The Quest for Fonts

great link, Joe.

must agree with you, as you posted at PlasticBag, Face heyday long gone. this cover reminded me of a 1984 Face "grease monkey" photo shoot by Herb Ritts, any shot of which would put this present effort to shame.

so, about the font ...

from a production point of view, it's really not that difficult to create this kind of geometric design, and if all you need is 26 lower case characters for the heads in a magazine, CALL YOUR LOCAL TYPE DESIGNER and discuss it over a drink. He/she probably has something like it already on the "drawing board", but working together you both have the opportunity to create something special.

Besides the two faces mentioned, Bjork used a typeface in the single "Pagan Poetry" (and only in that single from Vespertine) designed just for this purpose (only letters) from the studio doing the cover.
I don't recall where it was but it was offered for free on their website, at the time (I have it at home).

Besides, the other "script" face used by Bjork on most of Vespertine-related material is a T-26 face, I'm sure of it because I wondered at its ugliness before Bjork forced the mainstream to accept it on her DVD series as well.

I'm so glad there are people like Nick which see the important bond existing in our culture between type and music (and the importance of popular music, and lyrics, as one of the best insights of our time, in a way similar to poetry centuries ago).
Not that 20th century poetry fails, but most of it is undecipherable, on any given level.

BTW, have you noticed RadioHead are (probably) one of the few (if not the only) band reporting which type it uses for their visual material/covers?

The type used in Kid A and Amnesiac is a typeface from Buro Destruct, and the recent Hail To The Thief uses Mrs. Eaves, juxtaposed in an odd way to the usual artwork of the band designer. I don't like it particularly, but a tip of the hat to Thom Yorke and friends...