Les Jacobs | Rock That Font

Editor’s note: This article was recently published in SXSWorld Magazine, but we thought it would be very appropriate to share Les’ piece here as well. Taken by Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis premiered last week at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival.

For many, it’s virtually impossible to hear Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and not see that album’s iconic light blue prism refracting a sharp rainbow across a deep black background, or to listen to Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy and not see the apocalyptic glow engulfing pale, naked, alien-like children climbing across the treacherous rocks of the album’s cover.
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This album pretty much changed my life. Shortly before the beginning of my sophomore year in high school, my friend Jason came over to spend the night at my house. We were both skaters, we both loved music, and our friendship was really starting to click.

Aside from being a much better skater, Jason seemed to know more about, well, pretty much everything. In particular, dude put me on to a lot of music. That night, he brought over three cassettes for me to copy, A Tribe Called Quest’s People’s Instinctive Travels … and two fIREHOSE tapes, if’n and Ragin’, Full-On.
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It’s very difficult for me to separate Cooper Black from my childhood.

I will confess to you all now, I was a huge Garfield fan. Huge. I’m talking 1978 original Garfield huge. I collected all the books. For years, I begged each Christmas for the new Garfield calendar, my most anticipated gift. I cursed Mondays and made lasagna my favorite food.

This went on for a long, long time. Much too long, honestly. Even to this day, I take a few moments every June 19 to acknowledge his birthday, a loving salute from one sardonic young Gemini to another.
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I know that Robert Mapplethorpe‘s famous portrait of a young Patti Smith is the star of this show, but I love how the understated Helvetica Condensed complements the beauty and simplicity of the photo and the raw and glorious music that made this debut such a seminal classic.
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