The Charles Bluemlein Script Collection is an intriguing reminder of the heady days of hand lettering and calligraphy in the United States. From the early 1930s through World War II, there were about 200 professional hand letterers working in New York City alone. This occupation saw its demise with the advent of photo lettering, and after digital typography, became virtually extinct. The odd way in which the Bluemlein scripts were assembled and created - by collecting different signatures and then building complete alphabets from them - is a fascinating calligraphic adventure. Because the set of constructed designs looked nothing like the original signatures, fictitious names were assigned to the new script typefaces. The typeface styles were then showcased in Higgins Ink catalogs. Alejandro Paul and Sudtipos bring the Bluemlein scripts back to life in a set of expanded digital versions, reflecting the demands of today’s designer. Extreme care has been taken to render the original scripts authentically, keeping the fictitious names originally assigned to them by Bluemlein.

The Charles Bluemlein Script Collection is an intriguing reminder of the heady days of hand lettering and calligraphy in the United States. From the early 1930s through World War II, there were about 200 professional hand letterers working in New York City alone. This occupation saw its demise with the advent of photo lettering, and after digital typography, became virtually extinct. The odd way in which the Bluemlein scripts were assembled and created - by collecting different signatures and then building complete alphabets from them - is a fascinating calligraphic adventure. Because the set of constructed designs looked nothing like the original signatures, fictitious names were assigned to the new script typefaces. The typeface styles were then showcased in Higgins Ink catalogs. Alejandro Paul and Sudtipos bring the Bluemlein scripts back to life in a set of expanded digital versions, reflecting the demands of today’s designer. Extreme care has been taken to render the original scripts authentically, keeping the fictitious names originally assigned to them by Bluemlein.

The Charles Bluemlein Script Collection is an intriguing reminder of the heady days of hand lettering and calligraphy in the United States. From the early 1930s through World War II, there were about 200 professional hand letterers working in New York City alone. This occupation saw its demise with the advent of photo lettering, and after digital typography, became virtually extinct. The odd way in which the Bluemlein scripts were assembled and created - by collecting different signatures and then building complete alphabets from them - is a fascinating calligraphic adventure. Because the set of constructed designs looked nothing like the original signatures, fictitious names were assigned to the new script typefaces. The typeface styles were then showcased in Higgins Ink catalogs. Alejandro Paul and Sudtipos bring the Bluemlein scripts back to life in a set of expanded digital versions, reflecting the demands of today’s designer. Extreme care has been taken to render the original scripts authentically, keeping the fictitious names originally assigned to them by Bluemlein.

The Charles Bluemlein Script Collection is an intriguing reminder of the heady days of hand lettering and calligraphy in the United States. From the early 1930s through World War II, there were about 200 professional hand letterers working in New York City alone. This occupation saw its demise with the advent of photo lettering, and after digital typography, became virtually extinct. The odd way in which the Bluemlein scripts were assembled and created - by collecting different signatures and then building complete alphabets from them - is a fascinating calligraphic adventure. Because the set of constructed designs looked nothing like the original signatures, fictitious names were assigned to the new script typefaces. The typeface styles were then showcased in Higgins Ink catalogs. Alejandro Paul and Sudtipos bring the Bluemlein scripts back to life in a set of expanded digital versions, reflecting the demands of today’s designer. Extreme care has been taken to render the original scripts authentically, keeping the fictitious names originally assigned to them by Bluemlein.

Clavo was picked for the EXHIBITION CALL FOR TYPE - NEW TYPEFACES and is presented in the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, Germany. Clavo is a multipurpose font family. Its warmth comes from subtle details, classical proportions and traditional forms, while harmonious structure prevents distraction while reading. This makes Clavo a universal typeface. In all sizes, from caption to display. The family consists of ten weights. They were not created in a linear way. The steps between the weights were adjusted carefully to avoid a mechanical graduation, in favor of optical harmony. Clavo covers all latin languages. It contains a wide set of numerals, small capitals, fractions and other OpenType goodies. And of course every weight comes with matching italics.

Before the original sketches, I had imagined and dreamed this font was used for side characters of retro robot animations such as Gundam and Ideon. But the sketches were put in a PENDING folder. It was a few years ago. In the begining of 2011, I restarted working with the sketches to complete as a font file. Detail and some shape were improved retaining the original concept and they were completed, then named ‘Space Colony’. Just as the name implies, this wide and geometric font family consisting of six weights was designed targeting at use for futuristic product of game, movie, logo and so on. Not only that but the rounded shape makes a lovely, cute and soft impressions so this font is also suited for cartoons, animations and character merchandise too. We released 4 big Sci-Fi families in 2013. Check it out! Clonoid Controller Geom Graphic Space Colony

Scottish typefounders exerted a strong influence on the development of "transitional" typefaces, the bridge from "oldstyle" (Jenson, Garamond) to "modern" (Bodoni, Didot) designs. Scotch Roman designs were first cut by Englishman Richard Austin and cast by the Scottish typefounder Alexander Wilson and Son in Glasgow. Scotch Roman font has wide proportions, short descenders, bracketed serifs, and large, strong capitals. Its subtle charm makes it suitable for any text setting, particularly books and magazines.

The typeface was designed for ParaType in 2002 by Dmitry Kirsanov. Based on the Mesolithic images on stones were discovered in a prehistoric cave of Mas d’Asil, France. There is a great number of hypotheses explaining the function of the mysterious stones. They have been considered as vessels of souls, computation tools, fortune-telling and magic symbols, relics of prehistoric writing system.

Based in part on the hand-lettered title for a piece of vintage sheet music, Hayride JNL gets both its inspiration and name from Michael Todd's 1948 production "Mexican Hayride". The original design was in outline form, and the letters with straight-lined shapes had slight curves to them. For Hayride JNL, those lines were straightened and the letters made solid in appearance.

Tabela is a family of typefaces inspired by the aesthetics of monospaced fonts. Its design, based on the monospaced font, preserves its characteristic elements. Perfect for headlines, titles and logotypes, it also has an alternative, more neutral stylistic variant for projects that do not require such distinctive lettering. Its wide array of diacritics allows it to be used in most European languages.

A while back I created a nice font called Harimau. It is a childish font, with a happy feel to it. Harimau had some unusual glyphs, most notably the 'g' and the 'j', which, for some designers, were a little too unusual. Therefore I have created a new font based on the old Harimau: it is similar, but comes with 'normal' glyphs.

Tabela is a family of typefaces inspired by the aesthetics of monospaced fonts. Its design, based on the monospaced font, preserves its characteristic elements. Perfect for headlines, titles and logotypes, it also has an alternative, more neutral stylistic variant for projects that do not require such distinctive lettering. Its wide array of diacritics allows it to be used in most European languages.

Alore is a modern serif font family in geometric design, based on the complimenting design of AB ONE. By focusing on the small details during the design, a font was made that comes with a very dynamic style, combining modern elements with classical serif elements. Use Alore for a wide range of your projects, from headlines all the way to messages and text.

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.

Thunderbird is an old American-style typeface. It is based on the kinds of big wood type that were popular in old Wild West advertising, which is evident through its ornate serifs, and the pointy flares that pop in and out of the centers of each stroke. Thunderbird is an all caps font and is best used in very large sizes.

BB Torsos™ (Pro) is based on the shape and proportion of the human body. For the interpolation of the typeface family, a special formula was developed, which reflects the different and individual character: flat to round, thin to fat and narrow to wide. ● 11 Stylistic Sets ● 13 Styles/Weights/widths ● 29 Opentype-Features/Style ● 87 Languages Support ● 8,450 Glyphs (650/Weight)

Grafiker means 'Graphic Designer' in German. This fat, colored, uneven font with a 1001 uses was loosely based on the work of designers Oskar Kokoschka (1886 - 1980) and Jean Carlu (1900 - 1997). The glyphs were hand-drawn with a 0.5 roller ball and colored in with Chinese ink, using a stiff brush. The result is a lively, rather unusual font.

Snell Roundhand Script was designed in 1965 by Matthew Carter. Conception and design were both based on the 18th century round hand scripts. The font has an elegant and festive feel and its capitals can also be used as initials mixed with other alphabets. Snell Roundhand Script is well-suited to middle length texts and headlines. Featured in: Best Fonts for Logos

This font clearly illustrates Jan Tschichold’s dictum that the New Typography would employ “the simplest form” and “the minimum means.” Based on his typeface Transito, the letterforms are as fresh and vibrant today as they were when introduced in 1931. All versions of this font include the Unicode 1250 Central European character set in addition to the standard Unicode 1252 Latin set.

Horse Puckey JNL is a lighthearted and fun, Western-styled font based on Halavah Twist JNL by Jeff Levine. This font lends itself to the less-serious side of Cowboy life... rodeos, barbecue cookouts, barn dances, etc. Use it liberally wherever the Western look is needed for informal headlines.

Blob, designed by Superfried, is available in two formats Round and Square. It is an experimental, sans-serif display typeface based on simple geometric shapes. Although unorthodox, care has been taken to ensure that it is completely legible. Blob has been featured on the Behance curated typographic gallery TypographyServed.com.

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.

Petunia is a calligraphy style font designed by New York based calligrapher Eliza Gwendalyn . Her modern copperplate script has been a style she has been developing throughout her career. Her angelic flourishes and bouncy style are widely influenced by Eliza’s favorite childhood character Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole. She pairs her elegant script with a traditional sans serif and serif which is based on Eliza’s everyday handwriting. The name ‘Petunia' acquired from her childhood nickname her parents called her which was only fitting to choose as the name of her font that was derived from her childhood fantasies. Widely known in the wedding industry, she curated this font family for industry professionals with a versatile array of styles: a script, a bold script, sans serif, sans serif italic, serif, serif italic, and specially calligraphy words & ornaments making this a total package for all types of designers.

The Typeface «Mixcoatl» by Elia Salvisberg was developed as a part of a course at the Lucerne School of Design and Art in 2016. Based on the book «The Empire of the Inca», a display-font has been created, which is inspired by the graphic language of the South American Empire of the Incas. At the beginning, only capital letters were designed but there was the desire for a complete typeface – which is why the missing signs were added. The font is based on a grid, so the characters are constructed equivalently and a uniform geometric font arose. The name was adopted from the god of hunting who plays an important role in the mythology of the Aztecs and appears in various forms. The uppercase letters can also be represented and combined in two alternative character-sets, so there are a lot of opportunities to combine uppercase words in different forms.

Inspired by the early days of video games where the graphics were made of squares (pixels), Wahyu Wibowo comes up with pixel based typeface design, Jogan, but instead of having medium width, he decided to make it narrow which is rarely exist in pixel style font. The style were expanding in the development process, so the family have 4 subfamilies: Jogan (regular, bold and monospace) Jogan Soft (regular, bold and monospace) Jogan Round (regular and monospace) Jogan Slab (regular and bold) Each Jogan font style contains 280+ glyphs which covers Western Europe languages: Afrikaans, Albanian, Asu, Basque, Bemba, Bena, Breton, Catalan, Chiga, Cornish, Danish, Dutch, English, Filipino, French, Friulian, Galician, German, Gusii, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Kabuverdianu, Kalenjin, Kinyarwanda, Luo, Luxembourgish, Luyia, Machame, Makhuwa-Meetto, Makonde, Malagasy, Manx, Morisyen, North Ndebele, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Nyankole, Oromo, Portuguese, Quechua, Romansh, Rombo, Rundi, Rwa, Samburu, Sango, Sangu, Scottish Gaelic, Sena, Shambala, Shona, Soga, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Swiss German, Taita, Teso, Uzbek (Latin), Volapük, Vunjo, Zulu. Retro, retro-futuristic, futuristic, modern, techno theme projects fit perfectly with this typeface, any works from logo, poster, video, headlines, titles, and more!

Wiramatra is a modern Wire-Metric style font. This neat display font with unique wire cable on each character. Dainty and joyful, this font will be ideal for Sci fi Novel Tittle book, or writing techno modern wedding style invitations, cards or any other design that may need a techno futuristic romantic, personalized touch!

The Engraver’s Square Gothic—like its rounder cousin, the engraver’s sans serif, Sweet® Sans,has been one of the more widely used stationer’s lettering styles since about 1900. Its minimal forms, made without curves, were popularized long ago by bankers and others seeking a serious, established feel to their stationery. One might argue that the design is a possible precursor to Morris Fuller Benton’s Bank Gothic® typeface. Sweet® Square is based on antique engraver’s lettering templates called “masterplates.” Professional stationers use a pantograph to manually transfer letters from these masterplates to a piece of copper or steel that is then etched to serve as a plate or die. This demanding technique is rare today given that most engravers now use a photographic process to make plates, where just about any font will do. But the lettering styles engravers popularized during the first half of the twentieth century remain both familiar and appealing. Referencing various masterplates, Mark van Bronkhorst has drawn Sweet Square in nine weights. The sources offered just uppercase, small caps, and figures, yet similar, condensed examples had a lowercase, making it possible to interpret a full character set for Sweet Square. Italics were also added to give the family greater versatility. The fonts are available as basic, “Standard” character sets, and as “Pro” character sets offering special characters, a variety of typographic features, and full support for Western and Central European languages. Sweet Square gives new life to an uncommon class of typeface: an early twentieth-century commercial invention that brings a singular verve to modern design. Its unique style is as useful as it is novel. Bank Gothic is a registered trademark of Grosse Pointe Group LLC.

Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813) was called the King of Printers; he was a prolific type designer, a masterful engraver of punches and the most widely admired printer of his time. His books and typefaces were created during the 45 years he was the director of the fine press and publishing house of the Duke of Parma in Italy. He produced the best of what are known as modern" style types, basing them on the finest writing of his time. Modern types represented the ultimate typographic development of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. They have characteristics quite different from the types that preceded them; such as extreme vertical stress, fine hairlines contrasted by bold main strokes, and very subtle, almost non-existent bracketing of sharply defined hairline serifs. Bodoni saw this style as beautiful and harmonious-the natural result of writing done with a well-cut pen, and the look was fashionable and admired. Other punchcutters, such as the Didot family (1689-1853) in France, and J. E. Walbaum (1768-1839) in Germany made their own versions of the modern faces. Even though some nineteenth century critics turned up their noses and called such types shattering and chilly, today the Bodoni moderns are seen in much the same light as they were in his own time. When used with care, the Bodoni types are both romantic and elegant, with a presence that adds tasteful sparkle to headlines and advertising. This version of Bodoni was done by Morris Fuller Benton for American Typefounders between 1907 and 1911. Although some of the finer details of the original Bodoni types are missing, this family has the high contrast and vertical stress typical of modern types. It works well for headlines, logos, advertising, and text."

The Engraver’s Square Gothic—like its rounder cousin, the engraver’s sans serif, Sweet® Sans,has been one of the more widely used stationer’s lettering styles since about 1900. Its minimal forms, made without curves, were popularized long ago by bankers and others seeking a serious, established feel to their stationery. One might argue that the design is a possible precursor to Morris Fuller Benton’s Bank Gothic® typeface. Sweet® Square is based on antique engraver’s lettering templates called “masterplates.” Professional stationers use a pantograph to manually transfer letters from these masterplates to a piece of copper or steel that is then etched to serve as a plate or die. This demanding technique is rare today given that most engravers now use a photographic process to make plates, where just about any font will do. But the lettering styles engravers popularized during the first half of the twentieth century remain both familiar and appealing. Referencing various masterplates, Mark van Bronkhorst has drawn Sweet Square in nine weights. The sources offered just uppercase, small caps, and figures, yet similar, condensed examples had a lowercase, making it possible to interpret a full character set for Sweet Square. Italics were also added to give the family greater versatility. The fonts are available as basic, “/fonts/sweet/square/” character sets, and as “Pro” character sets offering special characters, a variety of typographic features, and full support for Western and Central European languages. Sweet Square gives new life to an uncommon class of typeface: an early twentieth-century commercial invention that brings a singular verve to modern design. Its unique style is as useful as it is novel. Bank Gothic is a registered trademark of Grosse Pointe Group LLC.

Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813) was called the King of Printers; he was a prolific type designer, a masterful engraver of punches and the most widely admired printer of his time. His books and typefaces were created during the 45 years he was the director of the fine press and publishing house of the Duke of Parma in Italy. He produced the best of what are known as modern" style types, basing them on the finest writing of his time. Modern types represented the ultimate typographic development of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. They have characteristics quite different from the types that preceded them; such as extreme vertical stress, fine hairlines contrasted by bold main strokes, and very subtle, almost non-existent bracketing of sharply defined hairline serifs. Bodoni saw this style as beautiful and harmonious-the natural result of writing done with a well-cut pen, and the look was fashionable and admired. Other punchcutters, such as the Didot family (1689-1853) in France, and J. E. Walbaum (1768-1839) in Germany made their own versions of the modern faces. Even though some nineteenth century critics turned up their noses and called such types shattering and chilly, today the Bodoni moderns are seen in much the same light as they were in his own time. When used with care, the Bodoni types are both romantic and elegant, with a presence that adds tasteful sparkle to headlines and advertising. Parma was designed by the monotype Design Team after studying Bodoni's steel punches at the Museo Bodoniana in Parma, Italy. They also referred to specimens from the "Manuale Tipografico," a monumental collection of Bodoni's work published by his widow in 1818.

Zest is an informal brush script drawn with quick, thick brush strokes. While it is based on everyday handwriting, the expansive and easy flow of the script hides the care that has been given to the crafting of each character. In style it harks back to the hey-day of American lettering and calligraphy, yet it has a looseness that is thoroughly modern. Zest comes in three styles: -- Zest-Medium, which is medium-weighted and appropriate to a wide range of applications; -- Zest-Drama, in which the contrast between the the thicker and thinner parts of a brushstroke has been dramatically enhanced; and -- Zest Bezel, in which the brush strokes have been given a contemporary, square-cut appearance. Zest is ideal for invitations to stylish but relaxed events, for advertisements that are intended to create a special ambiance, for posters and for announcements.

Claude Garamond (ca. 1480-1561) cut types for the Parisian scholar-printer Robert Estienne in the first part of the sixteenth century, basing his romans on the types cut by Francesco Griffo for Venetian printer Aldus Manutius in 1495. Garamond refined his romans in later versions, adding his own concepts as he developed his skills as a punchcutter. After his death in 1561, the Garamond punches made their way to the printing office of Christoph Plantin in Antwerp, where they were used by Plantin for many decades, and still exist in the Plantin-Moretus museum. Other Garamond punches went to the Frankfurt foundry of Egenolff-Berner, who issued a specimen in 1592 that became an important source of information about the Garamond types for later scholars and designers. In 1621, sixty years after Garamond's death, the French printer Jean Jannon (1580-1635) issued a specimen of typefaces that had some characteristics similar to the Garamond designs, though his letters were more asymmetrical and irregular in slope and axis. Jannon's types disappeared from use for about two hundred years, but were re-discovered in the French national printing office in 1825, when they were wrongly attributed to Claude Garamond. Their true origin was not to be revealed until the 1927 research of Beatrice Warde. In the early 1900s, Jannon's types were used to print a history of printing in France, which brought new attention to French typography and the Garamond" types. This sparked the beginning of modern revivals; some based on the mistaken model from Jannon's types, and others on the original Garamond types. Italics for Garamond fonts have sometimes been based on those cut by Robert Granjon (1513-1589), who worked for Plantin and whose types are also on the Egenolff-Berner specimen. Linotype has several versions of the Garamond typefaces. Though they vary in design and model of origin, they are all considered to be distinctive representations of French Renaissance style; easily recognizable by their elegance and readability. Garamond Pemiere Pro was designed by Robert Slimbach, and released in 2005."

BILLIARD was born from the numerous sketches André Toet did for the design of a series of postage stamps in 2011. It’s a capital monospaced and ‘fun’ alphabet, based on the classic billiard play with two white and one red ball. Actually snooker and pool were derived from this rather old sport! In Europe it used to be a sport played by elderly people, practiced in traditional bars, including the smell of beer and the at that time prevalent smell of cigarettes and cigars. These days billiard, snooker and pool are quite popular once again with young people. Hopefully our new font will get the same attention the ‘old sport’ deserves and who knows it might even be used in a sportive way. Concept/Art Direction/Design: André Toet © 2017

The Sync font family is a layered system for chromatic typesetting. With its stylistic variety it enables a wide range of eye-catching combinations with colors and patterns. The very first sketches were inspired by some hand-painted characters on a weathered beach sign at the French Côte d’Argent and currently the font family comes with a total of 28 single fonts. The primary font »Sync Base« is a powerful, condensed Sans Serif. Sharp cut edges, narrow wedge-shaped counters and low ascenders and descenders make the compact character of the typeface. In perfect sync with the primary font, the family includes the retro styles Lines, Engravings, Stripes and Shadows and the texture styles Invisible and Jungle. Each one of them with multiple fonts. As all Sync fonts have the same metrics, they can easily be layered in different colors to create the desired effects by using graphic applications that allow utilizing layers. Sync fonts work especially well in larger sizes and were designed for large display purposes, covers, branding, packaging, headlines, editorials, advertising, posters and the like. Check the gallery for examples. By the way, the graphics in some of the visuals come from the Linotype »Picture Yourself™« collection designed by Karin Huschka and Peter Huschka. Sync & enjoy!

Business Penmanship is an ode to the business handwriting from the era penmanship was a highly-valued part of business education and practice.
  In the early 1800s, Platt Rogers Spencer (1800-1864) created what would become the most widely accepted and prized cursive writing method used in business. Before the American Civil War, Spencer was the undisputed king of handwriting. He was also an outspoken supporter of American business education. By the late 1800s business education included some focus on penmanship, and there were many colleges that specialized in it. One of the most influential penmanship schools was founded by Charles Paxton Zaner and his partner E. W. Bloser. Later on, in the early 1900s Austin Palmer introduced the Palmer Method of business penmanship, and it soon became the most popular handwriting system in the United States.
  Business Penmanship is a single feature-rich font that includes over 1100 characters, covering ligatures, alternates, a large set of beginning and ending extensions, as well as a wide range of Latin-based languages, including Turkish and the languages of Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic region. To take advantage of all the OpenType features included in the font, please use within programs that support such advanced typography.

The four weight semi-condensed Bartholemé family came into existence as a family expansion based on the designer's earlier concept, Bartholemé Open. This hybrid family was inspired by and loosely based on a number of contemporary mid-twentieth century type concepts having Old Face or Modern influence. Those inspirational type designs were primarily designed for various proprietary photolettering technologies of the time. The award-winning* Bartholemé Open and its companion design Bartholemé small capital open were inspired by various Shaded, Inline and Handtooled type models from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Most of those inspirational type designs were designed as titling fonts with all capital sets only. To set it apart from the earlier models, Bartholemé Open is semi-condensed intentionally designed with a lowercase. Design qualities include a large x- height, tightly curved ample counters, crisp serifs and tight bracketing. The overall plan of the family was originally intended for display usage in titling and short passages of text. At higher output resolutions all fonts read well at smaller point sizes. The Bartholemé family works well on its own, but also is compatible with type styles possessing qualities that complement or enhance its own. The Bartholemé family consists of a Regular weight complementing a Bold weight, along with Medium complementing an Extra Bold weight. The companion true-drawn italics are based on the Bartholemé roman design. * Award for Design Excellence bukva: raz! Type Design Competition of the Association Typographique Internationale, 2001

Gábor Kóthay in Hungary has developed an archaic identity largely based upon lettering from a rare Type Specimen of the Jesuit Academy Press of Tyrnavia (1773). They have developed many baroque style typefaces of Hungarian derivation. Gábor wanted an authentic handwriting revival from that age as well. La Danse is a 'facsimile' font, based on the manuscript of an inventory found in the original Tyrnavia specimen. The manuscript was written in an archaic Latin alphabet therefore some modern interpretations have been inserted.

Ekberg is based on a sample of poster lettering by Samuel Welo. It's got a spare but stylish and rather modern look. It's a bit of a change from our usual fare, but a gap we need to fill. Ekberg features more than one version of a lot of the characters.

A creative context 2003. Fontsmith was sharing a small, cold, whitewashed studio space in Northburgh Street, Clerkenwell. But things were on the up following prestigious custom type commissions for The Post Office and E4. “Slab serifs were on the brink of another revival, we could feel it,” says Jason Smith. “All we wanted to do was have a play with these slabs, go as far as we could within what was acceptable and readable.” “It wasn’t initially clear what was happening,” recalls Phil Garnham. “We were becoming very influenced by our surroundings, outside the studio space. We absorbed the essence and the designer grime of where we were.” Process Jason began by drawing stems on-screen. “The key aspect of the font is the upward bend of the leading shoulder serif, the way it kind of ramps up and then plummets back down the stem. “The regular and light characters are quite narrow – great for text but the bold is quite wide and chunky – better for headlines. I think ‘y’ is quite different for a slab design. We call it the Fontsmith ‘y’.” Promotion Fontsmith were determined to get FS Clerkenwell noticed. To launch the font, Ian Whalley, a designer friend of Fontsmith, captured words heard on the streets of Clerkenwell, set them in the new font and crafted a small book of typographic conversations. It was a first for Fontsmith. “I think that’s part of why this font has been so successful,” says Phil. “It really does embody the spirit of the area, as a special place for design, arts and crafts. And designers love that.” Contemporary twist FS Clerkenwell, based on influences in and around this part of London with a rich tradition of printing and design, mixes tradition with creation. Old-fashioned values meet new-school trends. Its quirky, contemporary character lends an edge to headlines, logotypes and any large-size text.