Origins and ancestors of "My Happy 70s" by Jan-Henrik Arnold

Fiz de la Peña
Fiz de la Peña Posts: 64
in History of Typography
Hello everyone,

After a futile attempt at identifying the typeface used in the logotype of upscale French fashion brand Chloé, I finally decided to ask the members of Font ID, to see if they could solve the conundrum.

I got very few responses, but one of them identified the font as "My Happy 70s". It just felt strange to have such a classic-looking font apparently reduced as a mere product of '70s type design. I am not asking for an identification, but I do feel clueless as to where to look for the identity of the typeface. My request at Font ID is sadly devoid of activity. Would you happen to know if there are other websites that specialize in the recognition and identification of typefaces?

Thank you very much for your help. 
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Comments

  • Mark Simonson
    Mark Simonson Posts: 1,736
    edited April 2022
    You could try typography.guru . They do font ID there.

    FWIW, often with logos, especially older logos, it's not a font but a custom design, drawn from scratch, possibly influenced or based on one or more fonts.
  • Igor Petrovic
    Igor Petrovic Posts: 298
    I often use "What The Font" by MyFonts. As Mark said, Typography.guru is also a good place, here is a quick video 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_J8AauermE


  • Matthew Smith
    Matthew Smith Posts: 89
    My go-to is actually just asking on Twitter!

    In a case like this, Mark is probably right. In fact, in looking up some Chloé perfume packaging from the 70’s the logotype is actually slightly different than it is today. Which I think starts to reveal that the current version is a natural progression from the previous—thus making it custom—regardless if the previous was custom or not.

    However, when I am trying to identify older type like this, I tend to find out when the logotype came to be, and then research fonts of that era.
  • Fiz de la Peña
    Fiz de la Peña Posts: 64
    Thank you very much.
  • Fiz de la Peña
    Fiz de la Peña Posts: 64
    Mark Simonson said:
    You could try typography.guru . They do font ID there.

    FWIW, often with logos, especially older logos, it's not a font but a custom design, drawn from scratch, possibly influenced or based on one or more fonts.
    I do agree with you. It's just that I feel that, besides some tweaking and fine-tuning to spruce the typeface and make it contemporary, there always seems to be a previous (usually "classic" in design) typeface from which the "modern" and current typeface is derived. And that's exactly what I'm looking for.
  • Fiz de la Peña
    Fiz de la Peña Posts: 64
    Thanks for your help. I will be certainly making some research. 
  • Cory Maylett
    Cory Maylett Posts: 248
    edited April 2022
    There's a type ID category at graphicdesignforum.com. There are a few people there who seem to recognize even the most obscure typefaces.

    I've probably designed several hundred logos over the previous 40 years. However I would never simply type out a word from a font and pass it off as a logotype. Doing so with an accompanying tag line, yes, but not with the logo itself.

    For starters, a client would have difficulty registering a trademark composed exclusively from an already existing typeface.

    In addition, when designing an entire font, every glyph needs to look good when positioned next to every other glyph in the font. When designing a logotype, each glyph needs to work well only with the glyph on either side of it. A logotype is one or two words where every glyph is fine-tuned to work as part of a fixed composition rather than as mix-and-match pieces in an entire font. A font is a very different animal from a logotype.

    The Chloe logo might be actual letters from a font or based upon an existing typeface, but there's an equal or better chance of it being a custom design.




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