The grandeur of what was Miami Beach had its golden years peak in the 1940s. One of the grande dame hotels that stood at Collins Avenue and 23rd Street was the Roney Plaza; built in the 1920s and demolished around 1969. An online auction offered a pair of gummed labels provided by the hotel to be used by their guests for shipping souvenir packages back home, thus also giving the hotel a promotional plug. Jeff Levine not only created two typefaces from this hand-lettered label - Old Miami Beach JNL and Old Miami Beach Nights JNL (a solid black version), but painstakingly recreated the look of the label for the promotional flag and banner for the fonts.

Eckhardt Poster Brush JNL is part of a series of fonts emulating many of the various styles of hand lettering employed by sign painters and show card writers. The series is named in honor of the late Albert Eckhardt, Jr. - a talented sign writer and a good friend of the font's designer, Jeff Levine. Eckhardt Poster Italic JNL is an angled treatment of the font.

Great type font inspirations can come from any time period and any location in the world. A Febuary, 1932 issue of an Estonian woman’s magazine called “Eesti Naine” had its name hand lettered using a round nib lettering pen. This extra-wide Art Deco design is now available as Round Nib Deco JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

More Office Stamps JNL is the companion font to Office Stamps JNL, and collects another twenty-six designs based on vintage 'stock' rubber stamps used in hundreds of offices for decades.

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.

The titles and credits from the 1960 French film “Le Passage Du Rhin” (English release title: “Tomorrow is My Turn”)” are hand made in a free form bold alphabet resembling both cut paper and quickly sketched lettering. This avant garde style inspired the digital type revival, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Hand Cut Stencil JNL is a condensed Roman typeface modeled from an antique tin stencil hand cut for shipping merchandise. The design is available in regular and oblique versions.

The 1960 British film “Beat Girl” (released in the U.S. as “Wild for Kicks”) was a typical [for its time] story of a teenage girl looking to have some fun by hanging out with SoHo beatniks and going against parental authority. One of the posters for the film features the title in a condensed slab serif stencil form, with eroded edges. The basic letter forms were smoothed out and cleaned up resulting in Jazz Beat Stencil JNL, which is available as in both regular and oblique versions.

Restaurant and Lounge is a casual, brush-style type face based on hand lettering found on a 1940s matchbook for the Park Avenue Restaurant (a popular dining spot during the golden years of Miami Beach).

The idea started with the 1934 sheet music of “Mazurka Amabile”. Its hand drawn title had most of the letters rendered in a rectangular shape [‘square’ in the sign trade] that featured rounded corners and terminals made by the shape of the lettering pen nib. A few letters were rounder in design than others, so those were scrapped in favor of a more consistent character shape throughout the font. Pen Nib Square JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Deco Semi Serif JNL was modeled from the hand lettered title on the sheet music cover for the 1933 song "Another Perfect Day Has Passed Away". This interesting design blend of serif, sans serif and partial-serif characters commands attention with its eccentric mix of letter forms, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The pages of a vintage sign painter's manual yields many interesting typefaces that reflect on the design styles of years gone by. Eckhardt Display Serif JNL is a distinctive, hand-lettered serif face that has a hint of Art Noveau. Part of a series of sign painter's fonts named in honor of the late Albert Eckhardt, Jr. who owned Allied Signs in Miami, Florida, Jeff Levine continues this series of fonts in tribute to his friend and the art of sign lettering.

One of the examples in the 1916 publication “Baker’s Showcard Book” [an early 20th Century instructional book on sign lettering] was simply called “Plain Poster”. Somewhat Art Nouveau in style, but with many ‘nonconforming’ character shapes and widths, this novelty design is available digitally as Free Form Showcard JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

The hand punched lettering of an antique French shipping stencil was the inspiration for French Shipping Stencil JNL; available in both regular and oblique versions.

Deco Geometric Stencil JNL was inspired by an example of a vintage Art Deco stencil type design seen in the Steven Heller-Louise Fili book "Stencil Type" (published by Thames and Hudson).

The hand lettered titling on a vintage piece of sheet music for the song "Sweet Siamese" is the basis for Port of Call JNL.

Eckhardt Broad Sans JNL joins the growing collection of sign painter-oriented fonts named in honor of the late Al Eckhardt of Allied Signs, a good friend of Jeff Levine for many years and a talented sign lettering artist in his own right. This design is a sans serif approach to the lettering found in the Eckhardt Showcard JNL family.

Print Shop Delights JNL is another assortment of vintage letterpress cuts of cartoons, decorations, embellishments, border pieces and attention getters.

A vintage hand lettered sign for a carnival game was the basis for Sign Display Casual JNL, a classic example of the "one stroke" casual text lettering that sets sign painters apart from sign manufacturers.

Spotted for sale online, a partial set of antique tin stencils from France had a distinctively handmade look about them. Many of the characters were inconsistently wider than others, some characters were missing and one was damaged. Despite the obvious flaws, the image of these stencils served as the model for a digital font revival once the characters took on a more uniform appearance. French Stencil Serif JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A Western Union telegram from 1951 provided the typographic inspiration for Message by Wire JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. Unlike other available type fonts which emulate the ink ribbon-struck printed characters from the teletype machines, this version was redrawn to celebrate the actual type design itself. The typeface letter spacing has been equalized so that when in use, it looks much like the printed output of an old telegram messsage.

At first glance Parking Lot Stencil JNL look quite similar to many sans stencil fonts, but rest assured there are numerous subtle nuances that give the typeface its own unique flavor. Modeled after the plastic stencils used for marking numbers and directional information on paved surfaces, the lettering is clean yet industrial.

Fun and Games JNL was redrawn from the lettering found on the cover of a 1935 Speedball® Lettering Pen book.

Up until the advent of modern packing and shipping methods, the common way to mark merchandise or other items to be transported was through the use of a brass stencil. These marking devices were hand stamped (or punched) using metal dies that were struck against sheets of brass to create the letters, numbers and other symbols [unlike the steel rule die cutting method used for manufacturing paper stencils]. One such example of an antique marking stencil had letters and numbers approximately one quarter of an inch in height, and Stamped Brass Stencil JNL recreates the design complete with the unusual variations of character shapes and widths.

Sheet music for the title song from the 1933 Jean Harlow-Clark Gable film "Hold Your Man" has the movie title hand lettered in a dual line sans serif with Art Deco influences. This is now available as Dual Line Deco, and is available in both regular and oblique versions. The song itself was written by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown, whose vast catalog of musical compositions was tapped for the 1952 musical classic "Singing in the Rain".

French Stencil Sans JNL is another typeface based on vintage French tin/zinc stencils. Slightly rounded corners and a "hand-cut" look add an interesting and charming variation that breaks away from the "standard" design of other metal stencil sets.

An antique Bradley stencil cutting machine’s letters and numbers were the basis for Dry Goods Stencil JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Bay Area Nouveau JNL is an ultra bold, Art Nouveau headline font inspired by hand lettering on the cover of a piece of 1911 sheet music entitled "The Only Pal I Ever Had Came from 'Frisco Town'".

Eckhardt Poster Board JNL further continues Jeff Levine's series of sign painter-oriented fonts, named in honor of his good friend Albert Eckhardt, Jr. (who ran Allied signs in Miami, Florida from 1959 until his passing). The typeface is a casual brush style, modeled from an image of a do-it-yourself sign making kit comprised of stencils, paint and brush spotted for sale through an online auction.

Chamber of Commerce JNL is loosely based on a type style used for some rubber stamp letters and numbers from a vintage child's printing set. Originally a cast shadow design, Jeff Levine felt the lettering merited a direct treatment in both regular and oblique styles without the shadow effect.

Savings and Loan JNL is a condensed slab serif with a square look to the letterforms. It's perfect for titling applications, and exudes strength, dignity and legibility.

Wood Type Calendar JNL is a set of components for making monthly calendar pages. Based on a set of vintage wood type numbers, the dates 1 through 31 are found on the "A-Z" and "a-e" keys; the 23/30 and 24/31 ligatures are on the "f" and "g" keys. On the "h" and "i" keys are blank outline and solid blocks for balancing the calendar layout. The "j" through "u" keys have the names of the months, and the "1" through "7" keys contain the days of the week.

The hand lettered credits from the 1931 melodrama “Safe in Hell” inspired the typeface Pre Code Movies JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. The design is strongly influenced by the popular Art Deco style of thick-and-thin characters and also features rounded corners. The font’s name comes from the early era of talking pictures and the short period before the establishment of the Hays Office in 1934 when Hollywood did not self-censor itself. Many then-taboo topics were exploited on film until Will Hays cracked down on such productions. To read more about Pre-Code Hollywood, visit the Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Code_Hollywood

Amidst the pages of the 1946 foreign-printed "100 Alphabets Publicitaires" ("100 Advertising Alphabets") was an example of a beautiful vertical script type design with a somewhat calligraphic look. This became the work model for Script Spot Initials JNL.

The 1920 edition of “How to Paint Signs and Sho’ Cards” by E. C. Matthews offered a number of examples of then-modern lettering styles for sign painters and show card writers. A bold display alphabet made with a round lettering nib is now available as Show Card Pen JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

More Antique Stencils JNL is another collection of wonderful decorative stencil designs from antique sources. Included in this font are floral, bird and nautical motifs in both singular and border designs as well as an ornate embellishment. This font is a companion to Antique Stencils JNL.

The hand lettered title on the cover of the 1938 sheet music for “If It Rains – Who Cares” featured a condensed Art Deco typeface made with a round nib pen. The square shaped characters with rounded corners were a perfect subject for a digital font revival, and are now available as Dip Pen Deco JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

A playful, casual take on round nib pen lettering was spotted amongst some online scans from an old lettering book. The free-form and stylized shapes of the letters and numbers are reminiscent of old-time show cards, movie titles and signage in vogue around the early 1900s through the 1920s. Fancy Show Card JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Vintage Stencil Art JNL collects another twenty-six charming designs, all re-drawn from antique and vintage stencil sources. These images make for the perfect embellishment to typographic projects which utilize stencil type, or the designs can be applied as decorative thematic backgrounds (such as a flower show, nature walks and so forth). For reproduction as saleable commercial products such as stencils, decals, stickers, transfers, etc. please refer to the terms and conditions which are clearly stated in the font's End User License Agreement regarding specialized licensing.

When people usually think of wood type, images of bold and ornate designs reminiscent of the Old West or the Victorian Era come to mind. In truth, wood type was manufactured well into the late 20th century, and only fell out of favor when the letterpress was replaced by the offset press and computerized typesetting. Although there are hard-core collectors who have started a small resurgence in the preservation and use of wood type, it's the digital interpretations of these classic faces that see the most use in today's electronic layout work. Deco Wood Type JNL reinterprets one of these later designs, a bold sans with a decidedly Art Deco influence.