If you’re a music enthusiast and a type geek, you’ll know that finding a book to satisfy those two interests would be quite the challenge. Well, look no further! The latest launch from the Transatlantic type foundry Commercial Type, Double Acts in Pop, is the answer to your prayers.
Described as a „272-page visual journey meets 1,652-word essay“, the book features Commercial Type’s entire catalogue of typefaces (60+ families). Designed by Chris Wu, edited by writer Caren Litherland, and printed by Conti Tipocolor, Florence, Double Acts in Pop is obviously visually stunning, but it is meant to be read as much as admired.
For the book, Commercial Type co-founders Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz partnered with MTV podcaster and Pitchfork writer Molly Lambert to explore enduring musical duos, fleeting collaborations, and side project partnerships within bands. Lambert reveals the creative peaks, feuds, and hilarious pettiness of some of her favorite and most hated musical duos – all through the typefaces of one of the most prolific type design duos to date.
Barens and Schwartz have worked together since 2003, when they were paired up to draw a new set of typefaces for The Guardian. They quickly bonded over shared interests, especially pop music. Schwartz mentions some of his favorite double acts mentioned in the book are Pet Shop Boys, Wham!, and Sparks. Despite the more fun aspect of the project, the type design duo didn’t lose sight of the fact that explaining to music audiences that the book is also a type specimen and explaining to design audiences that it’s also a music book would be a big part of the challenge.
Early on, the idea was to use a line or two from each Billboard #1 song, starting with „West End Girls“ by Pet Shop Boys in 1986 and running through the ’90s and ’00s. However, Schwartz says this quickly turned out to be „unwieldy“, especially for text faces that longer chunks of copy would better serve. Instead, they commissioned one 13,000-word essay, making the book much stronger and easier to follow. Schwartz adds that it was tricky for Chris to figure out the overall rhythm of the book, maintaining the right level of energy across 242 pages without it feeling too choppy and frenetic. „Vielleicht war die größte Herausforderung von allen die Vorfreude, während die Bücher vom Drucker in Italien zu unserem Büro in New York verschifft wurden, als wir nur warten konnten!“