Büro Destruct co-founder Lorenz “Lopetz” Gianfreda started Fonts From The Flea Market four years ago while browsing countless used 7" vinyl singles at a flea market in the French part of Switzerland. In the days when music was still sold as a physical, tangible product, record sleeves provided original typefaces with a great platform to catch the potential record buyer’s attention. Hunting down those imaginative type designs at flea markets and second hand shops became a source of inspiration and visceral pleasure for Lopetz. The type maniac and font designer started photographing them and sharing them with like-minded people, and the series was born. The collection currently holds over 800 images and is truly fascinating.
Lopetz | “For the four years and more than 800 sleeves that I posted, I get often asked two questions – “Are you on flea markets every weekend?” and “Do you buy/collect/own these records?” The answer to both of them is “No”. I simply take pictures with my mobile, crop the images and slightly fix their quality. On Saturdays I post three of these font finds – taken sometimes months ago – on Twitter and also push them into the Fonts From The Flea Market Flickr set.”
Lopetz | “I do collect some records, but I get them mostly for the music, not for the type. It would be cool to release a little book with the collection some day. Publishers are always welcome to contact me.”
In the meantime you can enjoy the musical typographic extravaganza on Twitter and Flickr.
