We picked up a copy of Continental Type’s 1930 type specimen book, a lovely two-color catalog of metal type exclusively available from foundries in England, France, Spain, Germany, Holland and Italy. It features the great poster artist, Adolphe Mouron Cassande’s bold, iconic 1929 Art Deco typeface from Fonderies Deberny et Peignot, in one color and two color versions. An etymological note: the name of this face may derive from the French bifurqué, or ‘bifurcated,’ owing to the two-color versions of this face.
A digitized version of Cassandre’s Bifur is available from P22 Type Foundry. The P22 version was covered in a wonderfully illustrated piece in Print Magazine.
