
Designer: Oswald Bruce Cooper.
Date: 1922.
Evolution
Very popular from its release, it made a strong comeback in the 1960s and 1970s, when it became one of the graphic symbols of pop culture.
Famous examples
The cover of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album in 1966 and the easyJet airline logotype are among its best-known uses.
Current use
It regularly returns in identities seeking a warm, retro or quirky tone, in food, fashion or music.
Alternatives
Windsor, Recoleta, Goudy Heavyface.
Great typefaces glossary
Akzidenz-Grotesk, Arial, Avenir, Baskerville, Bodoni, Caslon, Circular, Cooper Black, Didot, DIN, FF Meta, Franklin Gothic, Frutiger, Futura, Garamond, Georgia, Gill Sans, Gotham, Graphik, Helvetica, IBM Plex, Inter, Minion, Montserrat, Myriad, Neue Haas Grotesk, Optima, Poppins, Roboto, Sabon, SF Pro, Source Sans, Source Serif, Times New Roman, Univers, Verdana