A straightforward sanserif in 20 fonts, 4 widths Ardoise met the needs of publications. By extension, it met the needs of a newpapers typeface featuring a low contrast, straightforward forms, as Franklin Gothic. The verticals metrics and proportions of Ardoise are calibrated to match perfectly others Typofonderie families. Four widths to answer all situations Ardoise, inspired by the needs of today’s fine newspapers offers simple and tense shapes designed to renew and revitalize. Ardoise could be considered as an homage to Antique Olive, but quite indirectly and as an organic result of the designer’s longstanding admiration of the work of Roger Excoffon. Ardoise shares a purity and dynamics with Excoffon’s designs giving it a unique elegance and excellent readability. Its sturdiness means it is virtually immune it to distortion. In addition, a few alternates glyphs (a, c, g) can be used to alter the overall tone of a text setting.

The Federal Music Project was part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's WPA (Works Progress Administration), putting many people back to work in the Depression years of the 1930s. A hand-lettered poster advertising an "American Music Festival" featuring the Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra offered up the extra bold Art Deco inspiration which became Music Festival JNL

After researching the type styles contemporary graphic designers have been using over the past few years, I noticed a consistent use of Copperplate Gothic, and its derivative designs, for various corporate advertising campaigns. That level of usage gave me the inspiration to design a display font possessing subtle characteristics of Copperplate Gothic, and various Latin Condensed designs. The font I ended up designing was semi-condensed, with more contrast between thicks and thins than in Copperplate. Baltra also has a subtle flair in its otherwise traditional lowercase, while possessing a larger than average lowercase x-height. Copperplate Gothic, on the other hand, has minimal contrast and uses small capitals for its lowercase. After examining extensive type specimens from wood type, metal type, phototype and digital type, I was not able to find a single design possessing a majority of Baltra's characteristics. Consequently, I consider Baltra to be a truly unique design, sharing with Copperplate Gothic only its flairs on stems, and having only subtle characteristics in common with traditional Latin designs.

FranklinGothicHandCond is another part of a series of hand-drawn fonts from way back in time – before computers changed the way we worked in advertising. When I was in advertising – before computers – a very time consuming part of my daily work was sketching headlines. I used to be able to sketch headlines in Franklin Gothic, Times, Futura, Helvetica and several scripts. We had a kind of huge inverted camera – which we called Lucy. We projected the alphabet onto a sheet of transparent paper, outlined the letters with a fineliner and then filled them in. It was very tedious work, but the resulting headline had its own charm and we had a permanent race going on who was best and fastest. I won most of the time! They used to call me the fastest "Magic Marker" this side of the Atlantic. Great days, just like today! Your sentimental type designer from the past, Gert Wiescher.

FranklinGothicHandBold is another part of a series of hand-drawn fonts from way back in time – before computers changed the way we worked in advertising. When I was in advertising – before computers – a very time consuming part of my daily work was sketching headlines. I used to be able to sketch headlines in Franklin Gothic, Times, Futura, Helvetica and several scripts. We had a kind of huge inverted camera – which we called Lucy. We projected the alphabet onto a sheet of transparent paper, outlined the letters with a fineliner and then filled them in. It was very tedious work, but the resulting headline had its own charm and we had a permanent race going on who was best and fastest. I won most of the time! They used to call me the fastest "Magic Marker" this side of the Atlantic. Great days, just like today! Your sentimental type designer from the past Gert Wiescher

Amherst is a family of blackletter-inspired typefaces. This family, created by British designer Richard Yeend in 2002, is unique in that it mains the feel of blackletter/medieval type without relying directly on historical forms. Amherst is split into two different sub-families, Amherst and Amherst Gothic. Amherst is very geometric interpretation of Fraktur. Fraktur was a style of German type very popular in central Europe from 1517 until the early 20th Century. Its letters appear "broken" at certain angles and joints. Still, we recommend using it primarily for display purposes. Amherst is available in three weights: Regular, Bold, and Heavy. Amherst Gothic is very loosely inspired by late medieval letterforms, often called Texturas or Gothics. However, the letterforms of Amherst Gothic seem just as inspired by the Art Deco movements of the 1920s and by contemporary sans serif type design as anything else. Nevertheless, certain letters in this typeface do appear more "gothic" than others, especially A, D, M, Y, d, r, and x. Amherst Gothic is made up of three fonts, Amherst Gothic Split, Amherst Gothic Split Alternate, and Amherst Gothic Italic. Amherst Gothic Split has in-lined characters, and appears very ornamented. The alternate characters in Amherst Gothic Split Alternate are quite medieval in their appearance. Amherst Gothic Italic is the least medieval-looking of the set; its characters are very round, and more geometric. All six styles of the Amherst Family are OpenType format fonts, and include old style figures.

HK Nova is a geometric sans inspired by the Century Gothic and Futura. It formalizes Century Gothic and softens Futura.

TWO LAYERED FONT: Be sure to get both the FRONT and the BACK! Maintaining simultaneous shades of whimsy and versatility is no simple feat, but the meticulously constructed Stately Gothic accomplishes just that, elegantly. Stately Gothic is a redrawn version of Grit Gothic. The strong vertical character of this stacking/layered typeface make it an ideal solution for use where legibility matters most: posters, logos, book and album covers, and so on. It is part of Grit History Series B along with Heirloom Artcraft, Worn Gothic, Grit Sans, and Grit Gothic.

FS Koopman is a hard-working typeface. A crossbred workhorse that draws on inspiration from Swiss grotesks, American gothics and early British grotesques. It refuses to fit neatly into any of these categories, it’s neither one nor the other, but all of the above. It’s kinda Swiss meets American… (but with a slight Yorkshire twang).

Based on a typeface named "Viola Flare", issued by Franklin Photolettering in the 1970s, this version has been kerned for every possible letter combination, so you can mix the swash uppercase letters with the lowercase as you please, creating distinctive and delightful headlines. Both versions of this font include the complete Unicode Latin 1252 and Central European 1250 character sets.

Since many years I live in Munich and read the daily newspaper Abendzeitung. One morning they had redesigned the paper, using Eric Gill's Joanna for the body copy and a tweaked version of Franklin Gothic for the headlines. Since both typefaces are my all-time favorites, I was very pleased. The old hand-lettered title lettering designed by in-house designer Ernst Friedrich Adler around 1947 or 48 was untouched as it always was. Adler had worked for the newspaper an incredible 47 years! Ernst Friedrich Adler celebrated his 100th birthday in the summer of 2007 looking very healthy. But someone had adapted his title lettering for use in the chapter headings, and I did not like the way that was done. Every morning I saw those letters and thought "one day I have to clean that up". About 15 years later I finally did it! Being at it, I designed the whole typeface and added a second fancy cut. And, what do you know, the people at the Abendzeitung called me up and said they liked what I did and started using it. So since that day in 2005 I can read my morning paper without having to wonder about the chapter headings. Well maybe one day they will do another redesign and maybe they will use another one of my fonts. Your editorial typeface designer, Gert

a gothic family