Teen Years JNL was inspired by the hand lettered name for the Joyce Records label (circa 1956) which first recorded the New York doo-wop group The Crests (of “16 Candles” fame). The type design is a block sans serif, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The interesting hand lettered sans design of Music Nouveau JNL was found as the title of a vintage piece of early 20th Century sheet music for a song written by famed composer Irving Berlin and called "They Were All Out of Step but Jim". Judging by the cover art, it was a novelty song about a soldier.

The May 7, 1936 issue of “The Film Daily” carried an ad for the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital Fund. (In August of 1935 Rogers, along with famed aviator Wiley Post died in a plane crash.) While the fundraising for the hospital was a serious event, Rogers is remembered as a humorist, hence the font’s name of Humorist JNL.