Cockney Slang – poster, Cooper & Beatty, Jim Donoahue, Al Elliott, c1970

This piece deserves a shared credit. The poster itself was designed by Jim Donoahue, Art Director at Cooper & Beatty, while the title was hand-lettered by Al Elliott – who, at the time, was with Headliners, C&B’s photo lettering division. Fortunately, the original artwork for the title has been preserved. Elliott’s lettering forms a deliberately intricate composition – a visual reflection of the layered and convoluted nature of Cockney slang.

The poster was created to promote Lettergraphics, a secondary photo lettering service offered by C&B. Unlike Headliners – C&B’s primary and more expensive photo lettering studio – Lettergraphics alphabets provided a lower-cost alternative. Photo lettering was typically charged by the word, and to keep costs down, type shops offered secondary services that supplied less expensive ‘galley’ strips of lettering, which the client would then assemble into headlines themselves. These libraries used 2-inch film fonts sourced from various providers, including Filmotype, Visual Graphics Corporation (VGC), and Lettergraphics. – Rod McDonald