Sapphire Thinkers – From Within album art, Hobbit Records logo
From Within is the only album release by Sapphire Thinkers, and “a very appealing example of ’60s sunshine pop, similar in sound to other LA co-ed groups like the Mamas and Papas and the Peanut Butter Conspiracy, but with a more underground sensibility.” — Tiny Idols
It was released on Hobbit Records, a short-lived sublabel of GRT Records in Los Angeles. Art direction and photography by Michael O’Bryant, with cover art by Kevin Leveque. The typeface is Siegfried, an Art Nouveau oddity originally issued by the Woellmer foundry in Berlin in 1902. While the band name on the front cover shows hand-drawn letterforms, the back cover has Siegfried in unmodified form. This makes it easy to see how the lettering artist aimed for a tighter fit, note especially the modifications made to the E’s.
The Hobbit Records logo features another typeface with roots in German Jugendstil: It’s Edda, first cast by Schelter & Giesecke in Leipzig in 1900. It here is used with a modified (or alternate) H – in the original Edda, this letter has the form of an enlarged minuscule, just like in Siegfried.
Recreation of the Hobbit Records logo using an image found on another record and a digital version of Edda. Note that this version doesn’t match the original in all details.
2 Comments on “Sapphire Thinkers – From Within album art, Hobbit Records logo”
In 1968, Siegfried appeared on the album cover of another Californian sunshine pop band, see Birthday by The Association.
Wowza! Great find. This cover has so much groove going on and the Siegfried model is 👌.