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.

In an online edition of Modern Screen Magazine for March of 1936, many of the article headlines were set in a bold, slab serif inline font which (although possessing some Art Deco traits) could double as a sports font. This is now available as Team Deco JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

Stencil Deco JNL was an experimental modification of Jeff Levine's Cardboard Cutouts JNL font, originally designed from an authentic stencil source circa the 1950s. This version is a fusion of the Art-Deco style and a modern, trendy approach to the stroke weights.

Every face tells a story but this font is 77 stories high (1,046 feet with antenna included)! A lofty companion to Empire State Gothic , Empire State Deco is a tall, stately font containing four different styles, sometimes contradictory, united by the desire to be modern. Those familiar with the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes will notice a post-postmodernism combined with the fine craftsmanship and rich materials for which those awfully nice chaps at Comicraft are known. During its Art Deco heyday, Comicraft represented luxury, glamour, exuberance, and faith in social and technological progress -- this new font recaptures those halcyon days in letter form.

a fifities style font

The model for Deco Moderne JNL was the hand lettered title on the sheet music cover of "Did You Ever See A Dream Walking" (from the 1933 Paramount musical "Sitting Pretty" starring Jack Oakie, Jack Haley and Ginger Rogers). The typeface is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The movie poster for the 1936 film “Dodsworth” had its title hand lettered in a thin Art Deco sans serif with a mix of both stylized and squared characters. Expanding on this unusual lettering combination, the final results became Drama Deco JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Deco Neue Wilde is a filter font based on Deco, an original Open Window classic. It sort of speaks for itself but it reminds me of a lava lamp and the countless shapes that you could waste time watching appear.

a naive typeface from Art Deco ages

A hand lettered Art Deco ‘stencil’ design used in various ads for “Holiday” and other Pathé films was found in the July 22, 1930 issue of “The Film Daily”. Similar in style to Futura Black and other like designs, it is now available as Deco Holiday JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

A quirky and unusual Art Deco monoline typeface can be found within the pages of the Esterbrook Drawlet Pen instruction book [circa the 1940s]. Drawlet was the direct competitor to Speedball Lettering pen nibs. This unusual type design of varying width and character shapes is now available digitally as Oddly Deco JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

Family Deco JNL was inspired by the bold Art Deco hand lettering of the movie credits for the 1936 Laurel and Hardy comedy “Our Relations”, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The hand lettered word ‘puzzles’ from the box cover of a 1940s set of metal “connected” puzzle pieces manufactured by the A.C. Gilbert Company was the initial typographic model, but some additions and changes were made. Instead of the right side of the ‘P’ being a semi-circle, it was changed to a more conservative ‘’squared’ look. After drawing out all of the necessary glyphs, the overall height of the characters was extended to make the letters and numbers appear taller and narrower. The end result is Narrow Deco JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

This decorative, scalloped thick-and-thin Art Deco type design is one of the many inspirations found within the pages of the 1934 French lettering book “L'Art du Tracé Rationnel de la Lettre”. Now in digital format, Fancy Deco JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

ArtDeco Neue was design to give a strong characteristic to the titles of the Portuguese Art Magazine. From classic sans fonts (usual used by artists and galleries) this font developed with the double geometric lines of Art Deco architecture creating a contemporary design. The final result of each word depends of the choices the designer makes for each glyph.

Solid Deco JNL was modeled after a small sign with the word "restaurant" in an unusual Art Deco solid lettering style. It was spotted within the same image of the Lenox Lounge in New York which gave forth the neon letters that became Sign Sans JNL.

A whimsical array of deco pointers (up/down/left/right) - great for adding directions or pointers to documents, maps, posters, greetings, or simply used as decorative elements. See also 4Point Florals and 4Point GreekFret.

Sheet music for the tune "Put Your Arms Around Me Honey" (from the 1937 film "Coney Island" starring Betty Grable, George Montgomery and Cesar Romero) has the song title hand lettered in a condensed Art Deco sans serif design. This became the basis for Deco Nights JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. For trivia buffs, the song was written by Junie McCree and Albert Von Tilzer and was first featured in the Broadway show "Madame Sherry" in 1910 and was revived for a second time in the 1949 Judy Garland -Van Johnson film "In the Good Old Summertime".

A June 18, 1929 issue of the Hollywood trade paper “The Film Daily” ran an ad for a film called “The Power House”. The film’s title was hand lettered in an extra bold sans serif design with strong Art Deco influences. This is now available digitally as Deco Power JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

a naive art deco font

The dreams that you dare to dream really can come true when you perk up your headlines with this re-imagining of Saul Bass's 1982 glitzy Deco classic, Rainbow Bass. For best results at large sizes, choose the TrueType version, rendered at a full 2,048 UPM. Both versions include the complete Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turkish 1254 character sets, as well as localization for Moldovan and Romanian.

Habana Deco ML was inspired by a hand-lettered sign on the stucco exterior of a small pharmacy in modern-day city of Havana, Cuba. It, in turn, was based on the fat-faced Art Deco lettering of the late 20s and early 30s, especially the Futurismo posters out of Italy, as well as alphabets designed in The Netherlands, France, USA and even the Soviet Union. There are 24 stylistic alternate glyphs (SALT), many inspired by a variety of these sources, including a couple from the sign in the front of the Congress Hotel in South Beach, Miami. The others features of the Habana Deco include 363 glyphs, 184 kerning pairs (KERN), 14 ornaments and shapes (ORNM) and 15 discretionary ligatures (DLIG). This is a font with which you can have fun. The zip package includes two versions of the font at no extra charge. There is an OTF version which is in Open PS (Post Script Type 1) format and a TTF version which is in Open TT (True Type)format. Use whichever works best for your applications.

Hand lettering found across the sheet music cover of 1931's "Bend Down, Sister" [from the Eddie Cantor film "Palmy Days"] covered a couple of varying Art Deco styles; both made with a round-tipped pen nib. Deco Pen JNL combines the best of both styles into one design that's available in both regular and oblique versions.

An interesting hand lettered example of Art Deco lettering (minus the letter ‘L’) was spotted on Pinterest and served as the inspiration for Deco Sketch JNL. Because there was no attribution as to the age or source of the alphabet, it can only be surmised that it was a scan from a 1930s or 1940s source. The original showed many of the irregularities of pen lettering, and had rounded terminals. The digital version has been redrawn more uniformly with flat terminals. Deco Sketch JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Online auctions continue to be a surprising wealth of font design inspiration. In this instance, a number of silk embroidered Art Deco initials inside inverted triangles inspired Deco Pennant Initials JNL. The uppercase version is white lettering on a black background – similar to the originals. On the lowercase keys is a set of initials that are black on white with a black border. Since the inverted triangles resemble pennants, there’s a solid black blank on the left parenthesis key and a outlined blank one on the right parenthesis key. In this way, the initials could be used for monograms or interspersed with the blanks to form short banner messages.

Take a classic hand lettered Art Deco alphabet, add in a treatment of dual straight vertical lines and the resulting typeface is Double Line Deco JNL.

DGS Art Deco Greek is a unique typeface breaking all boundaries available in Latin and Greek scripts. It can be used in a wide range of projects including invitations, theatre and cinematic productions, branding, logos , adverts and much more.

MFC Deco Diamond Monogram finds its historical influence in a vintage monogram transfer sheet of unknown origin. We've digitally recreated it, adding missing characters to fill out the character set, and programming in functionality to make customization a snap. MFC Deco Diamond Monogram is capable of creating two or three letter monograms, either free-floating or surrounded by a selection of different frames. If you are looking for a diamond format monogram with deco influence, then you've found yourself your mark maker in MFC Deco Diamond Monogram.

A makeup ad in the December, 1937 issue of Modern Screen magazine inspired Single Line Deco JNL, an Art Deco monoline which is available in both regular and oblique versions. The font is based on the hand lettered headline touting “Modern Eyes”.

Occasionally font projects are started, but then set aside for other designs and are subsequently forgotten for a while. Such is the case of More Deco Lettering JNL; a bold thick-and-thin sans modeled from vintage source material.

A 1963 image of the New View Theater in Los Angeles with its marquee’s Art Deco neon lettering was the inspiration for Silver Screen Deco JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The cover of the 1943 sheet music for the song "Jeannie" offered up a hand lettered monoline Deco sans with varying width letterforms. From this design comes the aptly-named Thin Line Deco JNL.

A ìthick and thinî Art Deco sans lettering design was found within the pages of the May, 1936 issue of Modern Screen magazine. This condensed typeface has rounded terminals, similar to that made by a round nib lettering pen. This is now available as Deco Film Ad JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

The unusual, thin line hand lettering on the cover of the sheet music for 1936's "If You Love Me" was the basis for Light Line Deco JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

On occasion, when seeking retro source material for font designs, one can unearth interesting examples of typography that bridges decades with its ahead-of-its-time style. The songwriter credits on one particular piece of vintage sheet music had both the Art Deco influence but took on more of a techno look that was popularized in the 1980s. This hybrid of generations is the basis for Deco of Tomorrow JNL.

The prolific hand lettering of Samuel Welo is showcased in his “Studio Handbook for Artists and Advertisers” (published in both 1927 and 1960). A thick and thin Art Deco design in the 1960 edition – somewhat reminiscent of Futura Black (but with significant differences) is now available as Sign Work Deco JNL in both regular and oblique versions.