The model for Bensonhurst JNL was a 1930s-era hand-lettered WPA (Works Project Administration) poster for the play "Hell Bent For Heaven". Although the basic style is a classic Art Deco "thick and thin" format, the design (in certain characters) starts to take on the feel of a 1970s revival style. With this in mind, Bensonhurst JNL is a bit of a hybrid between the 1930s and the 1970s.

An elegant face with dashing swash caps, based on an old American Type Founders typeface called Canterbury. The Opentype version of this font supports Unicode 1250 (Central European) languages, as well as Unicode 1252 (Latin) languages.

Old Tijuana JNL was modeled from the hand lettered title on the cover of the 1939 sheet music for "Class Will Tell" and is available in both regular and oblique versions. Casual, playful and reminiscent of the "serape" style of pseudo-Mexican lettering found on ad designs of the 1930s and 1940s, the type face isn't just for South of the Border themes. Use it for any festive occasion and the design will blend in well.

Gia is 7 weights, true small caps and unicase options, designed after iconic letterforms of the 1960’s to 1980’s. In the early years of the American tech revolution, when Silicon Valley was more closely identified with Dallas, Texas, a curious type of letterform began to appear—strict in geometry, and curiously minimal in geometry and stroke, making it easier to be read by machine-readers, and people more used to reading machine-generated typography. Coders! As the years went on, this kind of sinewy, curved letterform began popping up in logotypes and music videos and upright video games: NASA, The Buggles, Atari, Pong, Sega, Namco, Stern, Devo, Apple. Gia pays homage to that letterform, and is named after Gia Carangi, the iconic face of early 1980’s pop fashion.

Inspired by the typefaces used for company insignia on aircraft in the 1930's and 1940's, Streamliner is light, friendly and open.

Tallahassee Chassis JNL was modeled from a toy alphabet rubber stamp set made in Japan and imported to the U.S. during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The lettering style somewhat resembled that found on the side of old railroad cars, buses or trolleys.

A classical 20-th century's (1900s to 1980s) typewriter font for both text and large display usage, titles, signage... A new thicker version of Selectric (2016), as if typed using not a thin carbon ribbon but a coarse fabric one. Both are available on a different models of Selectrics. Made after rare enough samples of the same style used during 1980s in the USSR. Based on the actual letter proportions of the original typewriter Selectric (2016) (Cyrillic ball). This time not monospaced as before, but proportional. The single known so far previous typewriter vector typeface with this 'ink blotting' effect (similarly expanded serifs) as in Dodo (2008) is ITC American Typewriter (1974; by Joel Kaden and Tony Stan) and all its hand drawn analogs from 1980s (and perhaps before). Which, in turn, is resembling ATF Bulletin Typewriter's (1925, 1933; by Morris Fuller Benton) overall proportions, geometry, and even had some natural ink expands in its paper sample (but not by design, as I see it).

Here's a charming little face from the 1896 American Type Founders specimen book. Its naïvete will add warmth to any project it graces. Both versions support the Latin 1252, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

Koehler Sans JNL was inspired by a set of cardboard sign kit letters made by the Koehler Sign Company of Missouri (presumably) in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Not much is known about them, other than the letters looked interesting enough to turn into a font.

Ruberoid is a squarish geometric sans-serif family reminiscent of Italian designs of 1950s and 1960s, but featuring considerably rounder shapes to give it a more contemporary feel. The typeface comes in 9 weights with companion oblique styles and contains support for Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts.

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.

Modeled from an example in the book “Lettering” by Harry B. Wright (1950), the poster alphabet shown was reminiscent of the kind of style used in the early 1900s by sign painters and show card artists. Vintage Poster JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

F.W. Woolworth was once one of the giants of the variety store chains, along with the likes of Kress, S.S. Kresge, McCrory’s, Neisner Brothers, Ben Franklin and others. In 1960, the company brought out a new corporate logo with a type design harking back to the Art Deco style of the 1930s and 1940s. A photo of one of their old store fronts (despite having only eight letters to work with) inspired the digital interpretation of the signage as Bargain Shopping JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Although the Art Deco movement is generally attributed to the 1930s and 1940s, a number of design influences were showing up during the late 1920s in what is referred to as the Art Nouveau period. The Dutch illustrator Anton Kurvers’ hand lettering on the front cover of the (1927) magazine “Het Vlaamsche Volstooneel” clearly shows the clean lines and Avant Garde geometrics that foreshadow Art Deco. This attractive pre-Deco lettering has been recreated digitally as Dutch Deco JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

My affection for Slab Serifs began in the early 1960s in Kansas City with Rob Roy Kelly and his fabulous collection of wood type. In the 1970s tried to re-create a Nebiolo Egiziano for Roger Black. Again for Roger, in the 1980s I designed a Slab Serif logo for Newsweek Magazine. Finally, in 2003, designed the Sutro Family. There were things I didn't like about it, so when I did Version 2 for Open Type, I changed it around a little, making it a much nicer Sutro.

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.

A new take on the perennial Art Deco favorite, Broadway, interpreted by 1930s lettering artist Harold Holland Day, and named after a 1960s R&B song.

Hobo font was designed in 1910 by Morris Fuller Benton for American Type Founders. This unusual Art Nouveau-inspired design contains no straight lines and no descenders. It imparts a friendliness to display work such as invitations, menus, signage, and packaging.

The extra bold sans serif stencil lettering on movie posters and lobby cards for “Reform School Girl” (a 1957 film by American International Pictures) was the basis of Reform School JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The American Typefounders 1893 specimen book included the pattern for this face, originally called Pontiac. Its subtle idiosyncrasies make it warm and inviting. Both versions of this font support the Latin 1252, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

A 1930s casual Art Deco type style with as much influence in 1970s graphic design as in its day was found within the pages of the 1930s French publication L'Art du Tracé Rationnel de la Lettre. Discotheque JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The idea for Gummed Letters JNL came from an online auction of some foil-embossed gummed letters from the 1940s and 1950s. One particular set was of a sans serif face that hadn't been produced in decades, and Jeff Levine felt it was worthy of a digital treatment.

Reverberation JNL and its slanted counterpart are a throwback to the 1970s and 1980s when fonts featuring horizontal white lines of varying widths implied movement or activity.

The Journal Sans typeface was developed in the Type Design Department of SPA of Printing Machinery in Moscow in 1940–1956 by the group of designers under Anatoly Schukin. It was based on Erbar Grotesk by Jacob Erbar and Metro Sans by William A. Dwiggins, the geometric sans-serifs of the 1920s with the pronounced industrial spirit. Journal Sans, Rublenaya (Sans-Serif), and Textbook typefaces were the main Soviet sans-serifs. So no wonder that it was digitized quite early, in the first half of 1990s. Until recently, Journal Sans consisted of three faces and retained all the problems of early digitization, such as inaccurate curves or side-bearings copied straight from metal-type version. The years of 2013 and 2014 made «irregular» geometric sans-serifs trendy, and that fact affected Journal Sans. In the old version curves were corrected and the character set was expanded by Olexa Volochay. In the new release, besides minor improvements, a substantial work has been carried out to make the old typeface work better in digital typography and contemporary design practice. Maria Selezeneva significantly worked over the design of some glyphs, expanded the character set, added some alternatives, completely changed the side-bearings and kerning. Also, the Journal Sans New has several new faces, such as true italic (the older font had slanted version for the italic), an Inline face based on the Bold, and the Display face with proportions close to the original Erbar Grotesk. The new version of Journal Sans, while keeping all peculiarities and the industrial spirit of 1920s-1950s, is indeed fully adapted to the modern digital reality. It can be useful either for bringing historical spirit into design or for modern and trendy typography, both in print and on screen. Designed by Maria Selezeneva with the participation of Alexandra Korolkova. Released by ParaType in 2014.

The productivity of the Berlingska Stilgjuteriet was made possible by the development of modern typeface art in Sweden in the 1950s. The typeface Berling was designed by Karl-Erik Forsberg for the Berlingska Stilgjuteriet in Lund. It belongs to the modern text typefaces and like most of these markedly shows the influece of the Neorenaissance. Berling Antiqua appeared in 1951 with a matching italic and by 1959, it was expanded to include five weights. Linotype offers Berling in four of them, roman and bold with their respective italics. In 2004 the Swedish publisher Verbum commissioned a complete redesign of Berling for the 21st century. Linotype assisted the designers of this new typeface, which came to be called Berling Nova.

Statistics Prove. Near and Far. That Folks Who Drive Like Crazy. Are! Burma-Shave. In the days before the Interstate Highway system, you were likely to encounter a series of signs like this, somewhere in the backwoods between the large and small towns connected by the U.S. Highway system. The fonts in this series are based on the typefaces used on U.S. Highway signs from the 1930s to the 1950s. Included in each font are a sign shield in the backslash position, and a Burma-Shave logo in the section mark position. The Truetype and Opentype versions contain the complete Latin language character set (Unicode 1252) plus Central European (Unicode 1250) languages as well.

The 1895 specimen book from American Type Founders included the pattern for this face, originally called Outing—Art Nouveau with a laid-back vibe. Both versions of this font support the Latin 1262, Central European 1250, Turkish 1254 and Baltic 1257 codepages.

Designed at American Type Founders in 1930-33 by Morris F. Benton. An all-capital sans serif featuring squared-off letters with rounded corners. For use in advertising and display typography. Cyrillic version was created at ParaType by Tagir Safayev in 1997.

Iris font was designed in the late 1930s for American Typefounders. It is an all capital sans serif typeface whose slender geometric letter forms suggest the Art Deco period without limiting its application potential. Iris font creates a look of refined elegance.

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.

The Phantom Isles: Retro Tiki Font A Textured Retro Font Inspired by Tropical Tiki Style and South Sea Adventures! The Phantom Isles is a hand-drawn font inspired by 1950s Tiki culture, tales of exotic locations and south sea adventures. It features the textured look of weathered wood and is the perfect choice for book covers, movie titles, theme parks or vintage themed events. The font includes a complete set of uppercase and lowercase characters, along with numbers, punctuation, symbols and language support. You’ll also find a set of specially illustrated underlines, shapes and icons including flora and fauna, old rope, skulls and more. A Brief History of Tiki Culture Originating from Māori mythology, a tiki is a wooden or stone carving that represents deified ancestors found in most Polynesian cultures. The mainstream and commercialised Tiki Culture that became popular across America from the 1930s to 50s was inspired by the sentimental appeal of an idealised South Pacific, particularly Hawaii, as viewed through the experiences of those who had visited such areas during World War II and cinematic depictions of beautiful scenery, forbidden love and the potential for danger. Over time it selectively incorporated more cultural elements of other regions that affected Polynesia, such as Southeast Asia. The Americanised form of Tiki Culture maintains a dedicated following today, particularly among those interested in 1950s graphic and interior design, history and the escapist lounge aesthetic it inspires. Learn more about the history of Tiki and Polynesian culture.

Record Jacket JNL gives an outline treatment to the popular typeface used on record album covers in the 1960s and 1970s, and is based on Jeff Levine's Album Cover JNL.

Kalimba (name of an African percussion musical instrument) is inspired from common simple shapes present in many visual elements of African and Afro-American cultures. With more than 500 glyphs, Kalimba can be used in European languages (central/east). The font includes some OpenType features as ligatures, fractions and ordinals among others. Recommended for logos, illustrations, games and more graphic design pieces that requires an African taste and essence.

Isbellium is a sans serif version of Dick Isbell’s Americana type, designed in 1967 and the last type cut in metal by the American Type Founders Co. (ATF). Isbellium retains the large x-height, open character, wide stance and elegance of Americana, but with a quieter voice and polite authority. Isbellium is a display face with broad Latin support along with small caps, fraction support and other typographic niceties are included in the ten font family.

Totebag JNL continues the stencil font series from Jeff Levine originally inspired by classic lettering stencils of the 1940s and 1950s. This particular design is common amongst "painting stencils", the individual letters used for marking and identification. Some characters are solid shapes while others have the more traditional "breaks" in the letters.