In 1932, Erik Ljungberg established a record label, AB Sonora, produced entirely in Sweden. Sonoras were sold originally at 2 krone but the price was reduced to 1.65 krone during 1933. Ljungberg sold the label to Philips in 1958. The company also produced a portable gramophone.

Although all that’s interesting, what really grabs my attention about this record sleeve is the fabulous design. There are two fonts in classic black and red. I particularly love the uppercase E & S and lower case f & r of the script font. The contrasting blocky font has just a few subtle serifs and is mainly used in uppercase. One text block reads “Giv arbete åt svenska arbetare” which translates as “Give work to Swedish workers”.

And just look at that great little logo at the foot of the sleeve. Feet like musical notes and a disc-shaped body – but what’s with the little flag apparently flying from the bridge of his nose? Who cares when it’s designed with such flair?

[More information on Sonora can be found here.]

My digital magazine The Lintie contained an article I wrote all about the letter Q. It was designed in Mac Pages, which has its limits. I wanted to do better.

I was eager to learn In-Design and picked a piece of the Q article to make a two-page magazine spread. In-Design is a wonderful piece of software and is used by design professionals. My skills on it are still absolutely rudimentary but I’ll learn by doing. This was the result of my first attempt.