Peignot (typeface)

Peignot (pronounced Pen-yoe) is a sans-serif display typeface, designed by the poster artist A. M. Cassandre in 1937. It was commissioned by the French type foundry Deberny & Peignot.

The typeface is notable for not having a traditional lowercase, but in its place a "multi-case" combining traditional lowercase and small capital characters. Cassandre intended for Peignot to be used in publishing and stated that "[t]here is no technical reason in printing why we cannot return to the noble classical shapes of the alphabet and discard the lower case forms."

The typeface achieved some popularity in poster and advertising publishing from its release through the late 1940s. Stylistically Peignot is a "stressed" or modulated sans-serif in the Art Deco style, in which the vertical strokes are clearly wider than the horizontals. Use of Peignot declined with the growth of the International Typographic Style, which favored less decorative, more objective, traditional typefaces such as Akzidenz-Grotesk.

Peignot experienced a revival in the 1970s as the typeface used on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (and its production company, MTM Enterprises) and the second season of That's My Mama. While often classified as "decorative", the face is a serious exploration of typographic form and legibility. It is now owned by Linotype Corp. and is distributed by both Linotype and Adobe.

A very similar typeface, Chambord by Roger Excoffon, was released by the Fonderie Olive in Marseille in 1945; it had a traditional lowercase. A font resembling Peignot was used for the Intellivision video game system. Derek Vogelpohl distributes a digital version of that font as freeware under the name SF Intellivised.

Usage

 * The Random House hardcover edition of Philip Roth's novel When She Was Good (1967)
 * Barbarella (1968) theatrical release poster
 * The title graphics of the ABC Movie of the Week from 1969 to 1975
 * The closing credits for the 1976 film The Pink Panther Strikes Again
 * The original logo used by Viacom Enterprises (ca. 1971–1976)
 * Quinn Martin's Tales of the Unexpected (1977)
 * The logo for the British software development company Novagen Software
 * The logo for the 1980s game show Dream House
 * The original logo for British electronic music group The Prodigy used in their first two albums (Experience and Music for the Jilted Generation)
 * The cover of Spandau Ballet's 1986 album Through the Barricades
 * The Mary Tyler Moore Show opening title and end credits sequences
 * Real Madrid's shirt number and name font in 2005–06 season
 * Gary Larson's The Far Side Gallery
 * The Boo Radleys' album Giant Steps and accompanying singles
 * Universidade Estadual de Londrina
 * Radio Philippines Network
 * Baltimore Police Department cars
 * The logo of Igloo Products Corporation
 * The original logo of Holyoke Mall at Ingleside
 * The Magnetic Fields' 2017 album 50 Song Memoir
 * Front cover of "Youthquake", an album by Dead or Alive from 1985
 * Logotype for "General Foods International Coffees" in the 1970s
 * The end credits for the 2021 Disney animated film Encanto
 * The end credits for the "Frothy Dawg" segment from Cartoon Network's Cartoons That Never Made It.
 * The Dollar Tree logos used from 1991 to 2001.
 * The signage for the fictional Mackenzie Hart Designs business from seasons 3 and 4 of Melrose Place