Borrowed vernacular from African hair studio signs. manually drawn with drop shadow. Used first as cover and label lettering of a cd with music from Zimbabwe, and completed later as a full character set for the typographic issue 'National Typographica' of I-Juici Magazine, in South Afrika.

I have named the font “Makonde” after an tribal group in southeast Tanzania and northern Mozambique that is well known for their intricate and semi-realistic wood carvings. The patterns that decorate the Makonde font remind me of the Makonde wood carvings. The Makonde font is a useful resource for anyone creating designs or producing text that has African look. Typified by a stark African angularity the characters reflect the ethos of Africa. Each Makonde font contains the full range of upper and lower case characters, all punctuation and special characters as well as the accented characters used in the major European languages. The Makonde tribal group is of historical interest because FRELIMO, the resistance movement which ended Portugese colonialism in East Africa, originated in the homeland of the Makonde. The character shapes in the Makonde font are very similar to those in a style of Umkhonto called Umkhonto Wide. Using Umkhonto together with Makonde gives the designer enormous flexibility.

In creating Vectora, Adrian Frutiger was influenced by American Gothic styles, especially those of Morris F. Benton’s Franklin Gothic and News Gothic. Vectora is light and balanced, giving text legibility and a harmonious appearance.

Mandelia was created by Alex Kaczun, an American type designer, in 2010. The typeface was named in honor of Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, for his “shining example of the incredible strength of the human spirit to persevere in the face of adversity for the pursuit of freedom”. Mandelia is a strong, bold and wide-bodied serif typeface design, reminiscent of the great African landscape with its diverse animal life. It’s easy to see the influence of the 'Rhino' sharp serifs and ‘Elephant’ size stems and proportions. The font commands attention and respect. Great for headlines that pack a punch, logos, posters, and signage. And because it was well designed, it can even be used in body copy at various point sizes. Mandelia is available in Opentype format for both Mac and PC, and comes complete with true drawn small caps, old style figures and Unicode Latin 1252 and Central European 1250 character sets. It has everything you need to get the job done.

Bongani has its origins in wood-carved African design and art. The letter forms are informal and asymmetric and the "decorative" elements are matched to each letter shape and have no mechanical rigidity. It is was designed for situations that require: -- the look and feel of Africa -- strong ornamental headlines It can be effectively used in advertising and in applications such as greeting cards and book covers. The font is fully professional: carefully letterspaced and kerned. It contains over 235 characters - (upper and lower case characters, punctuation, numerals, symbols and accented characters are present).

Mafuta is a round, happy font, named for the Zulu word for "fat". In tribal societies in Africa, where food was often scarce and almost never easily come by, it was considered desirable to appear "well fed". Roundness was a symbol of high status in the tribe, and a sign of wealth. The up-beat, bold outline of the font celebrates the confidence of people who feel comfortable being who they are. The font manages to be both contemporary and African. It is best used for posters and for headings.

HU Blueocean is a headline typeface created by imagining waves in a square glass tube. It iis designed to be used in various environments by adding decorative elements, the swaying form of waves, to the Gothic style of a full square module. There is 1 weight of HU Blueocean : Black Features : Uppercase & lowercase Numbers and punctuation Multilanguage (Basic Latin, Western European, Euro, Catalan, Baltic, Turkish, Central European, Romanian, Pan African Latin, Dutch, Afrikaans, Basic Greek, Basic Cyrillic, Mathematical Operators) 882 Glyphs

Agger is a contemporary serif typeface featuring large open counters, curved, round forms, creating a modern and elegant glyph set. The extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes gives Agger a harmonic and stylish look. Designed with an elegance to the letterforms, the font is adapt for the beauty and the cosmetic industry, giving each project a unique style and feel. Agger is perfectly suited for editorial design, branding, magazines, logos, headings, and more. The family Latin supports Western, Central, South Eastern, South American, Oceanian, Pan African, Vietnamese, and Sámi.

Mocombo JNL is a slightly modified version of one of the numerous alphabets created by the late Alf R. Becker for Signs of the Times Magazine during the period of the 1930s through the 1950s. Tod Swormstedt of ST Media—who is also the curator of the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio—supplied Jeff Levine a wealth of source material from which this font is derived. The angular style of this typeface was originally referred to as “German Poster Lettering” by Becker, but it can represent many styles from 1940s night clubs to African safaris and just about anything in-between.

Ariom is a fresh, geometric, sans-serif font family inspired by iconic typefaces. Ariom has a big x-height value, ​geometrical letterforms, sharp edges, and strong stroke contrast as the neo-grotesque fonts from the 20th Century. The typeface is versatile and can be successfully used in magazines, posters, branding, websites, headlines, large-format prints, brand identities, social media, advertising, editorial design, posters. The family contains over 40 alternative glyphs and over 50 ligatures in each style. The family comes in 3 weights with their corespondent italics. The family Latin supports Western, Central, South Eastern, South American, Oceanian, Pan African, Vietnamese, and Sámi.

KubaApplique is a bold and exciting African font that makes use of the interplay of black and white shapes -- reminiscent of the Kuba cloths that are made and used by the Bakuba tribe. Typified by a balance between dark and light areas, the characters reflect the ethos of Africa. Kuba applique contains the full range of upper and lower case characters, all punctuation and special characters as well as the accented characters used in the major European languages. Because the way in which the individual letters fit together is so important in Kuba Applique, I took especial care of the kerning and spacing of characters. The font is intended to be used as a display font.

Utshani means "grass" in the African language: Zulu. Grass has softness but it also has great strength and many African craft implements are made from it. When we describe someone as being "like the grass", it is meant as a compliment for it means that they can be tender and strong. The fluid African font, Utshani, was designed to suggest the flexibility and strength of grass. In this way it contrasts with the majority of other "African-inspired" fonts, which tend to be heavy and hard-edged. It can be used in a wide variety of situations, in adverts and on posters and invitations. The font includes all upper and lower case letters, all numerals and punctuation as well as all special and accented characters. The font has been professionally letterspaced and kerned, and the inter-line gap has been carefully checked.

The design of the Tabwa font was inspired by the font Neuland designed by Rudolf Koch in 1923. Rather than attempting to re-create his font in a digital form as so many others have done, I have tried to capture the "spirit" of his font and merge this with the spirit of Africa. As a result the characters differ markedly from Koch's original styles and have much less of an "Art Deco" look to them. To further modernize the font I have included all the characters missing in Koch's original (a full lower case, as well as all punctuation, diacritics, special characters etc). The result is a thoroughly modern re-interpretation of the original "Neuland". The numbers (0 to 9) bear no relation to Koch's originals but, I believe, are far more in keeping with the alphabetic characters in the font. The triangles that decorate the characters of this African font are typical of the patterns found in the Tabwa culture of central and west Africa (in the Congo region).

Up until the late 1920s, it was a popular habit in American songwriting to use African Americans as the topic of compositions using denigrating themes, words and even exaggerated character illustrations on the covers of the published sheet music. One such example of what was considered "entertainment" for its time was a piece entitled "Little Black Me". While this now socially and morally unacceptable piece of forgettable tripe is collected by some only for the historical documentation of the times they reflected, one good "positive" came out of this negative chapter of our country's musical heritage: The beautiful floral ornamented letters in the song's title has yielded Fancy Free JNL. Originally hand-lettered on an arc, these spurred Roman letters have been re-drawn, and are offered in both the regular design and a companion version with the ornamentation removed for lettering that is less ornate.

Tokoloshe is a name in African mythology for a mischievous leprechaun-like figure that loves practical jokes and tricking people. There are many books of such African stories, for example Tales of the Tokoloshe by Pieter Scholtz. The letter shapes that I used in the Tokoloshe font have inspiration from two sources: -- the spiky character of the font was derived from the wonderfully imaginative, wooden carvings of the Makonde people of beings called "shetani". The word "tokoloshe" is used by other tribes, but from his behaviour, he is certainly a type of shetani. -- some of the letter shapes were informed by Art Deco styles of fonts, for example: Kunjani, Black Tie SF, Selznick Normal, Zaire SF, Binner Gothic and ITC Anna. But the Tokoloshe font, like its namesake, is much more freespirited. Use this font whenever you want to suggest the rich artistic, cultural and spiritual heritage of Africa. The font is fully professional in terms of its character set. It contains over 235 characters - (upper and lower case characters, punctuation, numerals, symbols and accented characters are present). In fact, it has all the accented characters used in the major European languages.

Tshikona is casual and vigorous font with a taste of African spice. Although creating an impression of handwritten informality, Tshikona is a carefully crafted font, making it easy to use in any display setting, either for headings or as an informal body font. The line of the letters is reminiscent of the angular, dry branches of trees in the African veldt.

When Sputnik launched in 1957, the world was launched into the Space Age, baby! It was rockets and soda shops, souped-up jalopies and Fairlane convertibles with radios blaring. Rock and Roll. American Bandstand and the Race to Space. Astro aims to call back those exciting days with a look that might have graced the sign of your local drive-in or donut shop. The uppercase characters look like they could fly, suggesting spacecraft, UFOs. Use it for Retro future events or business branding. It also seems to work exceptionally well, strangely, with French, Icelandic, Japanese and African names and anything to do with fish.

Mtwane is a contemporary font, fusing the vigor of African design with the clean-lined sophistication of the European fonts popular at the turn of the 20th century. In the wake of African Renaissance, European and African cultures are counter-influenced, resulting in an exciting fusion of the two. Mtwane plays on the line between upper and lower case characters, creating a young, powerful, in-your-face effect. Use Mtwane for clear, powerful impact in contemporary design. Mtwane contains over 250 characters - (upper and lower case characters, punctuation, numerals, symbols and accented characters are present). It has all the accented characters used in the major European languages.

This African font is modern and fluid. Its name means "water" in the Zulu language, and like the deep rivers that flow through the African jungles, it contains few straight lines. Use it when you want to convey a feeling of strength combined with flexibility. Use it for headings, posters and adverts when you want to create an impact. This African font includes a full character set: - all the upper and lower case letters, as well as all numerals, punctuation and special characters. The numerals are mono-spaced so that they will line up correctly in columns of figures. The letters of the alphabet are spaced according to their width and are carefully kerned to create an attractive appearance.

Super heavy font inspired by the wide trunk of African trees known as baobabs, available in two versatile styles, with sharp, and rounded corners.

This is the definitive standard African font. It combines wonderful readability with tremendous panache. The fact that it has a full character set (UPPER and lower case), all punctuation and all special characters, means that it can be used in just about any African design context. If you had only one African font in your arsenal, it would have to be Aarde Black. The name "Aarde" means "earth" and refers to the gutsy, earthy character of the letterforms. It includes a full character set: characters for English, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese. The numerals are mono-spaced, and are very readable so that they will line up correctly in columns of figures. The letters of the alphabet are correctly kerned so that they appear correctly in text.

Ravensara Serif - elegant high contrast classic serif. Style of the typeface originates in a classic Didone but took a step to simplify some letter forms and make Didone feel more contemporary. Ravensara Serif is a part of the Ravensara superfamily, united by the same anatomy, which currently also includes Ravensara Sans and Ravensara Stencil. Ravensara Serif, despite its ancient roots and due to simplified and smoothed forms, can be used in a variety of different styles. It’s a perfect choice for bold headlines, oversize typography, fashion logos, branding, identity, website design, album art, covers, posters, advertising, etc. It is available in 7 weights, including Thin, Light, Regular, Medium, SemiBold, Bold and Black. Ravensara Serif extends multilingual support to Basic Latin, Western European, Euro, Catalan, Baltic, Turkish, Central European, Pan African Latin and Afrikaans.

Galeana is a flat-sided sans serif typeface that features a closed aperture. The font is a reinterpretation of Latin American-flavored typefaces used for European editorial designs such as Plastique and Zembla magazines. This superfamily consists of 4 sub-families: Compressed, Condensed, Standard and Extended. The heaviest and narrowest variants—created at the early stage of the design process—resemble the slender trunks of the Galenas (African tulip trees). The other variants have an extended width, which evokes the broad crown shape of these trees. Galeana comes in 48 styles and contains 417 glyphs that support over 200 Latin-based languages. The font performs well for mid-length text and it's the perfect choice for headlines, editorial design, brand identity design, advertising, social media and use on Tv.

Based on retro vinyl records in the middle of 20th century. There are three other fonts designed by in the same concept. -Word From Radio -African Elephant Trunk -Moon Star Soul -Rebel Train Goes

Gently rounded in shape, Kassena is reminiscent of the round thatched huts of the Zulu people. The triangular motif is inspired by the designs used in the decorative crafts of the Nguni African tribes.

Bfrika is an 'Africa inspired' typeface and a contribution for the typographic issue 'National Typographica' of I-Juici Magazine, in South Africa. This geometrical decorative design represents bold simplicity, directness and rythm. The name evolved from text for the spread in the magazine. The B replaces the A. Africa be free. Bfrika. The concept behind Bfrika is to generate an unpredictable visual rhythm in an attractive decorative presentation. Filling up the white space around the letters accentuates form over function, thus creating an interference of visual impressions with its legibility. This visual rhythm is amplified by its redundancy in a text, only pausing at a break or a word space. Based on the concept of separate printing forms in letterpress, Bfrika Two Tone and Bfribat Two Tone separate the letter from the outside form in two fonts. Placing two text frames exactly on top of each other and assigning each part of these font to a frame in a different color, offers a quick way to add color. Originally Bfrika was designed for I-Jusi magazine #17, National Typografika, South Afrika 2001. Bfribat and both two tone fonts were created for Building Letters, a fund raiser for orphanages in Kenya and Uganda (www.buildingletters.org) and are also available for Mac and PC at www.hollandfonts.com and will be distributed in 2004 through associated foundries.

Adverb Mono is an atypical monospaced, squared proportional, slab-serif and low contrast typeface inspired by the American Type Founders' "OCR-A" and the latest work of Adrian Frutiger "OCR-B" designed during the second half of the 20th century. The typeface (in his 1.00 version) counts five different weight, from Thin to Bold, and a pixelated redesign of the regular weight inspired by the retrogaming consoles' graphics. It counts more than 240 different glyphs continuously updated. Designed by Gabriele Bellanca for IED Florence Typography Masterclass 2020/21. All rights reserved.

Tomahawk - american authentic layered typeface. A typeface inspired by American ethnic motives, with a touch of gothic spirit.

Monk is a multi-language geometric harmoniously balanced font in Arabic and Latin. The font family has its origins in Benedictine and Franciscan writing. Both Arabic and Latin work seamlessly together having shared counters, stem thickness, and curved forms. Monk is a type family that seeks a balance between the openness and legibility of humanist sans serifs. Letterforms have a distinct direction of the ductus, a wide overall stance, large open counters that help in its legibility. The typeface is versatile and can be successfully used in magazines, posters, branding, websites, headlines, large-format prints, brand identities, social media, advertising, editorial design, posters. The family contains over 40 alternative glyphs and over 50 ligatures in each style and comes in 10 styles with their corespondent italics. The family Latin supports Western, Central, South Eastern, South American, Oceanian, Pan African, Vietnamese, Sámi & Arabic

Kigara was Elena’s first attempt at designing a text typeface. The result is not exactly a conventional book face. Strongly influenced by handwriting, Kigara is best suited for short texts set at medium to large sizes. However, its open letter shapes and subtle serifs make it a very readable face in smaller sizes as well. Kigara will also make headlines as a modest, light-hearted display typeface. Kigara is named after an African mushroom - hence the mushroom vignettes and African ornaments in the OpenType version and the ‘B’ set. Both the sets also include small caps, alternate figures, special ligatures and other expert glyphs.

Based on retro vinyl records in the middle of 20th century. the mixture of funky, hippie and mid-century’s futuristics. There are three other fonts designed by in the same concept. -African Elephant Trunk -Moon Star Soul -Rebel Train Goes -Word From Radio

Silian Rail is a high quality serif typeface. A professional uppercase font, this intellectual font has a distinct personality while being strict and controlled. Drawn and created by Mans Greback in 2022, the Silian Rail family consists in 16 high-quality styles, complimenting each other. Among them, Light, Regular, Bold, Black, Italic, Sharp and several combinations. The font is built with advanced OpenType functionality and has a guaranteed top-notch quality, containing stylistic and contextual alternates, ligatures and more features; all to give you full control and customizability. It has extensive lingual support, covering all Latin-based languages, from Northern Europe to South Africa, from American to South-East Asian. It contains all characters and symbols you'll ever need, including all punctuation and numbers.

Juxta is a unique experimental and futuristic script. It was born from the idea to combine two antipodes: programming fonts aesthetics and handwritten script. Juxta has witty and jagged character combined with a perfect grid structure and certain decorative elements, such as cross out letters, that gives it the spirit of Nordic minimalistic design. Juxta script is a part of Juxta superfamily, united by the same aesthetics, which currently also includes Juxta sans. Juxta script is available in 7 weights, including Thin, Light, Regular, Medium, SemiBold, Bold, and Black. It is a potential leitmotif of graphic design projects that need a creative breakthrough, including logos, labels, branding, identity, website design, album art, posters, advertising. Juxta offers standard ligatures, contextual and stylistic alternates. It extends multilingual support to Basic Latin, Western European, Euro, Catalan, Baltic, Turkish, Central European, Pan African Latin, Afrikaans, and Basic Cyrillic for exceptionally far-reaching global accessibility.

Based on retro vinyl records in the early and middle of 20th century. the mixture of funky, hippie and mid-century’s futuristics. There are three other fonts designed by in the same concept. -Rebel Train Goes -Word From Radio -African Elephant Trunk -Moon Star Soul

Umoya is a modern and fluid African font. Its name means 'spirit' in the Zulu language and it is also the word used for 'air'. It is best used for an ethereal, magical look with tribal undertones. The font is fully professional: carefully letterspaced and kerned.

ITC Greengate is the result of a time-traveling, intercontinental collaboration--one between 21st century South African designer Richard Every, and early 20th century Scottish artist Jessie Marion King. Jessie Marion King (1875-1949) began her professional career as a book designer and illustrator, but over time her creativity found its outlet in many forms, including posters, jewelry, ceramics, wallpaper, fabrics, murals, interior design and costumes. After eventually settling in Kirkcudbright, Scotland, she founded Green Gate Close, a center for women artists. Although her style is reminiscent of the Art Nouveau artist, Aubrey Beardsley, King's aesthetic was an offshoot of the “Glasgow Style,” a Scottish hybrid of the Arts and Crafts movement and Art Nouveau. Often, her illustrations included hand lettering. It was just this kind of lettering that gave Richard Every his inspiration for ITC Greengate. When he saw some children's book illustrations that King created in 1898, he knew on the spot he had to complete the hand lettering as a typographic font. He began working on the typeface in 1996, but it took six years to be released as an ITC typeface. Every simplified and harmonized King's letterforms slightly and, most importantly, added a suite of lowercase characters. The result is a somewhat earthy Art Nouveau design, with a character quite distinct from typical digital revivals. Every's career has been as diverse as King's. He was born in Durban, South Africa and studied graphic design at ML Sultan Technikon in Durban. He's been an art director, freelance designer, the owner and manager of a nightclub and co-manager of a South African band. “Through it all,” he says, “typography has always been one of my passions.”