I QUIT

One has been reminded a couple of times by a quintessentially-German publicistrix that I was handed an expensive copy of House by House Industries (op. cit.) and by God I’d better put a review out. This of course necessitates a full re-read, with dozens of tape flags and one-liner notes. I’ll roll it out in instalments, sort of like paying back a loan, since that’s how our dear German friends seem to be looking at it.

To start with, though, I thought I’d engage in one of those obsessif delights to which you, my esteemed audience, have become accustomed. House uses five- or possibly six-colour printing. Nearly all conventional pages (but not vellum or uncoated stock in the back) have silver overlays. Most of those are “dark” silver, that is, the overlay is dark enough that you’re expected to notice and absorb it (and sometimes even read it) along with the rest of the page. But the lighter silver overlay is something of a puzzle on each page.

To save you the hassle of rotating a heavy, 2½-foot-wide book a couple of hundred times just to see what’s hidden in the overlay, I did it for you and jotted them all down.

For some godawful reason, House has no page numbers; the first page, reading simply House Industries, is deemed page 1. I seem to have missed a page somewhere along the line; it is an exercise for the reader to locate it for me. (There I was saying you didn’t have to rotate the pages by yourself. Well, you may if you wish. Fact-check my overlays.)

Every silver overlay in House by House Industries

  1. Nil
  2. Map of U.S.
  3. Map of U.S.
  4. Fleurons
  5. House lads’ signatures
  6. Headshots; ‘House’ and other letters
  7. Headshots; ‘House’ and other letters
  8. Brand Design Co. Limited logotype
  9. Brand Design Co. Limited logotype
  10. Squiggles
  11. Squared C within squared C
  12. Squiggles
  13. Squiggles
  14. House Industries logotypes
  15. House Industries logotypes, plus same as a leggy girl in high heels
  16. Stencil font listing House’s address, rotated 90° anticlockwise
  17. Stencil font listing House’s address, rotated 90° anticlockwise
  18. Illegible type
  19. Boogie Van treatments
  20. Other half of Boogie Van treatments; starbursts
  21. ‘TYPE & TSHIRTS’ (sic)
  22. Shriner in fez
  23. Swirls, plus low-dot-screen clones of half-page photo of House lads
  24. HouseIndustries.com, plus half of giant House Industries custom logotype
  25. Other half thereof
  26. ‘Empire in omne tempis’ plus tiny runes
  27. Crisscrossed angled House Industries motelesque logotype in pattern across page, plus Captains of Type Industry seal
  28. More crisscrossed logotypes
  29. ‘Where Custom Type is King!’
  30. ‘FONTKITS COMMERCIAL [illegible] ASSORTED BULLSHIT’
  31. ‘House Fonts’ in script, plus other type
  32. Lighthouse, Playhouse, Roughhouse one-liners
  33. Drawing plus illegible hand-calligraphed words
  34. Large letters illegible over type specimens
  35. Squiggles
  36. ‘House Fonts’
  37. Clones of main gun-toting-hoodlum illo in relief
  38. B from Burnthouse
  39. Alphabet showing (apparently Condemn[e]dhouse)
  40. [Indecipherable]
  41. Some kind of dingbat plus ‘Your Typography’
  42. Dingbats and swirls
  43. Alphabet showing from Blockhouse
  44. ‘New!’ in advertiser’s flash; ‘Scrawl’
  45. ‘Scrawl Font[:] 12 Fonts + T-Shirt’
  46. S from Ashyhouse
  47. ‘CPG’ (hand-lettered) in rectangle
  48. Early Street Van letter samples
  49. Denatured close-ups of blown-up Street Van treatments
  50. [Indecipherable]
  51. ‘Start Customizing Today!’ in (praise be to God) Souvenir Bold
  52. Latticework
  53. ‘You Can Win!’ and large repeating blobs
  54. ‘You Can Win!’ and large repeating blobs
  55. ‘Custom Papers Group’ in hand-drawn cartouche with checkered flag
  56. Font sample plus (as stated in book) illo of Bob Smartner
  57. MTV Movie Awards, plus other logotype
  58. Snippets from logotypes
  59. Stripes
  60. Stripes
  61. ‘Emigre’ logotype
  62. ‘Emigre’ logotype
  63. Girls whose legs read ‘Sexiness Run Rampant’
  64. Yet more of same
  65. Paisleys
  66. Paisleys
  67. Illegible word
  68. ‘out’
  69. Nothing but a few lines over very busy page
  70. Nothing but a few lines over very busy page
  71. ‘Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’ logotype
  72. Rat Fink in Outlaw
  73. [Illegible]
  74. [Illegible]
  75. ‘MYSTERIO’
  76. Indecipherable illustration
  77. Alphabet showing plus ‘BIG DADDY’
  78. Alphabet showing plus ‘BIG DADDY’
  79. ‘ROAD AGENT’
  80. ‘ROAD AGENT’
  81. R from Fink Bold
  82. As listed in caption: “A little appreciation from Rat Fink and the Large Father. Kinda made all of the work worthwhile” (not to mention the royalties)
  83. Car illos
  84. Car illos
  85. Left edges of ‘Franco,’ ‘Jimmy’
  86. All but the left edges of ‘Franco,’ ‘Jimmy’
  87. Ron Chaney faces
  88. Haunted mansion
  89. Some kind of text specimen
  90. Some kind of text specimen
  91. ‘Exotic’; ‘The Polynesian Village’; some other words
  92. ‘Exotic’; ‘The Polynesian Village’; some other words
  93. Idols
  94. Idols
  95. ‘TIKI TEES’
  96. ‘TIKI TEES’
  97. Idols
  98. Idols
  99. ‘HOUSE GOTHIC’
  100. ‘HOUSE GOTHIC’
  101. Interlocking-X motif
  102. Interlocking-X motif
  103. Illegible words in huge House Gothic
  104. Illegible words in huge House Gothic
  105. DCEH arranged in the holes around an X, plus snippets of punk flyers
  106. DCEH arranged in the holes around an X, plus snippets of punk flyers
  107. Dingbats
  108. Large dingbat
  109. Indecipherable
  110. ‘Coop’ signature
  111. Coop, in devil horns, wearing a suit
  112. Coop, in devil horns, wearing a suit
  113. Hard-to-read words
  114. Words, including ‘SURFERS’
  115. ‘TV Land’ logotype in various sizes and orientations
  116. ‘TV Land’ logotype in various sizes and orientations
  117. ‘TV Land’ logotype in various sizes and orientations
  118. ‘TV Land’ logotype in various sizes and orientations
  119. Quite possibly the words ‘Sign Painter’
  120. Quite possibly the words ‘Sign Painter’
  121. ABCD, 1234, and a brush
  122. GHIJ, 7890, ^*&(
  123. [Illegible]
  124. [Illegible]
  125. [Illegible]
  126. [Illegible]
  127. Tenpin Patterns in use
  128. Tenpin Patterns in use
  129. ‘House’ plus High Roller Clip Art dingbat of ball hitting pins
  130. ‘House-a-rama’ plus crown dingbat
  131. House3009-flavoured House Industries logotype
  132. Stereographs
  133. Names followed by ‘Music by Peter Thomas’
  134. Spirograph-esque netting
  135. Apparently a very big rotated letter
  136. Ditto
  137. ‘Latino fonts’
  138. Alphabet showings
  139. Dingbat and type sketches
  140. More dingbat sketches
  141. Silhouette (female, inevitably)
  142. Chalet type specimens
  143. Chalet type specimens
  144. Chalet type specimens
  145. Comprimé h-pattern
  146. Comprimé h-pattern
  147. Silhouette dingbats
  148. Rotated alphabet showing (apparently ‘hфous3’)
  149. Huge words I can’t read
  150. Huge words I can’t read
  151. Illegible illustration (maybe a jet)
  152. Edge of illustration
  153. House plus star on field of other stars, rather like the House Casino “Rat Pack” painting
  154. Field of stars
  155. Flamingo Lounge
  156. Flamingo Lounge; “Rat Pack” painting
  157. Too-large letter
  158. ‘Hou’
  159. Type specimen of Fabulous
  160. Type specimen of Fabulous
  161. Jumbo Machinder silhouettes
  162. Jumbo Machinder silhouettes
  163. Too-large words set in Kaiju
  164. Too-large words set in Kaiju
  165. Too-large words set in Kaiju
  166. Too-large words set in Kaiju
  167. Ape from CSCA poster
  168. Some kind of primitive building
  169. Textile pattern
  170. Textile pattern
  171. Type specimen
  172. Type specimen; Christian Schwartz as simian
  173. One-liners set in Simian fonts
  174. One-liners set in Simian fonts
  175. ‘House’ plus enlargement of price from House magazine cover
  176. Enlarged barcode
  177. ‘House’ in handlettering
  178. Visages
  179. Wartime fighter aircraft with painted shark teeth
  180. Military dingbats
  181. Type specimens
  182. Type specimens
  183. Woman reclining on (photographed) Neutra chair; textile pattern
  184. Textile pattern
  185. Interior and furniture sketches; ‘BUS’ sign
  186. Type specimens
  187. Type specimens; building façade
  188. Building façade
  189. Zoltar logotype
  190. Zoltar logotype
  191. Indecipherable amoeba-like shapes (reminiscent of Stereographs)
  192. Indecipherable amoeba-like shapes again
  193. Amoeba-like shapes become more dingbat-esque
  194. Amoeba-like shapes become more dingbat-esque
  195. Nil, apparently
  196. In various fonts: HIGHWAYMAN, [illegible]STOONS, SUPERDUPER, CHICKENWING, THE ACTION
  197. ‘abstract painting and sculpture’
  198. Dingbats reminiscent of Zeitguys
  199. Interlocking-H pattern (again); ‘Romain Cursif Italique’
  200. One-liner showings
  201. Custom ligatures
  202. Custom ligatures
  203. ‘Benguiat CRISP! Just what you’ve been waiting for! This Design Carries All the Qualities of Hand Lettering!’
  204. Photo-Lettering logotype (as also shown in dark silver)
  205. Nil

The foregoing posting appeared on Joe Clark’s personal Weblog on 2004.09.05 14:03. This presentation was designed for printing and omits components that make sense only onscreen. (If you are seeing this on a screen, then the page stylesheet was not loaded or not loaded properly.) The permanent link is:
https://blog.fawny.org/2004/09/05/overlay/

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