Here is another attempt to create a font for invitation work unlike any already out in the world. In casting about for a name, I decided to call it Valerie after Valerie Hope, a mindreader of days long gone, who played California theatres in the 1930s and 1940s. And who, incidentally, was my mother.

Avenida was created by architect and designer John Chippindale in 1994 and is a constructed typeface that leaves a cool, sophisticated impression. An Art Deco typeface inspired lettering found on buildings constructed in Spain's Andalucian region in the 1930's and 1940's. Avenida is best suited to headlines and short to middle length texts.

From the title on the sheet music for the 1935 composition "Along Tobacco Road" comes Deco Triline JNL in both regular and oblique versions. Reminiscent of Broadway if done as a neon sign, this typeface virtually shouts about the Manhattan nightlife of the 1930s. For maximum readability, space the letters a bit wider than normal.

A 1930s WPA (Works Progress Administration) poster advertising an exhibit of New Jersey area posters had its main lettering rendered in a very condensed hand lettered interpretation of the ever-popular Futura Black Art Deco style. This has now been re-drawn and digitized as Art Event JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

A 1930s travel poster from American Airlines had the airline’s name in a classic thick-and-thin Art Deco design of hand lettering. With the addition of angular spurs, some of the characters become semi-serif in nature. This type style is now available as Travel Plans JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

In the 1930s the WPA (Works Progress Administration) was involved with getting a number of Americans back to work during the Great Depression. One faction of the WPA's efforts was the Federal Art Project. Thin, condensed hand lettering on a poster for an Art Exhibition at the New Bedford Free Public Library is the inspiration for Art Exhibit JNL.

A couple of pieces of sheet music from France [circa 1925] offered the inspiration for Chanson De Paris JNL (Song of Paris), which is available in both regular and oblique versions. This hand lettered Art Nouveau style features a unique take on thick-and-thin lettering which foreshadows the Art Deco typefaces to come during the 1930s.

Introducing a vintage font named Barely Legal. This font was inspired by bootleggers in the 1930s. All available characters you can see at the screenshots. This font has six styles: Regular, Shadow, Texture, Rough, Shadow FX and Texture FX. This font will look good on any retro and mafia styled designs like a poster, T-shirt, label, logo, etc.

This stylish stout script was originally issued in the 1930s under the name “Fulgor” by the spanish foundry Fundición Gans. Cursory research suggests that Saks-Fifth Avenue found it suitably snooty to use extensively in its newspaper ads of that period. Perhaps somewhat ironically, this version takes its name from one of comedian W. C. Fields' many odd aliases.

A 1930s luggage tag from an eponymous hotel provided the inspiration for this face. The uppercase letters lean to the left and the lowercase letters lean to the right, so aLtErNaTiNg the two will give your headlines a little bounce. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin, 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

Kino font was designed in 1930 by Martin Dovey for the Monotype Corporation. Heavy in weight with the letters clipped at the top and bottom, Kino is unique among display types. Display typefaces with triangular serifs are sometimes called Latins and Kino is referred to as a serifless Latin. Use Kino font sparingly in informal display situations."

ITC Nora was designed by James Montalbano when he was on a 1930s sign-lettering kick, poring over showcard manuals to find inspiration for new typeface designs. A few letters led him to create this informal, goofy" script, which falls between the many formal scripts and the completely extravagant. ITC Nora displays a free-flowing openness and elegance."

Thannhaeuser’s mid-1930s display blacklettr font as a fresh and extended redesign called Staufer Gotisch. This font contains a bunch of useful ligatures, and it is recommended to activate both Standard and Discretionary Ligatures. To reach the numero sign, type the combination N-o-period und activate the OT feature Ordinals. The # key is occupied by the round s.

Satisfaction Pro is the vastly expanded and improved version of the popular font Satisfaction, inspired by cigarette ads from the 1930s. This new OpenType version has over 600 glyphs, including a full set of small caps, lining and oldstyle numbers, and numerous discretionary ligatures and contextual alternates to help create the look and feel of real handwriting.

Artist Colony JNL is the third type design inspired by some online examples from an early 20th Century French book of decorative hand lettering. While Arte Critique JNL and French Art Initials JNL embrace the Art Noveau style, Artist Colony JNL leans more toward the emerging Art Deco Movement of the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Visual Arts JNL is a classic Art Deco typeface based on the hand lettering found on a 1930s-era WPA (Works Progress Administration) poster for Women Artists. The exhibit took place in the Federal Art Gallery in Boston, and was part of the arts project underwritten by the WPA to keep many creative people working during the Depression years.

Ask any typical New Yorker about subway directions and they'll tell you to take the "uptown line", "downtown line" or "cross-town line". Uptown Line JNL is yet another variation of the Art Deco monoline style of lettering prevalent during the 1930s and 1940s, and is based on titling from vintage sheet music for a Johann Strauss classical piece.

Parfum de Paris JNL is an all lower case Art Deco-inspired design that features counterless letters in a thick-and-thin style reminiscent of 1930s text styles. Casual and at the same time elegant, this font is perfect for perfume labels, menu headings and other 'stylish' titling evoking the look and feel of the 'Streamline Era'.

Inspired by handlettering used on many WPA posters of the 1930s, this monocase display font has stylish lines and graceful curves that will add period charm to any project they grace. Available and normal and bold weights. The Opentype versions of these fonts support Unicode 1250 (Central European) languages, as well as Unicode 1252 (Latin) languages.

Tradewinds JNL is based on one of many innovative alphabets designed by the late Alf R. Becker for Signs of the Times magazine between the 1930s and 1950s. Thanks go to Tod Swormstedt of ST Media (who is also the curator of the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio) for supplying the reference material used to make this font.

Birch Beer JNL comes from lettering spotted on a European business sign found in some stock footage that was used for an old black and white film about World War II. The name is derived from a popular root beer-like soda sold by the Royal Castle Restaurants that were popular in Florida from the 1930s through the 1970s.

The same monograms found on a 1930s-era business card that inspired Golden Beach JNL are reproduced as Art Deco Monograms JNL. Left-side monograms are on the upper case A-Z, while the lower case a-z are the right side monograms. A vertical bar is on the period key for a centerpiece between the two initials.

This charming, disarming, roly-poly typeface is based on handlettering discovered on a Sabena Airlines travel brochure of the 1930s. Include it in your next project, and a good time will be had by all. Both versions of this font contain complete Unicode 1252 (Latin) and Unicode 1250 (Central European) character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

The Greek-influenced hand lettering on a 1930s WPA (Works Progress Administration) poster for the Federal Theater presentation of "Trojan Incident" inspired Euripedes JNL. The play was based on Homer and Euripedes, and was presented at the off-Broadway St. James Theatre (which opened in 1927 at 246 W. 44th Street on the site of the original Sardi's restaurant).

At first glance, this unusual display face might appear to be a product of the 1960s, with its highly unconventional letterforms and its plastic, fantastic highlight treatment. However, this font is in fact inspired by a ca. 1930 poster for a Belgian beer of the same name. The uncredited Flemish designer was clearly a head of his time (ouch!).

ITC Freddo is the work of New York designer James Montalbano and was inspired by a sign lettering manual from the 1930s. Montalbano liked the character shapes illustrated in this manual but found many of the proportions odd. So he reinterpreted them to produce capitals and lower case letters which, according to today's standards, better complement one another.

Zenia, offered in regular and bold weights is a homage to the streamline era of the later 1930s. It's a distinctive display family, glyphic yet still intuitive and easy to read. Use it anywhere you want that 30's streamlined feel, or perhaps in science fiction inspired work particularly those that have a 'past inspired future' feel...

This delightful semiscript is based on an offering from a 1930s specimen book from the Mergenthaler Linotype Company, originally called, simply, "Card Italic". Elegant without being stuffy, it is equally “at home” announcing anything from formal occasions to casual get-togethers. Both versions of the font include 1252 Latin, 1250 CE (with localization for Romanian and Moldovan).

A sign in a London storefront, ca. 1930, pitching—surprise!—Smart Frocks provided the visual cues for designing this typeface. Singularly stylish, hip and haughty and decidedly Deco, this is the smart font to use! This font contains the complete Latin language character set (Unicode 1252) plus support for Central European (Unicode 1250) languages as well.

Rundfunk is a condensed font which features an unusual lowercase with an extremely low x-height and high tail ascenders that align with the capitals. It is a reworking of the original designed by Adolf Behrmann for the Berthold type foundry in 1928. Rundfunk font is ideal for projecting the look and mood of the 1930s.

Night Life JNL follows the classic lettering forms of the Art Deco era of the 1930s and 1940s. On the upper case letters, the A,B,E,F,H,K,P and R have extended horizontals, while the lower case a,b,e,f,h,k,p and r have those extensions removed and are more traditional in design.

A playful Art Deco face from master penman Samuel Welo is combined with design elements used in 1930s signage to create this architectural face. End caps are created with {brackets} and spaces with the design elements are _underscores. Both versions of this font support the Latin 1252, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

In the 1930s the WPA (Works Progress Administration) sponsored a Federal art project. Many posters were produced that featured government-sponsored cultural events, health and safety tips and various other topics. One such poster from Pennsylvania has the words “Work with Care” in a hand-lettered inline sans design. This became the basis for Asbury Park JNL.

Used Cars JNL is based on one of the many unique alphabets created by the late Alf R. Becker for Signs of the Times magazine from the 1930s through the 1950s. Special thanks to Tod Swormstedt of ST Media (who is also the curator of the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio) for providing the reference material for this design

While viewing a YouTube video of film footage in and around New York in the mid-1930s, one scene showed some people “window shopping” by the storefront office of the French Line, an international steamship service. A screen capture allowed the storefront sign to be recreated as the digital typeface Steamship JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Evening Wear JNL, drawn from the elegant monoline lettering used as titling on the sheet music for "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", conjures up images of 1930s New York at its apex. Fine restaurants, elegant night clubs and couples decked out in their best evening apparel were of a time long past when "doing the town" meant really dressing up for the occasion.

Toyprint JNL is based on scanned print samples of a toy rubber stamp set imported from Japan circa the 1930s. No kerning and a very limited character set, but fun and nostalgic nonetheless. NOTE: Large size rendering of the type will give the appearance of cut paper rather than rubber stamp impressions due to the nature of the scans for this font.

An extremely low midline marks this offering, based on an “elegant” alphabet found in Samuel Welo’s chapbook, Lettering: Modern and Foreign, published in 1930 by Frederick J. Drake and Company. Definitely different, and Deco at its most debonair. All versions of this font include the Unicode 1250 Central European character set in addition to the standard Unicode 1252 Latin set.

Fenimore SRF is a variation of Jeff Levine's Theater District JNL with added highlights, created especially by Jeff for Stella Roberts fonts. This Art Deco-influenced typeface typifies the streamlined style of 1930s era-influenced modernism and streamline. The net profits from my font sales help defer medical expenses for my siblings, who both suffer with Cystic Fibrosis and diabetes. Thank you.

A charming headline font, bold yet feminine, based on Lilith, designed by Lucien Bernhard for Bauersche Gießerei in 1930. Some of the fussier elements of the original have been removed in order to create an elegant exercise in typographic chiaroscuro. Both versions of this font contain the Unicode 1252 (Latin) and Unicode 1250 (Central European) character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.