In the collection of vintage and historic images available online from the Library of Congress is one of the exterior of the Town Talk Diner in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Regrettably, on May 28, 2020, the Town Talk Diner was damaged by vandalism, and subsequently destroyed by a fire that engulfed the building early on the morning of May 29th due to civil unrest following the death of George Floyd. The restaurant first opened in 1946, closed in 2011 and subsequently re-opened under new ownership in 2014 with French cuisine, then from 2016 until its demise as an American bistro. While this was not known at the time of selecting the image for a typographic model, subsequent research on the diner turned up these facts. The large vintage sign above the entrance was in big, bold Art Deco letters with rows and rows of bulbs for illuminating the name at night. Coffee and Danish JNL, modeled from the image of that sign, is available in both regular and oblique versions. Perhaps, in a way, the type design will serve as a bit of historic recognition for a popular eating spot.

Comalle is an organic typeface that rescues some elements of handwritten script, but its stroke does not necessarily answer to a literal calligraphy structure. So Comalle could produce a powerful impact on the page, it was designed with thicker strokes than its counter forms. The objective is that the black of the letter fills the page and causes a fastest visual impact than typographies that balance blacks and whites. One of the most important tasks of the Comalle design was to think of how to handle the unequal percentages of blacks and whites in the typeface. The peculiar thing, is that the precision work of the letter does not make the blacks, but the whites; this is the reason why in one first instance it was very valid to start off designing in a very gross way, nevertheless, the majority energies are put in the details of the design of counter space. From the drained filling concept of forms Comalle was born, a typeface that pretends to enchant with its delicate counter space design and to impact with the heavy outlines which compose its form.

Introducing "Grosin," a captivating typeface that seamlessly merges the timeless elegance of Art Deco with a modern, condensed form. This font embodies the essence of sophistication, offering a perfect blend of retro aesthetics and contemporary appeal. Grosin's condensed design is a nod to efficiency, allowing it to make a bold statement even in limited space. Its sleek lines and geometric precision capture the essence of Art Deco, evoking the glamour and elegance of a bygone era while maintaining a distinctly modern feel. With Grosin, each character exudes a sense of refined simplicity, making it an ideal choice for conveying a sleek and stylish impression. The font's condensed nature ensures versatility, making it well-suited for a range of applications, from titles and headlines to posters and modern art projects. The beauty of Grosin lies in its ability to transport your designs into a harmonious blend of past and present. Whether you're aiming for a retro-inspired aesthetic or a modern twist on classic design, Grosin stands as a testament to the enduring allure of Art Deco, breathing new life into your creative endeavors. Choose Grosin for a typeface that effortlessly bridges the gap between nostalgia and contemporary chic.

The sans serif linear antiqua Maxima which was created in the beginning of the sixties by Prof. Gert Wunderlich for Typoart Dresden, was newly actualized in 2007 after more than 45 years. Many hands and heads were involved in the successful re-design of Maxima Now over a period of two years to assist the designers of the Elsner+Flake Design Studios in Hamburg, and the typeface family is now available. The re-design happened in close cooperation with Wunderlich who has given support to numerous projects in Elsner+Flake’s studio in Hamburg. A great deal of care was given to the necessary preliminary tasks such as the viewing of the original designs and print tests, the analysis of the digital Typoart data which had been in the possession of Elsner+Flake since 1985 and 1989, and a design conceptualization based on detail correlations, as well as the extension of the character complement. It had been Elsner+Flake’s goal to include as many of the existing Maxima cuts into the re-design program as possible. The result is an extended font family with 25 weights in EuropaPlus layout.

Burgues Script is an ode to the late 19th century American calligrapher Louis Madarasz, whose legendary pen has inspired schools of penmanship for over 100 years. His talent has caused some people to call him “the most skillful penman the world has ever known.” I use the word ‘ode’ in a colloquially ambitious manner. If I was an actual poet, my words would be about things I desire but cannot attain, objects of utter beauty that make me wallow in humility, or people of enormous talent who look down at me from the clouds of genius. But I don’t write poems. My work consists of letters drawn to fit together, that become an element of someone’s visual poetry. I am the poet’s assistant, so to speak. Once in a while, the assistant persists on what the subject of the poem will be. And occasionally, the poet gives in to the persistence. I hope you, visual poet, find my persistence justified in this case. The two main sources for Burgues were the calligraphy examples shown in Zaner Bloser’s The Secret of the Skill of Madarasz: His Philosophy and Penmanship Masterpieces, and C. W. Jones’s Lessons in Advanced Engraver’s Script Penmanship by L. Madarasz. These two references were the cornerstone for the concept I was trying to work with. I did have to change many of the letters in order to be able to produce digital calligraphy that can flow flexibly and offered the user a variety of options, while maintaining its attractive appearance. To this end, many ligatures and swashes were made, as well as full flourished sets of letters for use at the beginnings or endings of words and sentences. All of this has been tied together with OpenType and tested thoroughly within today’s standard design and desktop publishing software. After working with digital scripts for so long, at one point I thought that Burgues Script would become a bit of a chore to complete. I also thought that, like with most other scripts, the process would regularize itself after a while and be reduced to a mechanical habit. Surprisingly, and fortunately for me, this did not happen. The past holds as many surprises as the future. Madarasz’s method of penmanship was fascinating and challenging to translate into the strict, mathematically oriented language of the computer. It seems that the extremely high contrast of the forms, coupled with the required flow and connectivity of such lettering, will always be hard work for any visual artist to produce, even with the aide of a powerful machine. I can only imagine what steady nerves and discipline Madarasz must have had to be able to produce fully flourished and sublimely connected words and sentences on a whim. When I think of Madarasz producing a flourished calligraphic logotype in a few seconds, and try to reconcile that with the timelines of my or my colleagues’ work in identity and packaging design, the mind reels. Such blinding talent from over a hundred years ago. Burgues is the Spanish word for Bourgeois. In the end, I hope Burgues Script will serve you well when a flourished word or sentence is required for a design project. One of the wonders of the computer age is the ability to visually conjure up the past, serving both the present and the future. With Burgues, you have a piece of “the most skillful penman the world has ever known,” at your service. Burgues received important awards such as a Certificate of Excellence TDC2 2008 and a Certificate of Excellence at the Bienal Tipos Latinos 2008.

Colin Brignall designed the Tango typeface in 1974. A groovy swirl of a font, Tango looks like disco party ready to lift off. Tango is one of many fonts that have come to symbolize the party music of the 1970s, familiar forms can be found on countless album covers from that era. Tango is a child of it's times - flashy, lively, and fun!

Office Stamps JNL is a collection of twenty-six images recreating the familiar 'stock' rubber stamps used in offices for decades before self-inking stamps and desktop printing made them relics of the past. Modeled from vintage sources, all of the images have been re-drawn by Jeff Levine to have a crisper look than simply utilizing scanned imprints of old marking devices.

Used Cars JNL is based on one of the many unique alphabets created by the late Alf R. Becker for Signs of the Times magazine from the 1930s through the 1950s. Special thanks to Tod Swormstedt of ST Media (who is also the curator of the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio) for providing the reference material for this design

Dem Bones is a bit of fun-display alphabet (capitals), numbers and punctuation assembled out of the sort of knobbly ended bones that dogs used to gnaw on in all the best childrens cartoons and comics. Thing Gnasher and Gnipper or Spike and Tyke. Dem Bones is particularly apt at Halloween, but can introduce some un at any time of the year...

BonaVia is an adaptation of Greater Albion's Bonning and Bonnington families. Its purpose made to enable the construction of banners and mastheads in the style of traditional streetsigns, and offered in Regular and 'Blanc' faces. A selection of decorative ends and fleurons are included. BonaVia is splendid on posters, signage, book and CD covers and labels with a period feel.

Graphite/4b pen illustrations from the past resurrected as vector/tattoo-art! The detailed illustrations can be displayed at large sizes/full magazine layout page down to thumbnail size! a-l: The full Zodiac of Chaos m-u: Parts from the Tarot of Chaos v-z: Faces of Chaos A total of 26 unique illustrations. Upper case A-Z hold mirrored versions. Enjoy!

Bastion is an ultra-bold text-style font derived from some turn of the century hand lettered signage. It is characteristic of the very bold lettering used in a lot of advertising and product packaging in the early 1900s, a style of lettering which was also the inspiration for the Cooper font, though we think Bastion has a much more attractive overall look.

This critique of the utilitarian is a perverse and disjunctive mash-up of thematic devices: sans mixed with serif, stroke contrast applied to techno armature, body parts displaced and elided. We are asked to admire the virtuosity that conjures the sweet spot where everything blends together into some semblance of legibility, but contemplation is disturbed by the transgressive nature of the proposition.

Amateur Printer JNL is comprised of letters and numbers from one of the rubber stamp sign printing sets that were popular with children up until about the 1960s. The letters were printed out on paper, then scanned and converted into a font... leaving all of the rough edges and defects intact to give the look of authentic rubber stamp impressions.

Toyprint JNL is based on scanned print samples of a toy rubber stamp set imported from Japan circa the 1930s. No kerning and a very limited character set, but fun and nostalgic nonetheless. NOTE: Large size rendering of the type will give the appearance of cut paper rather than rubber stamp impressions due to the nature of the scans for this font.

Online auctions offer a myriad of unique, vintage and novel lettering devices – all which are fertile ground for typographic inspiration. In this instance, a set of stamped metal letters for outdoor signage was the basis for Stamped Metal JNL. Some of the non-traditional letter weights makes these simple block letters a wonderful change of pace for bold, attention-getting headlines.

Fractura ND is a stencil typeface designed by José María Cerezo. It includes, in addition to four fonts of different weights, an outline font, a pair of fonts to make bicolor sets and a dripped font. A geometric sans serif that, with the particularity of being a stencil, provides personality and wide compositional possibilities. Fractura is a Trademark of BauerTypes SL

This font has a great retro-yet-modern feel that is slightly reminiscent of the dawning of the digital awareness age of the 1980s that gave a slight nod to the mid-20th century neon craze. It can be ideal for retro-themed events & promotions, health & cosmetic lines, or wherever you may need a sleek, minimalistic rounded style of lettering.

Millerstown is full of that solid, 19th Century, transatlantic spirit of enterprise. It is an all capitals face, decorative but clear and legible, ideal for signage, posters and banners. "Old Millerstown" has been treated to capture the look of heavily used, weathered type, adding another vintage element to the typeface. Bring a touch of American inspired flair to your next design project!

Awkward Gothic JNL gets its name from the fact that it's a non-conformist alphabet - as if rendered by hand by a school child or an amateur lettering artist. Although there is a relative symmetry to most of the letter forms, some unconventional widths and the shape of many of its characters adds to the hand-made look of this alphabet.

A captivating and futuristic font inspired by the iconic worlds of The Matrix, Terminator, and Blade Runner. Embrace the enigmatic allure of the future as each character pulsates with neon energy, unleashing possibilities for cybernetic titles, gaming interfaces, logos, and more. Step into the neon-laden realms of ND Raster Neon and ignite your designs with a touch of cybernetic mystique.

WIP Sugar Baby depicts the handwriting of a young woman with opulent curves that spread juvenile charm and warms the hearts of all of us. The (lower case) characters are joined as it is usual in German speaking countries. Originally designed in 1995 the font has been extended by a lot of new characters such as accented characters, punctuation, symbols and currency symbols.

The chamfered block style of lettering has been a workhorse for years. From the early signage of the 1800s to military markings to the techno fonts of the 1980s and beyond, its clean and simple look gets the message across easily and boldly. Industrialist JNL and its oblique partner were modeled from the title on a piece of sheet music from the 1940s.

This distinctive chunky design has a wide range of possibilities as a display face. With a nod towards Deco this strong, bold and well balanced font has a wide range of uses. Due to the nature of this design there may be a very slight lack of smoothness to the curves at extremely large point sizes (around 200 pt and above).

Proudly present Romancio - Romantic Type, created by ikiiko. Romancio is a decorative serif typeface that inspired by the spirit of Roman design. A perfect choice for projects that call for a touch of elegance and originality. Elegant flourishes and delicate curves abound, which evokes the refinement of old Roman art. Each character is painstakingly designed to capture the elegance of classic Roman letterforms.

Positive Vibe JNL is a meeting of two eras... The model for this font was Jeff Levine's Two Reeler JNL, modeled after title cards in a Charlie Chaplin movie from the beginning of the 1900s. With a few stroke weight shifts, this versatile font takes on the image of the "Peace and Love" generation of the mid-60s and early 70s.

Pobeda is a bright jobbing typeface inspired by the Moscow Victory Day Parade commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. At the heart of the typeface is the recognizable rapid silhouette of the famous MiG-29. This cool typeface looks great on souvenir objects, in print and on the web, adding some technical flair to any material.

Rahman font is based on the idea of reflecting the personality of the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman in a typeface design. This sans serif font shows the founding father of Malaysia as a modern, simple, open-minded, uncomplicated and straightforward person. The font is suitable for posters, labels as well as book covers and paper printing.

Linem Up JNL is based on one of Alf R. Becker's alphabets for Signs of the Times magazine. With A-Z only and basic punctuation, it is best used in very limited text at larger point sizes. Thanks to Tod Swormstedt of ST Publications (and the curator of the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio) for providing the reference material.

RM Celtic is derived from a mix of Uncial, Carolingian, Insular and Half-Uncial characters that, together, provide a legible and useable font with a touch of that old Celtic magic. Due to the modular nature of this design there may be a slight lack of smoothness to the curves at very large point sizes (around 100 pt and above).

Hand lettering on the packaging for an Arrow "Commander" Staple Remover seen in an online auction is the inspiration for the unusual and angular typeface comprising Staple Remover JNL. The Art Deco era of the 1930s and 1940s offers many wonderful examples of stylized and experimental lettering, and this, by far is one of the more eclectic styles of the time.

The genuine Futura takes up Paul Renner’s earliest sketches and brings back to life the original stylistic alternatives of the letters a, g, m, and n. Another of its peculiarities is the curved ends of the j, l, and t. It retains its genetic heritage, maintaining a perfect geometry, but with a fresher air than ever. Futura is a Trademark of BauerTypes SL

Belhampton is a lively display family, full of the spirit of the Edwardian era. Six typefaces are offered: regular, bold, light, oblique, embossed and outline. All include an extensive range of stylistic alternates and discretionary ligatures, as well as lining and old-style numerals. Belhampton is ideal for poster and display work, or just the thing for any piece of Belle Epoque design.

Rage Italic is the work of American designer Ron Zwingelberg. It was one of the first casual brush style scripts with a rough, textured edge. The initial-like capitals complement a lowercase alphabet which links together to create the look of true handwriting. Rage Italic font is ideal for work that should have the spontaneous look of pen writing on parchment.

Eckhardt Broad Sans JNL joins the growing collection of sign painter-oriented fonts named in honor of the late Al Eckhardt of Allied Signs, a good friend of Jeff Levine for many years and a talented sign lettering artist in his own right. This design is a sans serif approach to the lettering found in the Eckhardt Showcard JNL family.

Divina is a Latinized digitization of one of German calligraphy master Rudolph Koch's typefaces. The original typeface, Kurrent, was designed in 1927 and cut in 1935. Its shapes are a variant of the German script to be used as a model for writing in schools at the time. This is the first time Koch's rendition of this particular blackletter calligraphy was ever digitized.

Binary Groove is a bold and dynamic font that captures the essence of the 1980s retro-futuristic style. The geometric shapes and sharp edges of each letterform evoke a sense of technology and progress, while the rounded edges add a touch of playfulness. The font features a sleek and modern design that is perfect for headlines, posters, packaging, and branding projects.

The unusually-shaped hand lettering of Penny Wise JNL was modeled from the cover of the 1936 sheet music for "You Dropped Me Like a Red Hot Penny", and is available in both regular and oblique versions. Although it was drawn during the Art Deco period, this type of lettering design style was revived during the Hippie movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

INTRODUCING Bestina Modern Calligraphy. This font was designed by handwriting, and it has a modern and unique forms of calligraphy, the writing style is very natural. Bestina has a very unique style of calligraphy, it is very suitable for use in the work of modern design. The Features of this fonts is: * Standart ligatures * Stylistic Alternates * PUA Unicode (Private Use Areas)