A sales catalog sheet from the American Decalcomania Company circa the late 1940s-early 1950s provided some hand lettering that served as the inspiration for Sign Painter JNL. Emulating the look of characters made with a round pen nib, this Deco-style typeface conveys nostalgia and charm seldom found in advertising of today.

Sign Project JNL is based on vintage water-applied decals once made by the Meyercord Decal Company of Chicago (and later Carol Stream), Illinois. These decals were popular during the 1950s and 1960s for window signage, boat identification, mailbox names and numbers and hundreds of other projects.

Unique and decorative signage for many drive-ins, motels, food stores and other businesses of the 1940s had what was referred to as “privilege signs” provided by one of the major cola brands. Consisting of the brand’s emblem on a decorative panel, the remainder of the sign would carry the desired message of the storekeeper (such as “Drive-In”) in prismatic, embossed metal letters. Inspired by the Art Deco sans serif style of those vintage signs, Privilege Sign Two JNL recreates the type design in both regular and oblique versions. The typefaces are solid black, but adding a selected color and a prismatic effect from your favorite graphics program can reproduce the look and feel of those old businesses. This is a companion font to Privilege Sign JNL, which recreates the condensed sans serif lettering of other privilege signs from the 1950s and early 1960s.

Mayak is a geometric sans serif inspired by the Soviet constructivist fonts of the 1920s-1930s. It contains traditional upper and lower case characters as well as small caps and a great number of stylistic alternates. The font comes in 12 styles: 4 weights in 3 widths. Mayak was designed by Yana Nosenko with contributions from Dmitry Kirsanov and released by ParaType in 2017.

The French publication “La Lettre Dans le Decor et La Publicite Modernes” (“The Letter in the Modern Décor and Advertising”) was a 24-page booklet showcasing the then-current trends of the time (circa late 1930s-early 1940s). On one page was found a squared, extra bold sans serif alphabet set with strong Art Nouveau influences, yet it was ahead of its time by taking on the look and feel of 1980s techno typography. They say “everything old is new again”, and Nouveau Techno JNL is now available digitally in both regular and oblique versions.

Nouveau Era JNL was adapted from the title of a hand-lettered advertisement found on the back of a 1920s-1930s piece of vintage sheet music.

We have created this family inspired from the hand-drawn letters used from the late 1800s until beginning of 1900s for notices, advertising, posters and also early comic titles. It is a hand-made font, with little imperfections that give it its special poetic note. It can be used together with 1906 French News, 1906 Titrage and 1820 Modern.

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!).

Printing Set JNL by Jeff Levine comes from a toy rubber stamp printing set imported from Japan in the 1950s and 1960s that's been revived, but is now imported from China. The font has a serif letter so typical of import toys of the day, but actually reads quite nicely in short headlines and specialty ad copy.

During the 1960s Hippie movement, a large amount of the rock and roll poster art was strongly influenced by the Art Nouveau period of the early 1900s. A poster for an appearance by The Doors at San Francisco’s Cow Palace Exposition Center (presented by Fillmore East and West owner Bill Graham) featured some wonderfully eclectic Nouveau-styled serif hand lettering. Now recreated as a digital type face called Cow Palace JNL (and named for the performance venue), the font is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The cover of the 1907 sheet music for "I'd Rather Twostep Than Waltz, Bill" was hand lettered in an Art Nouveau sans serif alphabet. During the hippie counter-culture movement of the 1960s, rock posters, album covers and other printed ephemera of the time embraced the styles of lettering and art made popular during the early 1900s. It seemed only fitting to name this type design Nouveau Hippie JNL as an homage to both eras. The font is available in both regular and oblique versions.

From the same page of a vintage German lettering textbook entitled “50 Alphabete fur Technikur und Fachschulen” (loosely translated to “50 Alphabets for Technicians and Specialized Schools”) that inspired Trippy Hippy JNL comes Eleckatrical Banana JNL. It’s another novelty, free form Art Nouveau hand lettered alphabet that works well in recreating 1920s period pieces or for designing a retro-inspired rock and roll concert poster reminiscent of the 1960s. The name of the typeface is from a line in the 1966 pop hit “Mellow Yellow by Donovan (Leitch), and his extended pronunciation of ‘electrical’: “…E-lec-a-tric-cal’ banana is going to be the very next craze…” Caps only Fonts. Eleckatrical Banana JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

This bouncy little number is based on handlettering often found on greeting cards in the 1950s and 1960s, and often the work of Alan Denney. Wild and wacky (and maybe a little bit tacky), this monocase font is a sure attention-getter. This font contains the complete Latin language character set (Unicode 1252) plus support for Central European (Unicode 1250) languages as well.

Monoline Deco JNL is a thin, elegant typeface that is reminiscent of the Art Deco Streamline influence of the 1930s and 1940s, complete with angular and truncated characters.

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.

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.

A 1920 art magazine from Great Britain entitled “Pan” had its three letter name hand lettered on the cover in a style that had elements of Art Nouveau, Art Deco and what would eventually be called Techno in the 1980s. This inspired the typeface Art Magazine JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

An Art Nouveau, hand lettering on a Good Housekeeping magazine cover from the 1920s inspired Monthly Issue JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. Prior to the 1940s, it was not unusual to find the covers of many popular magazines hand lettered with either their names and/or content information; often in different type styles.

Sam Suliman is a condensed display face supplied in three weights – Regular, Medium and Bold – plus a set of handy italics (obliques). All six fonts are included in the value family pack. The fonts are inspired by lowercase lettering on a Sarah Vaughan album cover designed by Sam Suliman in 1962, a style which contrasts sharp tight outer corners with soft rounded counters. The letters were perhaps influenced by a Solotype font called Herald Square, but without that font’s aversion to diagonals, and adding distinctive perky ascenders/descenders on the lowercase r, a, u, g and n. The Sam Suliman fonts also add the nubs to d, m, p, and q. Suliman was born in Manchester, England in 1927. After working for McCann Erikson in London, he moved to New York where he took on freelance work designing album covers, particularly celebrated are his striking minimalist designs for jazz records. He moved back to England in the early 1960s, designing many book jackets, film titles and fabrics, also working in Spain and India before settling in Oxford in the 1980s.

Westbrook JNL is a simple monoline all-caps font with a strong Art Deco feel. It's light, delicate appearance is great for announcements, ads and retro materials that wish to evoke the elegance of the 1930s and 1940s.

Block-style typefaces make excellent sports-themed fonts, and Stadium JNL is no exception-- but this lettering style is also filled with nostalgia for decades past. Modeled from one of the many classic designs found in the Speedball® Lettering Textbook, this style of alphabet was quite popular in signage of the 1920s and 1930s. Stadium JNL fills the bill either way-- a font that is just as much at home on a gridiron or baseball diamond, or as lettering for a garage, warehouse or attention-getting ad copy.

PM Showman is based on vintage hand-painted sign writing from the 1900s through the 1960s. Seen on everything from office signs to posters, it was a staple of business communication and entertainment advertising in the early 20th century. We meticulously hand-drew each font, modeling the spacing and quirkiness of the original letterforms to give PM Showman an authentic hand-painted look.

Although the early 1900s through the 1920s seemed to be the "Golden Age" of ridiculously long novelty song titles, it appears that even the decade of the 1940s had its fair share as well. Song Merchant JNL was modeled from the hand lettered [but exhausting] title of the sheet music for "Princess Poo-Poo-Ly Has Plenty Pa-Pa-Ya (and she Loves to Give it Away)". Despite the obvious double-entendre inferences of the title, the square block letters with rounded corners make for a useful headline font (even if the source material it was drawn from is quite forgettable). Available in regular and oblique versions.

In the 1920 edition of “How to Paint Signs and Sho’ Cards” by E. C. Matthews is an example of what is termed “poster lettering” that is so free form and unusual it borders on the eccentric. Resembling lettering more commonly found in 1960s “underground comics” of the Hippie generation rather than of the Art Nouveau period, it oddly enough works well in both styles. This novelty typeface is now available as Hippie Comics JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Mixed Drinks JNL derives its look from a set of gold foil self-adhesive letters made by a company called Cameo for the Schenley distilling company circa the late 1950s or early 1960s. The letters were used to personalize bottles of whiskey for your own bar or to give as a unique gift.

Oakland is a Streamline era design inspired by some hand-drawn lettering on a 1930's French poster advertising a certain brand of Car (Automobile for our American cousins). It's ideal for giving poster and design work that late 1930s to mid 1950s feel. Make a bold statement with this all capitals typeface!

Latin music was all the rage in the United States from the 1930s through the 1950s and songs with a “South of the Border” or “Old Mexico” theme were plentiful. The 1940 sheet music for “Make Love with a Guitar” evoked the idea of serenading one’s lovely lady on horseback while strumming the guitar. ..at least if you went by the by the illustration under the song’s name. As the hand lettered title was rendered in an Art Deco design, it became the basis for Jazz Guitar JNL [which seemed a more befitting name], and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

McKnight Kauffer is a casual sans derived from poster and book cover lettering by the American designer, Edward McKnight Kauffer, who mainly worked in England through the 1920s and 1930s. The style owes much to Louis Oppenheim's Fanfare of 1927, but without the Germanic blackletter inflection. The two display fonts, regular and outline, have a playful art deco feel, and share spacing and kerning so can be overlapped for bicolor effects.

A handsome German art deco design that fits in well with other types of the 1920s and 1930s. Originally without a lowercase, so we drew one for it, extending its usefulness.

Alexandrya is a subtly modulated block serif font family with a humanist sensibility and all of my personal style for font design. A distant ancestor of the basic letterforms is Minister (a German font of the 1920s) through my first font in the mid-1990s, Diaconia. There are many OpenType features with over 600 characters: Caps, lower case, small caps, ligatures, discretionary ligatures, swashes, small cap figures, old style figures, numerators, denominators, accent characters (including CE), ordinal numbers (1st-infinity: lining and oldstyle), and so on. It is designed for text use in body copy.

Designed in 1976–81 by Michael Rovensky (1902–1996) as the body text companion of his Bazhanov Display typeface (1961), of Polygraphmash typefoundry. Based on the lettering by Moscow book designer Dmitry Bazhanov (1902–1945). With old-fashioned flavor, this design recreates the Soviet hand-lettering style of the 1940s. The digital version was developed at ParaType in 1996 by Lyubov Kuznetsova.