Not sure that many designers would come out of the closet and admit to being a fan of Cooper Black, and don't get me wrong it's not in my top ten favourite fonts and quite possibly not in my top 20 but anyway, I definitely have a soft spot for it. With its rounded serifs and its simple, curvy style, to me it looks like it was designed in the 60s, when in fact it was designed in the early 1920s by Oswald Bruce Cooper. The font was made popular by its appearance on the cover of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album in 1966 and then it was used everywhere! You only need to google 'cooper black' to see it was on album covers, shop facias, magazines (some particularly dodgy ones), newspaper headlines, posters etc.
Cooper Black has quite a colourful history and a book has been published showing many of the ways it has been used by designers over the years. To find out even more about this font take a look at this short film.
I've spotted Cooper Black put to good use a couple of times this week, firstly in the White Stuff Spring catalogue and on the packaging of Spicentice.
Both these examples prove that when used in the right way and coupled with the right fonts, this bold, dated and friendly font can be beautiful. And whats good enough for White Stuff and all that!
