Its graduation / yearbook season, and I was recently surprised to find my late (100 this year) mother’s high school yearbook — especially since it was designed with such stylish panache. I was looking for some specimens of moderne typography, and lo and behold, the Oriole from Evander Childs High School NYC jumped off the shelf as though straight from the Bauhaus — with a layover in Paris. Maybe it was influenced by Vanity Fair?
The cover is obviously hand lettered in a very modernistic (slightly illegible) manner (in fact, I thought it was titled “Circle.”) The interior headlines are set in Kabel and text type seems to be Futura — and a progressive use of lower case and spaced-out as well. Cool for a high school.
The cover of the Evander Childs High School yearbook from 1936.
Even the promos in the back for for designy companies: Advertisements included Charles Steurer Press, The Bronx, University Insignia Company, The Towne Printers and the Strathmore Press, all in Manhattan. Not bad design for a New York City public high school.
