Pizza is a font fusion of our Saloon Girl and Mi Casa font families. Our new Pizza font will look great for headlines in your new restaurant menu as well as the sign out front. Pizza offers different levels of ornamentation to choose from to best suit your design needs. Pizza Margherita is a solid black version for plain text. Fill fonts are also available, however, you'll need an application that works in layers to take advantage of the Pizza fill fonts. Fill fonts in the Pizza font family are not meant to be used as a stand alone font, please use the Pizza Margherita font if you need a solid black weight. Pizza is a trademark of FontMesa LLC, initial release December 6-2021

Because you demanded it, the Aviano series is back with a variable version of the futuristic sans serif Aviano Future. Aviano Future’s strong letterforms will make you look like a rock star. Aviano Future Variable is a medium-contrast sans serif titling face that has a bold and futuristic look. It has a bowed square shape which gives it an interesting appearance that is both unique and eye-catching. Given that it has a variable axis any weight can be selected with no loss of clarity or legibility. Aviano Future's expanded forms give the letterforms heft and intensity. Aviano Future is a powerful yet adaptable title face that builds on the award-winning traits of Aviano and elevates them. Aviano Future Variable contains a ton of OpenType capabilities and comes in ten different defined weight instances with "fast" italic forms for emphasis. Want to use more traditional rounded forms? Need swash forms? Art Deco alternates? Aviano Future includes 400 alternate characters. Twelve style sets are available, two sets of art deco inspired alternates, small forms, tough swash, constructivist titling and traditional stylistic alternates. Aviano Future also includes 40 discretionary ligatures for artistic typographic compositions. Additionally, there are glyphs in this family to accommodate a variety of languages, and Cyrillic support was added in 2022. An extensive selection of sans serif typographic systems can be found in the Aviano family. The typefaces can be used alone or in combination to suit the needs of any project. The family's fonts have all been meticulously designed to assist ensure maximum impact and usability at any size. Aviano, Aviano Serif, Aviano Sans, Aviano Didone, Aviano Flare, Aviano Copper, and Aviano Slab are presently part of the Aviano collection. A skilled designer who wishes to create a technological, futuristic, or epic design should consider Aviano Future. Aviano Future Variable will make your design stand out from the competition, regardless of whether you are designing a logo, poster, flyer, website header, or banner ad. Why wait? With the exciting and versatile Aviano Future Variable at your disposal, reach new heights and create a brand that stands out from the rest.

Are you ready to unleash your wild side? Look no further than Duality, the tough and eccentric display typeface that will add a truly unique and unforgettable flair to your message. These fonts are not for the faint of heart—their wild slab-serifs and insane ball-terminals will make your text stand out in a sea of bland and boring fonts. Choose from three different styles to make your message truly pop. The regular style is perfect for making a bold statement, while the gritty Sand style adds an extra layer of texture and edge. And if you really want to make a statement, go for the letterpress Steel style—its rugged, industrial look will make your text look like it was stamped onto the page with raw, unbridled power. Whether you’re designing a poster, a logo, or anything in between, Duality is the perfect choice for anyone who wants to inject some wild, untamed energy into their typography. So go ahead, embrace the madness, and let Duality take your design to the next level. Most Latin-based European writing systems are supported, including the following languages. Afaan Oromo, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Aromanian, Aymara, Bashkir (Latin), Basque, Belarusian (Latin), Bemba, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Cape Verdean, Creole, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chavacano, Chichewa, Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dawan, Dholuo, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Friulian, Gagauz (Latin), Galician, Ganda, Genoese, German, Greenlandic, Guadeloupean Creole, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Hungarian, Icelandic, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican, Kaqchikel, Karakalpak (Latin), Kashubian, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Kurdish (Latin), Latvian, Lithuanian, Lombard, Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, Maasai, Makhuwa, Malay, Maltese, Māori, Moldovan, Montenegrin, Ndebele, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Novial, Occitan, Ossetian (Latin), Papiamento, Piedmontese, Polish, Portuguese, Quechua, Rarotongan, Romanian, Romansh, Sami, Sango, Saramaccan, Sardinian, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sorbian, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swazi, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen (Latin), Tuvaluan, Uzbek (Latin), Venetian, Vepsian, Võro, Walloon, Waray-Waray, Wayuu, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yapese, Zapotec Zulu and Zuni.

ATF Franklin Gothic® A new take on an old favorite Franklin Gothic has been the quintessential American sans for more than a century. Designed by Morris Fuller Benton and released in 1905 by American Type Founders, Franklin Gothic quickly stood out in the crowded field of sans-serif types, gaining an enduring popularity. Benton’s original design was a display face in a single weight. It had a bold, direct solidity, yet conveyed plenty of character. A modern typeface in the tradition of 19th-century grotesques, Franklin Gothic was drawn with a distinctive contrast in stroke weight, giving it a unique personality among the more mono-linear appearance of later geometric and neo-grotesque sans-serif types. Franklin Gothic has been interpreted into a series of weights before, most notably with ITC Franklin Gothic. But as the original type was just a bold display face (later accompanied by a few similarly bold widths and italics), how Benton’s design is expanded to multiple weights and styles as a digital type family can vary significantly. Benton designed several gothic faces that harmonize with one another, including Franklin Gothic, News Gothic, and Monotone Gothic, that can serve as models for new interpretations of his work. With ATF Franklin Gothic, Mark van Bronkhorst looked to Benton’s Monotone Gothic—originally a single typeface in a regular weight, and similar to Franklin Gothic in its forms—as the basis for lighter styles. ATF Franklin Gothic may appear familiar given its heritage, but is a new design offering a fresh take on Benton’s work. The text weights are wider and more open than some previous Franklin Gothic interpretations, and as a result are quite legible as text, at very small sizes, and on screen. ATF Franklin Gothic maintains the warmth and the spirit of a Benton classic while offering a suite of fonts tuned precisely for contemporary appeal and utility. The 18-font family offers nine weights with true italics, a Latin-extended character set, and a suite of OpenType features. Download the PDF specimen for ATF Franklin Gothic.

Shakila Script is a handwritten font created at the end of March 2021. It is a unique bold font with a pretty and charming casual style with many variants of beautiful swashes, as well as an alternative to capital letters. Shakila is a lovely and delicate font duo (script and sans serif), that exudes elegance and class. This font was particularly crafted for those who need a beautiful and refreshing look to their designs. Also, this font is perfect for branding projects, logo, product designs, invitation cards, wedding cards, stationery designs, advertisements, label, photography, blogging, social media or watermark. Key Features: - Multilingual Accents - Alternative capital letters - Stylistic Alternates up to 20 choices - Has a heart connected feature for a-z and A-Z letters - Available shortcut for Stylistic Alternate by simply adding "period" (.) and “number” (1-20) to each letter. - Has lots of ligatures so the letters connect well together - Has OpenType and PUA Encodes features. This font has a total of 885 glyphs, including capital letters, uppercase alternates, lowercase, numeral and punctuation, multilingual accents, beginning and ending swashes for lowercase, and includes a large number of stylistic alternates and heart swashes (for lowercase-lowercase and uppercase-uppercase). The advantage of the Shakila Script font compared to other fonts is that the alternative capital characters are in 1 font file, so it will make it easier for you to work. Therefore, you are free to choose it as you like, especially this font has the OpenType and PUA Encodes features which means you can access all of the glyphs and swashes with ease. As I mentioned earlier, Shakila Script has a large number of Stylistic Alternates features, up to 14 options for letter a-z and up to 20 options for letter b d h k l. In fact, there is also a swash feature in the form of a connected for the combination of each lowercase-lowercase and uppercase-uppercase letters. Interestingly, you can activate all Stylistic Alternates that are owned by each letter, just by typing; letter + period + number. For example: a.1 a.2 a.3 or b.1 b.2 b.3 and so on. As for activating the heart connected for each letter a-z or A-Z is quite easy. Namely by simply typing; letter + underscore + underscore + letter. For example: a__a or A__A and so on. Shakila Script is a Font Duo pack that pairs with Shakila Sans. The two were created at about the same time, but made in separate file packages. The reason I created this font duo is to make your projects more harmonious and unique. At the end of the sentence, Shakila Font Duo is a very authentic and amazing. If there are things you want to ask, don't hesitate to contact my email. For complete details, please visit my Behance profile. Alifinart Studio alifinart@gmail.com Thank you.

In 2009, a book from 1897 in the library of the University of Wisconsin caught David Berlow’s attention. It was set in a clear text face—a predecessor of Bookman—cast by the Western Type Foundry who called it Custer. Upon noting how well the typeface worked in sizes of 6 and 7 points, Berlow developed it into a member of the Reading Edge series specifically designed for small text on screen. Custer RE was a broad and approachable typeface drawn large on the body with a tall x-height to maximize its apparent size when set very small. This was the beginning of the newly expanded series; in 2020, Berlow added new optical sizes and weights, growing the original design’s versatility up to headline sizes.

This was a creative experiment. Writing for a long period of time prior to starting erased any inhibitions that prohibited forming natural, authentic letters and by adding more duration the hands became sore and weak. Allowing minimal control, and a more eccentric outcome. It was a real slog, but totally worth it. Skribblugh is a wobbly, aesthetically pleasing, and obviously handwritten typeface full of character and versatility. Within a modern design; It adds a human’s touch, a final note, a signature. And within a playful, colorful one it helps exaggerate the atmosphere, bringing playfulness and warmth to the center of the stage. With four choices for every uppercase and lowercase letter, there are plenty of opportunities to make designs look personal and relatable!

Robust, towering, and geometrically refined, Skyward is a surefire classic cocktail of equal parts utility and elegance. This typeface carries a set of over 300 glyphs across 8 distinct faces. With Deco-era sensibilities and a touch of modern refinement + an all new alternative set of characters, Skyward is exceedingly effective in a diverse spectrum of situations. Skyward is the perfect selection for modern, chic, luxury products and packaging as well as bold ad campaigns, window signage, magazine headlines or the classic branding project. Skyward works best as display text. 12 styles Sans-Serif, Serif, and Rounded styles Select Stylistic alternates Upper & lowercase Numerals & punctuation   330+ glyphs per style Supports 75+ Latin based languages OTF files Designed by Jason Carne

The above-the-store signage for many newspaper stands, soda shops, candy stores, luncheonettes and pharmacies of the 1950s and early 1960s were what was referred to as “privilege signs” provided by one of the major cola brands. Consisting of the brand’s emblems on the left and right, the remainder of the sign would carry the desired message of the storekeeper (such as “Candy – Soda – Newspapers”) in prismatic, embossed metal letters. Inspired by these vintage signs, Privilege Sign JNL recreates the condensed sans serif lettering style in both regular and oblique versions. The typefaces are solid black, but adding a selected color and a prismatic effect from your favorite graphics program can reproduce the look and feel of those old businesses.

As a unique example of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Victorian type, Zinc Italian emits a strikingly beautiful and twinkling luminescence. Oversized initial caps, each containing intricate swirls and curlycues, vibrate stunningly alongside a variety of amusing lowercase letters. Also known as Zinco, this typeface is generously equipped with a charming set of alternate characters including capital figures and some easier-to-decipher lowercase letters. Zinc Italian with Alternates is also available in the OpenType Std format. Some new features including discretionary ligatures and expanded standard ligatures have been added to this OpenType version. Advanced features currently work in Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress 7. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

If you're getting tired of using Broadway, here’s an exciting alternative in regular and bold weights. Douglas C. McMurtrie, Aaron Borad, and Leslie Sprunger began designing this high-contrast novelty face for the Ludlow Foundry in 1928. It retains the classic style of the Jazz Age with a bit more individuality and spirit than Broadway. This extreme thick and thin design also sports normal descenders instead of the clipped ones found on Broadway. Ultramodern Classic is also available in the OpenType Std format. Some new characters have been added to this OpenType version. Advanced features currently work in Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress 7. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

ITC Luna is the work of Japanese designer Akira Kobayashi. He turned to the designs of the 1930s for his inspiration for both ITC Luna and ITC Silvermoon. Luna is designed to fill the gap between a pure Art Deco display face and an ordinary text face," says Kobayashi. "It has an Art Deco style but is still fairly easy to read. It can be used in short passages of text. As for individual characters, I especially liked the distinctive O, shaded only on one side. Lowercase a and g are also unusual, but they are somehow legible enough in text matter." And for a finishing touch on his Luna, Kobayashi added the charming moon face as an extra character.

Quilt Patterns Three was inspired by the patchwork designs used in quiltmaking in early America. There is an assortment of 94 patterns located under the character set and shift+character set keys. Quilt Patterns Three is based on the nine patch pattern, a block that is 3 squares by 3 squares, the most basic and most common. The nine patch pattern can be subdivided into 6 squares by 6 squares, 9 squares by 9 squares, etc. Characters of Quilt Patterns Three can be typed in a vector drawing program and then converted to paths/outlines, color may then be added to various parts of a given pattern. Patterns can be stacked horizontally and vertically creating an infinite number of quilt designs.

Quilt Patterns One was inspired by the patchwork designs used in quiltmaking in early America. There is an assortment of 94 patterns located under the character set and shift+character set keys. Quilt Patterns One is based on the nine patch pattern, a block that is 3 squares by 3 squares, the most basic and most common. The nine patch pattern can be subdivided into 6 squares by 6 squares, 9 squares by 9 squares, etc. Characters of Quilt Patterns One can be typed in a vector drawing program and then converted to paths/outlines, color may then be added to various parts of a given pattern. Patterns can be stacked horizontally and vertically creating an infinite number of quilt designs.

Sinuous but sturdy; ornate but legible - Gambit Nouveau is modern-day design created in the spirit of Art Nouveau. This delicate and natural typeface features tapered spurs, compact swashes, and spiral curling. You will find it ideally suited for announcements and invitations as well as decorative headlines. And for your convenience, Gambit Nouveau comes equipped with corner and free-standing ornaments plus a wide range of alternate characters. Gambit Nouveau is also available in the OpenType Std format. Some new features including initial forms and old style figures have been added to this OpenType version. Advanced features currently work in Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress 7. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

In December 2013 two new weights - Thin & Ultra (with Italics) were added to the set, Small Caps included! The intention was to make a technical-looking sans with a warmer feel to it, balanced between hard geometric shapes and friendly curves with slightly narrower endings. It should be useful in a wide range of tasks, whether combining the eight weights with distinct italics for editorial design, setting multiple pages of text, making financial reports, or using the highly contrasted lights and blacks for display and packaging design. Argumentum has a character set to support Western and Central European languages, and an extended set for monetary symbols. Each weight includes small caps, ligatures, proportional lining and oldstyle numbers, tabular figures, fractions and scientific superior/inferior figures.

Here is a boxy, extremely squared alternative to display designs like Eden or Glamour. In comparison, Centric Serif does not share the fragile and delicate nature of these old 1930s classics. Instead it is fairly robust with a splayed M and a simple flattop A. It is interesting to note that Centric Serif (unlike Centric Geo) sports serifs in exaggerated and curiously bizarre ways. Centric Serif is now available in the OpenType Std format. Some new stylistic alternates and historical forms have been added to this OpenType version. Advanced features work in current versions of Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

Picture a tall, long-legged flamingo fishing casually for food in the Florida Everglades. The young pink bird teeters momentarily and then falls over. You have captured the essence of Birdlegs - leggy, colorful, and a bit awkward. Here is a design that works well in a number of situations including greeting cards, party favors, and casual correspondence. Use this energetic and slightly scatterbrained typeface where humor and playfulness are appropriate. Birdlegs is also available in the OpenType Std format. Some new characters have been added to this OpenType version. Advanced features currently work in Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress 7. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

After inventing a new metal typecasting procedure that allowed for the production of more detailed typefaces, the famous German typefoundry D. Stempel AG developed Kuenstler Script in 1902 - 1903. Originally called Kunstlerschreibschrift (artistic handwriting), this design was based on English copperplate script styles from the late 1800s. In 1957, Hans Bohn added the heavy Kuenstler Script Black weight to the family. Like intricate handwriting put to paper with a feather and an inkwell, Kuenstler Script makes almost any text look distinguished and elegant. Kuenstler Script is a joining script; and because of its fine hairlines and small x-height, it is best used at sizes above 12 pt. The typeface works well in advertising work and on invitations, greetings cards, business cards, and certificates.

Narcissus Open is a heavy typeface designed by Walter Tiemann in 1921 for the Klingspor Foundry in Germany. It is a shaded wide roman using a very modest amount of white highlighting. Serifs are extremely delicate, almost ornamental. This elegant old typeface gives a feeling of importance and authority and is highly effective when used in large display sizes. Narcissus Solid lacks all highlighting and becomes more useful in smaller sizes. Narcissus Open and Solid are also available in the OpenType Std format. Some new characters have been added to this OpenType version. Advanced features currently work in Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress 7. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

Hombre™ is a sure-fire attention-getter for projects requiring a straight out of the old west flavor. Authentic, weather-beaten, time-ravaged, and a bit haphazard, it’s also a sure-fire attention-getter. Drawn by Thomas Oldfield and loosely based on popular typefaces of the 19th century, Hombre offers all the gun-slinging swagger and rugged style of Jesse James and his crew of outlaws. But don’t typecast this design. The Hombre typefaces are equally at home in ads, banners, headlines and subheads – in both hard copy and digital environments. Add to this, a large character set supporting most Western European and many Eastern European languages, including Cyrillic and Greek, and you can bring a rustic and timeworn look to a passel of applications.

Once upon a time, in the days BC (that's Before Computers) there lived a very talented group of men and women whose job it was to render ads by hand. So skillful were these people that some say it was possible to actually identify the typefaces that the layout artists were emulating. Their renderings were swift and slick, no time for detail as it was necessary to do a whole bunch of variations, usually within ridiculous deadlines. Their only tools: bullet-tip markers and bond paper - often mistakes resulted but no time to re-do and white paint was totally unacceptable - just let the slipups be. Here's a simulation of their craft, we don't really know what typeface this was supposed to represent… any ideas?

Here is a boxy, extremely squared alternative to display designs like Eden or Glamour. In comparison, Centric Geo does not share the fragile and delicate nature of these old 1930s classics. Instead it is fairly robust with a splayed M and a simple flattop A. It is interesting to note that Centric Serif (unlike Centric Geo) sports serifs in exaggerated and curiously bizarre ways. Centric Geo is now available in the OpenType Std format. Some new stylistic alternates and historical forms have been added to this OpenType version. Advanced features work in current versions of Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

Grungy Old Typewriter is based on two typed letters, each on two pages and dated 1901. The results are eroded, rough, irregular and grungy. The final results are a vintage look. As a designer, I wanted as much flexibility as possible, so there are six versions that are designed to work together. Additionally, I decided to keep the grunge and irregularities within the shape and not include surrounding typewriter or paper marks. I leave it to the design to add those elements as desired. One note, the letter spacing is much tighter than an old typewriter. I felt that readability for modern readers suffered from the added space. Of course, you can get that same look by increasing the letter spacing in your favorite design program.

Quilt Patterns Four was inspired by the patchwork designs used in quiltmaking in early America. There is an assortment of 94 patterns located under the character set and shift+character set keys. Quilt Patterns Four is based on the nine patch pattern, a block that is 3 squares by 3 squares, the most basic and most common. The nine patch pattern can be subdivided into 6 squares by 6 squares, 9 squares by 9 squares, etc. Characters of Quilt Patterns Four can be typed in a vector drawing program and then converted to paths/outlines, color may then be added to various parts of a given pattern. Patterns can be stacked horizontally and vertically creating an infinite number of quilt designs.

Warren Chappell was the original designer of this handsome pen-formed roman typeface introduced by the Stempel Foundry in 1939. It was cast in Germany as Trajanus and named after the Roman emperor whose accomplishments are preserved on the Trajan Column in Rome. This version, Tribunus, retains the same rugged but handsome quality of the oldstyle original. A set of italic oldstyle figures are included with the italic roman. Tribunus is also available in the OpenType Std format. Some new characters have been added to this OpenType version. Advanced features currently work in Adobe Creative Suite InDesign, Creative Suite Illustrator, and Quark XPress 7. Check for OpenType advanced feature support in other applications as it gradually becomes available with upgrades.

Melrin – Display Typeface: A Floral Serif Wonder Introduction to Melrin Introducing Melrin Floral Serif Typeface, a display typeface that blends artistic flair with functionality. Its unique design features serifs that bloom like flowers. Ideal for retro designs, Melrin captures the essence of nostalgia in each character. Design and Aesthetics Melrin stands out with its floral serif accents, reminiscent of blooming flowers. This aesthetic makes it perfect for projects needing a touch of vintage elegance. Its bold structure embodies strength, while the delicate serifs add a soft, artistic touch. Versatility and Usage Beyond retro designs, Melrin excels in various applications. It’s a top choice for circus-themed graphics, posters, and branding materials. Its versatility extends to digital platforms, enriching websites and online ads with its unique charm.

Quilt Patterns Two was inspired by the patchwork designs used in quiltmaking in early America. There is an assortment of 94 patterns located under the character set and shift+character set keys. Quilt Patterns Two is based on the nine patch pattern, a block that is 3 squares by 3 squares, the most basic and most common. The nine patch pattern can be subdivided into 6 squares by 6 squares, 9 squares by 9 squares, etc. Characters of Quilt Patterns Two can be typed in a vector drawing program and then converted to paths/outlines, color may then be added to various parts of a given pattern. Patterns can be stacked horizontally and vertically creating an infinite number of quilt designs.

Designed at ParaType in 1989 by Alexander Tarbeev. A modern replica of the typeface by Giambattista Bodoni, the Italian punchcutter and typographer of the late 18th century. Bodoni was a director of printing house of Duke of Parma in Italy. His early types were based on those of Fournier and Didot, but he developed the designs to become what are now considered to be the first modern typefaces. His letters have strong vertical stress, sharply contrasting thick and thin strokes and unbracketed hairline serifs. The contrast of thick and thin in Bodoni typefaces can produce a sparkling effect on a page: should be carefully used in texts; good for headlines and display. Condensed and decorative styles were added in 1993–97.

Bodoni Classic Deco Two, like the original Bodoni Classic Deco, breaks all rules. Giambattista Bodoni himself would probably hate me for doing it; he was a real purist. The whole idea of the Bodoni typeface is no embellishments and here I go and decorate those nice clear letters. Shame on me! But I find this is a very nice and useful typeface for all kinds of cards and certificates. So I just did it for all of you out there that are not born purists, and want a little embellishment to their lives. And to make things worse, I added a small caps cut. I even decorated the numbers. This Bodoni is the condensed version!!! Enjoy! Yours, still breaking all the rules, Gert Wiescher

Released on the occasion of the 2012 London Olympics, Olympukes 2012 was a new set of pictograms telling the ‘real’ story of the Olympics and extending the unofficial project that began in 2004. The occasion of the London games provided an opportunity to revisit the complex contradictions of the modern Olympics and to acknowledge the geopolitical shifts of the intervening eight years. The 2012 games arrived at a time of great economic and political uncertainty for the nation and Europe. Greece – the host of the 2004 games – was now located at Ground Zero of a disintegrating Eurozone and the United Kingdom was two years into a programme of austerity enacted by the coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Given that the previous London Olympics had been held in 1948, in a climate of recovery and austerity after a devastating World War (1948’s Olympiad was dubbed the ‘Austerity Games’) there was a sick irony to the 2012 games' arrival. The suppression of human rights in order to deliver the perfect games for PRoC’s Beijing games shocked no-one and yet, in London, the security measures seemed grossly excessive. Then again, in a country with an estimated 1.8 million cctv cameras, perhaps we shouldn’t have been so surprised. Another aspect of the Olympics that returned for 2012 was the unfettered commercialism – if you think the Games are about pure sport, about noble human endeavour, think again. Please note that Barnbrook Fonts is in no way affiliated with, or has received any endorsement from, the International Olympic Committee, the organising committees of the Olympic Games, or any national Olympic committee.

Minotaur is an original monoline design based on an Oscan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscan_language ) votive inscription from the second century B.C.E. The letterforms immediately caught my eye in the wonderful book, Lettering by Hermann Degering, and I decided to create a typeface based on them with only enough compromises to make it usable as a modern alphabet. Not quite as straightforward as I had hoped. For example, the Oscan language (the predominant language in the Italian peninsula before the ascendance of Latin), has no letter "O", so the distinctive curve of the "D" was used as the model for the rounded letters "C" and "G" and more subtly for "O" and "Q"; this shape is also echoed in the original design of "B", "P" and "R". Also, the Oscan letterforms for A, K, L, M, N, S, and U are rather quaint, so I've included modern forms as alternates. Minotaur offers the best of both worlds: Just as the mythical Minotaur is half man and half bull, the font Minotaur is half modern and half ancient. Thanks to OpenType features (stylistic sets), you can easily switch from ancient letterforms to modern (if you have an OpenType-savvy application such as Adobe InDesign) for Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic alphabets. Minotaur supports all modern European languages, including Modern (monotonic) Greek and those that use the Cyrillic alphabet. And, yes, it supports Oscan, both right-facing and left-facing. Minotaur includes 3 OpenType Stylistic Sets: 1 - converts ancient (default) letterforms (A, K, L, M, N, S, and U) to modern alternates; 2 - converts Latin letterforms to equivalent left-facing (standard) Oscan letterforms; 3 - converts Latin letterforms to equivalent right-facing Oscan letterforms.

The design of the typeface Moskau Grotesk and Moskau Pattern is based on the signage created for the Café Moskau in Berlin by the graphic artist Klaus Wittkugel in the beginning of the 1960s. The Café Moskau, across from the Kino International on Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin Mitte was one of the prestige edifices of the former DDR (German Democratic Republic). Built in the early 1960s, it advanced over the years and changing social developments to a trademark building of the capital. The lettering display on the roof was created by the graphic artist Klaus Wittkugel (October 17, 1910 – September 19, 1985). He had been Professor at the School for Applied Arts in Berlin, and, in addition to the creation of many posters, book covers and postage stamps, he was responsible for the signage of the Kino International as well as for the complete graphic treatment for the Palace of the Republik. The signage for the Café Moskau with the words »RESTAURANT«, »CAFÉ«, »KONZERT« and »MOCKBA« set in capital letters, becomes the basis for the Moskau Grotesk which was developed by Björn Gogalla in 2013. This face should not be seen as an imitation. A few shortcomings were »fixed«. In favor of maintaining the core characteristics some unique features were, however, not relinquished. Lower case letters and the missing capital letters were designed from scratch. It is not surprising that the plain, unassuming geometrical direction of the basic character style forms a bridge to the architecture of the 1960s. Inspired by the then favored, diverse possibilities inherent in the architectural example and wall reliefs, two complimentary pattern fonts emerged.