General Chang JNL is one of a number of fonts redrawn by Jeff Levine from the creative output of the late Alf R. Becker. Becker's alphabets were a monthly feature of Signs of the Times Magazine from the 1930s through the 1950s. Thanks to Tod Swormstedt of ST Media (who also is the curator of the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio) for the resource material.

Alf R. Becker was a noted sign painter, designer and the creator of hundreds of unique alphabets which were published in the trade magazine Signs of the Times during the 1930s through the 1950s. Thanks to Tod Swormstedt of ST Media [and who is also the curator of the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati], Jeff Levine received some reference material on Becker's work. Becker displayed many of his type styles within decorative panels—a popular trend in the days when signs were hand-lettered. Using the reference material as a guide, Jeff has re-drawn twenty-six sign panels for adaptation to digital print work. While the designs in themselves are not thoroughly unique to Alf Becker, he has left behind some tangible examples of how sign painters embellished their lettering work. With the use of complementary colors and tones, these panels—joined with vintage lettering - classically recreate the warm and attractive advertising of years ago.

Beginning in January, 1932, Becker, at the request of then-editor E. Thomas Kelly, supplied SIGNS of the Times magazine’s new Art and Design section with an alphabet a month, a project predicted to last only two years. Misjudging the popularity of the “series”, it instead ran for 27 years, ending finally two months before Becker’s death in 1959, for a grand total of 320 alphabets, a nearly perfect, uninterrupted run. In late 1941, almost ten years after the first alphabet was published, 100 of those alphabets were compiled and published in bookform under the title, “100 Alphabets”, by Alf R. Becker. And so, as published in August, 1937, The Fontry presents the truly "modern" version of Becker’s 187th alphabet, Moderne Caps, complete with OpenType features and Central European language support.

Kanona JNL is modeled from one of the numerous alphabets created by the late Alf R. Becker for Signs of the Times magazine from the 1930s through the 1950s. Thanks to a wealth of source material provided by Tod Swormstedt of ST Media (and who is also the curator of the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio), Jeff Levine has been redrawing many of these alphabets and presenting them in digital form. The original variations in letter widths from Becker’s hand-painted alphabet have been left intact.

“Tropical Type” was Alf Becker’s 148th submission to “Signs of the Times” magazine (a publication for the sign trade) where for years Becker would provide a monthly lettering design to inspire other sign writers. This particular design has more of a Far East flair to it, and was redrawn digitally as Travel East JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. Special thanks to Tod Swormstedt of the American Sign Museum and S.T. Media Group for providing the sample image from which the font was derived.

Bring a little tropical island vibe to your next project with Kuloko (Hawaiian for 'Inline')! Kuloko features offset handwritten characters with a bold marker like aesthetic, which gives the font a nice tropical tiki appearance. Kuloko's funky look is sure to capture attention in headlines on websites, social media graphics, logos, branding and so much more! Also included is a handwritten inline version of Kuloko for greater design variety!