Ornata F is the sixth of a series of old ornaments that I am trying to save from oblivion. I am completely redesigning the ornaments from scratch. These ornaments have been designed around 1910, I could not find out by whom. This set is perfect to design flowery frames. Your digitizing typedesigning savior, Gert Wiescher

When I created my first website, I loved using vintage sewing pattern illustrations in my designs. Thinking back on it, I wanted to create a dingbat inspired by those images and Sewing Patterns is the result. The font features ladies-fashions in silhouette form for uppercase and lowercase letters and childrens- styles for the numbers.

Another one of those faces that caught my eye in one of my art deco type books, and I wanted it. After I finished the face, I noticed that there is a more clean-cut version of this face in digital format, but my version retains more of the funkiness of the original drawings.

Don’t ask me why I called this font Blabbermouth, as I really don’t know. I guess it reminded me of a person who talks too much, as Blabbermouth is kind of in your face, uneven and slightly crazy. Blabbermouth won’t keep your secrets, but I’m sure it’ll make your designs get the attention they deserve.

I have always liked handmade display fonts - maybe that’s why I have so many of them! Display Patrol is a rather fat, in your face font. It is completely handmade and comes in two distinct styles: regular and dots. Use it for your posters, books and product packaging. I am sure it will stand out!

Movie Script is the script that was used in German movie-brochures. Those were small four page leaflets with a lot of sepia-colored pictures about the movie one was about to see. Today those things are collectors items. The script was also used on those hand-painted posters above the cinema entrance. I cleaned up the old script and made it just a little bit more readable, but overall I left it as it was. Of course I added the necessary glyphs for today's world, like Euro and so on. When I was a kid, my grandfather gave me 1 German Mark and I could go to the movies matinee, that was around 10:30 in the morning, the entrance cost something like 60 Pfennig and the rest was for peanuts and a drink. Still today I love my grandfather for that, movies introduced the world to me (no TV then). Your grandfather-loving designer Gert Wiescher

My eldest son Sam always wanted to visit Japan and he has been saving up for a ticket for years now. We should have traveled there this year, but due to the pandemic, that was impossible. We’re now trying to go next year. Sam and I did make some kind of itinerary and I told him how we were going to get around, as I have been to Japan many times. I told him about the Shinkansen trains, the cute Tram in Nagasaki and the immense subway system in Tokyo. One of the lines in Tokyo is the so-called Yamanote Circle Line, which I have used on numerous occasions. A new font name was born and it stuck to this particular font! Subway Circle is a 100% handmade font. It is rounded, slightly slanted and comes with a sunny disposition. I am sure that, when you use it, you will find your 生きがい… ;-)

When I was painting this font, I suddenly had the movie Cool Runnings (1993, directed by Jon Turteltaub) in my head. I had to name the font, so I came up with Smooth Brushings. Of course, this font has nothing to do with the movie. Smooth Brushings is an all caps brush font, which was made with a stiff brush and some China Ink. Upper and lower case glyphs can be mixed. It is a very legible and clear font, ideally suited for posters, product packaging and book covers.

Rian Hughes’ 15th collection of fonts, “112 Hours”, is entirely dedicated to numbers. Culled from a myriad of sources – clock faces, tickets, watches house numbers – it is an eclectic and wide-ranging set. Each font contains only numerals and related punctuation – no letters. A new book has been designed by Hughes to show the collection, and includes sample settings, complete character sets, source material and an introduction. This is available print-to-order on Blurb in paperback and hardback: http://www.blurb.com/b/5539073-112-hours-hardback http://www.blurb.com/b/5539045-112-hours-paperback From the introduction: The idea for this, the fifteenth Device Fonts collection, began when I came across an online auction site dedicated to antique clocks. I was mesmerized by the inventive and bizarre numerals on their faces. Shorn of the need to extend the internal logic of a typeface through the entire alphabet, the designers of these treasures were free to explore interesting forms and shapes that would otherwise be denied them. Given this horological starting point, I decided to produce 12 fonts, each featuring just the numbers from 1 to 12 and, where appropriate, a small set of supporting characters — in most cases, the international currency symbols, a colon, full stop, hyphen, slash and the number sign. 10, 11 and 12 I opted to place in the capital A, B and C slots. Each font is shown in its entirety here. I soon passed 12, so the next logical finish line was 24. Like a typographic Jack Bauer, I soon passed that too -— the more I researched, the more I came across interesting and unique examples that insisted on digitization, or that inspired me to explore some new design direction. The sources broadened to include tickets, numbering machines, ecclesiastical brass plates and more. Though not derived from clock faces, I opted to keep the 1-12 conceit for consistency, which allowed me to design what are effectively numerical ligatures. I finally concluded one hundred fonts over my original estimate at 112. Even though it’s not strictly divisible by 12, the number has a certain symmetry, I reasoned, and was as good a place as any to round off the project. An overview reveals a broad range that nonetheless fall into several loose categories. There are fairly faithful revivals, only diverging from their source material to even out inconsistencies and regularize weighting or shape to make them more functional in a modern context; designs taken directly from the source material, preserving all the inky grit and character of the original; designs that are loosely based on a couple of numbers from the source material but diverge dramatically for reasons of improved aesthetics or mere whim; and entirely new designs with no historical precedent. As projects like this evolve (and, to be frank, get out of hand), they can take you in directions and to places you didn’t envisage when you first set out. Along the way, I corresponded with experts in railway livery, and now know about the history of cab side and smokebox plates; I travelled to the Musée de l’imprimerie in Nantes, France, to examine their numbering machines; I photographed house numbers in Paris, Florence, Venice, Amsterdam and here in the UK; I delved into my collection of tickets, passes and printed ephemera; I visited the Science Museum in London, the Royal Signals Museum in Dorset, and the Museum of London to source early adding machines, war-time telegraphs and post-war ration books. I photographed watches at Worthing Museum, weighing scales large enough to stand on in a Brick Lane pub, and digital station clocks at Baker Street tube station. I went to the London Under-ground archive at Acton Depot, where you can see all manner of vintage enamel signs and woodblock type; I photographed grocer’s stalls in East End street markets; I dug out old clocks I recalled from childhood at my parents’ place, examined old manual typewriters and cash tills, and crouched down with a torch to look at my electricity meter. I found out that Jane Fonda kicked a policeman, and unusually for someone with a lifelong aversion to sport, picked up some horse-racing jargon. I share some of that research here. In many cases I have not been slavish about staying close to the source material if I didn’t think it warranted it, so a close comparison will reveal differences. These changes could be made for aesthetic reasons, functional reasons (the originals didn’t need to be set in any combination, for example), or just reasons of personal taste. Where reference for the additional characters were not available — which was always the case with fonts derived from clock faces — I have endeavored to design them in a sympathetic style. I may even extend some of these to the full alphabet in the future. If I do, these number-only fonts could be considered as experimental design exercises: forays into form to probe interesting new graphic possibilities.

Elbow Grease was made with, yes, you’ve guessed it: Elbow Grease! It started off as a grungy font, but it didn’t look right, so I reworked all the glyphs. Then I forgot to save the font, so I had to start all over again. Naming a font was never this easy! Elbow Grease is a didone-ish font with some seriously warped glyphs, a lot of panache and a ‘get-it-done’ attitude. Also comes with a toolkit full of diacritics.

Yes, finally. This one took the most time and the most restarting. Years went into imagining what Lust Text should look like and how it should structurally behave in order to truly improve upon a setting that includes any of the Lust typefaces. I approached it as much from the side of the type designer, as I did a potential user. The flow, the warmth, the personality needed to be there, but all of the excess had to be removed responsibly. In the process, and in need of inspiration, I looked backward to historical artifacts and precedent. In each early Lust Text approach, the solution was lackluster and/or vanilla and not actually a ‘Lust’ typeface. The exercise was not in vain though. By exploring past examples, I found my footing drawing for media now and how it might be used later—all the while, producing seamless, elegant curves and restrained indulgence (that sounds almost silly to say, but I like it). The Lust Collection is the culmination of 5 years of exploration and development, and I am very excited to share it with everyone. When the original Lust was first conceived in 2010 and released a year and half later, I had planned for a Script and a Sans to accompany it. The Script was released about a year later, but I paused the Sans. The primary reason was the amount of feedback and requests I was receiving for alternate versions, expansions, and ‘hey, have you considered making?’ and so on. I listen to my customers and what they are needing… and besides, I was stalling with the Sans. Like Optima and other earlier high-contrast sans, they are difficult to deliver responsibly without suffering from ill-conceived excess or timidity. The new Lust Collection aggregates all of that past customer feedback and distills it into 6 separate families, each adhering to the original Lust precept of exercises in indulgence and each based in large part on the original 2010 exemplars produced for Lust. I just hate that it took so long to deliver, but better right, than rushed, I imagine.

Heller Sans JNL is based on the main letterforms of an experimental alphabet designed by Steven Heller; noted author of over 170 books on design and visual culture. Some modifications were made in turning his design into a digital font. In his own words, here is the background to this typeface: “I recently recovered this from the junk heap. It is a yellowing photostat of my first and only typeface design (1969-70). Total folly! At the time I was smitten by Art Moderne lettering. I called it “Klaus Boobala Bold” because I liked the K and B. I’ve lost the letters S through Z, which were made. The letters were drawn with compass, Techno pen (that frequently clogged). as well as a triangle and T-square. The inline and outline made no real logical sense. I based the design, in part, on Kabel, Avant Garde and it was a product of whatever I could accomplish with those tools. The caps-only alphabet was photographed and produced as a film negative that was cut in foot-long strips and spliced to fit on a Typositor reel. Sadly, the negatives made for the font were too brittle and the splice snapped apart in the Typositor. I worked on it for well over a month and used the face only once. I realized with this attempt, like so many other times I attempted different challenges, that type design — indeed mechanical drawing — was not my strong suit.” Heller Sans JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Monde Libre is a display typeface that exudes optimism, joy, and whimsy. I designed this typeface based on a sign in a clip from some old film footage I saw somewhere. It stayed with me as a typeface that evokes the France of my dreams. Enjoy!

Ambleside is a town in the English Lake District. I used to live and work there, so I decided to name a font after it. Ambleside font is a handmade connected script font. It’s a little rough, but loveable nonetheless. Comes with all the diacritics you need!

This font is useful for all sorts of things (Sites, Gaming, Signage, Electronics, Logos, etc.) I wanted to create a Type Face like this, so I did, making sure to check for errors…

Cheat Sheet is a handwritten typeface that looks like, well, handwriting. It is loose, legible and useful and comes with extensive language support. It goes without saying that I have never used a cheat sheet when I was in school… (ahum)…

Blowfish Inline is a new addition to my Blowfish Family. Based on my original Blowfish design I have created a more illustrative form. I think it adds to the feeling of "Classic" and extends it's functionality and novelty.- Robert W. Petrick

A Public Secret (or Open Secret) is something that is widely known, although it is not supposed to be. Public Secret is a hand drawn font (I used a fineliner) that I made in between building a shower, a toilet and a laundry room… Yes, it’s all in a day’s work! ;-)

In Dutch, a Mandarijn is a Tangerine. I found out that it is called a Mandarin in Australia as well! I really like Mandarins, so I thought I’d give them their well-deserved place in the spotlights by naming a font after them. The whispers part - well, that’s just because it sounded good. Mandarin Whispers is a very nice brush font, which was actually not made with a brush, but with a cheapie marker pen. It comes with all the bells & whistles, so have a ball!

Give a simple rounded fun groovy, fancy, to any text project. Also good for a logotype or brand name. This is a gift to my graphic designer friend Gita from Indonesia, I call her gitch gitch, so I made it the name on this font.

I designed this font a few years ago to address a direct problem. My work demanded small paragraphs of text to be screenprinted in a varsity font style. The house varsity was rather uneven and created small blobs of ink at sharp angles when printed. I designed Beau's Varsity to address both of these problems. The new font eliminated the blobbing, and I like to think my original design is a step up in evenness from the other options.

I am not one for prophecies of impending disaster and all that, don’t worry! I just liked the name and it seems to suit this handmade font quite well. Symbolic Prophecy was made with a broken bamboo satay skewer and Chinese ink. I quite like using broken satay skewers, as they give a fantastic ‘random’ effect. Use Symbolic Prophecy for your posters, your product packaging and, just maybe, a sign about the end of times… ;-)

After visiting Milan, I stumbled upon the Sforza castle, and found some interesting type on the inner courtyard castle walls. I became inspired by what I found, and decided to design a typeface based off of the limited quirky letterforms. Thus Sforza was born, with ligatures galore, alternates, pictograms, and swooshes. Sforza is a roman style typeface with a quirky flair. It has loads of ligatures, nested letterforms, and tails and swooshes for endless combinations.

I had a Neneh Cherry song in my head when I made this font. In ‘Buffalo Stance’ she sings about a gigolo with his hands in his pockets and his crocodile feet. I liked the sound of it, so Crocodile Feet font was born. Crocodile Feet is a children’s book font: bold and cute, with easy to read glyphs. Comes with double letter ligatures in both the regular and the dots style.

Knip, in Dutch, means ‘cut’. You can tell by the glyphs that I made this font by cutting out the shapes from black paper, gluing it onto white paper and photographing the result so I could digitalise it! I don’t make too many cut out fonts, as it is a lot of work and it often leads to nothing. Besides that, I depend on the paper supply from my kids and they happened to have black paper this time!

Hello! I’m SideNote Variable. I specialize in: Annotations Headings Friendly dialogue Social media marketing Looking both smart & casual I’m perfect for descriptions and explanatory text. Use me to deliver tricky information in a helpful, reassuring manner. I look friendly and relaxed but professional enough to make you look awesome. I add personality to otherwise dry information making it fun and easier to understand. I come with all sorts of useful features, like emoji, arrows, and underlines.

»Prima Script« was designed especially for use in Menus and Cook-books. One of my sons is a chef in Munich and he was always bugging me to make a new font for his menus. I already designed one for him »Konstantin« but he likes to have new stuff every couple of years what I understood. So here is the new »Prima Script« (that’s what he said when he first saw the font). To give it more usability I made alternate initials and end letters as well as medieval cyphers. Then I did a couple of swashes and a handdrawn Sans font to complete the set. Have fun!

I used to live in the English Lake District, where I worked in an outdoor gear store. I bought a bright red mountain bike and each day, after work, I cycled up the mountain and hurtled down - heavy metal blasting from my MP3 player. Of course, the bike was a regular MTB, so it got some serious damage after a while, but the adrenaline rush was great! Downhill Dive is a great brush font (made with actual brushes and ink on paper - no tablets involved here!). It is an ode to that wonderful time spent in England. Downhill Dive comes with some really nice ligatures.

First off, Slivowitz is written with a v (SlivoVitz), rather than a w, but I liked it better with a w. Slivowitz is a plum brandy from Eastern Europe. My father used to be an international truck driver and he often had to go to Eastern Europe. He took all kinds of ‘western’ goods with him to give away (plastic bags, beer, cigarettes - remember, Eastern Europe at the time was still communist!). He always came back with bottles of Slivowitz. I never tasted it, as I was too young, but I liked the name and I decided to name this font after a fond memory! Slivowitz is an easy-going handwritten script font - it looks good on fashion items, book covers and fancy magazines, but greeting cards will look just as great. Comes with a bunch of ligatures, alternates and a whole lotta diacritics!

»AlphaOne« is my newest addition to the experimental Alpha-font-collection. I just had to do this one! It is based on Paul Renners fonts, but has got nothing to do with them, I just took the widths and some basic forms. No – or hardly no – optical corrections were made to the glyphs. I wanted the pure geometric forms to come to life. This was a lot of fun to design, I especially like the »Q« with the negative tail. I did make four weights, but nothing is normal with this font, so weight doesn’t really mean anything. Have fun!

Nutcase is a perfect example of a font that principally designed itself. I created a hexagonal template (the most economical form in nature by the way) and took out the center to increase the decorative element. I played around with it, creating some pleasing characters at first but it soon became clear it would translate into a complete alphabet, so I set to work applying the idea to both upper and lower cases. It wasn't all straight forward though, avoiding awkward characters and retaining legibility took a little perseverance but it eventually paid off. I thought of this primarily as a decorative display face but having tested it out, found it reads surprisingly well as body copy too.

The concept for ‘Scroll’ came to me fully formed when setting out to design a bold display typeface. The premise for this was to base the letter-forms on a rolled strip of paper. A simple enough idea in principle but one I hadn't seen before. After working out the basic characters I set about completing the full effect I was after. This was achieved by applying a suitably incised line following the curve at each turning point to convey the important three-dimensional aspects of a scroll. Although the phonetic name personifying the font was there as a working title from the outset, I didn't commit to it fully until everything was completely resolved.

I have always been fascinated by the ‘Full English Breakfast’. A Full English usually consists of toast, baked beans, sausages, fried eggs, fried tomatoes, fried mushrooms and sometimes blackpudding (a kind of sausage made from pig’s blood). When I lived in England, my friends were always quite happy to stow away a big full breakfast, but I, on the other hand, could not really set myself to eating one. Full English is a hand made stencil font. If you own a pub and you serve breakfast, you could use it for your signs, but I guess this font looks good on anything that needs a bit of attention. For attention, it will get!

My first font for 2009 was Aerle. It is a new dark sans serif font in my continuing objective of designing book fonts that I can really use. It made a little ripple in the industry, but more than that I found that I loved it with Aramus and Artimas — my latest book font family with the same proportions. In many ways, Aerle is a very different direction for me built on what I have learned on Aramus and other recent developments in my style. The concept came to me while using Bitstream's Mister Earl on a site online—though there is no direct reference. I wanted a more playful heavy sans with a much smaller x-height than I have been using lately, plus taller ascenders. As I was using Aerle, I constantly needed a light and bold version. The new direction I am taking is a result of a decision that my fonts, though I loved the character shapes, produced an even type color that is too dark or a little dense. Aerle was an attempt to get away from that look even though the letterspacing is quite tight. For Aerle Thin I pushed a little further in that direction and increased the letterspacing. The hand-drawn shapes vary a lot, many pushing the boundaries of the normal character. This gives a little looseness and helps the lightness in feel I am looking for. It will be interesting to see where this all goes. Most new type around the world is far too perfect for my taste. While the shapes are exquisite, the feel is not human but digital mechanical. I find myself wanting to draw fonts that feel human — as if a person crafted them. In most ways this is a normal font for me in that it has caps, lowercase, small caps with the appropriate figures for each case. These small caps were very small (x-height as is proper). So Aerle's small caps are a little oversize because they plugged up too bad at x-height size. The bold is halfway between. These size variations seem important and work well in the text. This font has all the OpenType features in the set for 2009. There are several ligatures for your fun and enjoyment: bb gg sh sp st ch ck ff fi fl ffi ffl ffy fj ft tt ty Wh Th and more. Like all of my fonts, there are: caps, lowercase, & small caps; proportional lining figures, proportional oldstyle figures, & small cap figures; plus numerators, denominators, superiors, inferiors, and a complete set of ordinals 1st through infinity. Enjoy!

“Drawing letters is my passion,” says Erik Faulhaber, the designer of the Xenois typeface family. Pronounced “zeeno-is,” the design distills character shapes into what Faulhaber believes are their purest forms. “I studied many typefaces, carefully examining their structure, before I began drawing Xenois. Then I actually wrote out a detailed design brief establishing the goals for my design.”

That tie you wore in the 1990'ies...the one from the 1980'ies...perhaps even the one from the 1970'ies...could look obnoxious today - or maybe ... it's super fashionable these days! :) This Obnoxious Tie is a mix of upper- and lowercase ... well, that goes for the "lowercase" - the uppercase is uppercase, just as usual!