Bolshoi logo, 1963

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Nick Shinn
Nick Shinn Posts: 2,284
in Type Design Technique & Theory


From the cover of Yuri Slonimsky’s history, published by the Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1963.

Is the decorative device a stylized Б for Bolshoi? The theory being that as there is no S in the Russian alphabet, it would not be mistaken for that letter. 

Comments

  • Igor Petrovic
    Igor Petrovic Posts: 325
    Could be, a nice catch. Probably script lowercase form that is present in Russian handwriting but not in fonts. Yet it survived as the origin of the "Serbian б"
     
  • Andreas Stötzner
    Andreas Stötzner Posts: 817
    it’s just a nice flourish.
  • Tural Alisoy
    Tural Alisoy Posts: 64
    edited October 2024
    It also represents the swan.Ballet is symbolized by it.  And just because the book is in English, the Latin letter S is also used in the logo. 
  • John Savard
    John Savard Posts: 1,173
    I wouldn't have considered for a moment the possibility of the flourish representing a letter of any alphabet. But the fact that the S-curve of the flourish has two circles around it, just where there would be corners in a Б, means that there actually is a possibility.

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