The hand-lettered title of a vintage Walter Foster "how to draw" book inspired the Deco-influenced alphabet of Art Lesson JNL. Bold and retro in nature, this typeface gets the message across in a straightforward way, yet still has a bit of a casual feel to it.

The cover of the 1929 sheet music from the First National/Vitaphone picture “The Girl from Woolworth’s” had its title (“Someone”) hand lettered. This single word title was the model for Store Clerk JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions as well as solid and solid oblique versions (without an inline). A bold, casual sans serif with rounded ends and an inline, Store Clerk JNL is perfectly suited for projects where a strong, yet playful title is necessary to grab the reader’s attention. For those old enough to remember, Woolworth’s was a leading “Five and Dime” store chain, especially in the days when a nickel or a dime actually could purchase something.

Here's yet another variation of the classic Futura Black Art Deco stencil form of display lettering. The inspiration for this typeface came from various images of the Blossom Dairy Co. restaurant, originally opened as an ice cream and sandwich shop located on Quarrier Street in Charleston, West Virginia. The restaurant first opened in 1938 as an outgrowth of the Blossom Dairy Co. itself, and existed under various ownerships until it permanently closed on Nov. 11, 2016. Digitally redrawn as Local Eatery JNL, it is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A vintage printer's cut for the masthead of the "Fed-O-Gram" (a monthly publication of the Farm Bureau Federation, Inc.) had its title set in letters that emulated a moving message board. This design formed the basis for what is Moving Message JNL.

A WPA (Works Progress Administration) sponsored Water Carnival taking place in Central Park in the 1930s had "Department of Parks, City of New York" in the thin Art Deco hand lettering which is now available as Parks Department JNL.

Inspired by the basic letter concept of Walter Huxley's 1935 gem Huxley Vertical, Dining Room JNL is a completely re-drawn typeface, adding even more of an Art Deco feel to an already classic Deco-era letter form consisting of condensed, rounded letters. Thick vertical lines balance against lighter weight ones, giving a dramatic contrast so typical of the Streamline Era of design concepts. This font marks another milestone in the Jeff Levine library of retro-inspired type faces. Beginning in 2006 with only ten designs, the collection has grown steadily with Dining Room JNL being the 750th font in the library.

Quite Animated JNL is based on hand-lettered Art Deco titling for a 1930 advertisement promoting a group of Columbia Pictures cartoons featuring George Herriman's "Krazy Kat". Available in regular and oblique versions.

Village Green JNL is based upon a font called “Giraffe Extended” from the 1892 edition of the MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan type specimen book, and is available in both regular and oblique versions. Its Art Nouveau styling can also fit well with 1960s counter-culture revival projects. According to Wikipedia “A village green is a common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for gathering cattle to bring them later on to a common land for grazing. Later, planned greens were built into the centres of villages.”

In the 1904 book “Letters & Lettering” by Frank C. Brown is a page of Roman style upper case letters entitled “Modern American Capitals – after Will Brady”. The slab serif, Art-Nouveau-influenced alphabet inspired a digital version. Roman Nouveau JNL, is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Brass Stencil JNL takes its place amongst the many retro stencil fonts designed by Jeff Levine, and was inspired by a set of vintage brass stencils spotted for sale in an online auction.

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.

Re-drawn and modified from a set of early 1900s die-cut sign letters, Sports Play JNL is a chamfered typeface with an inline that reflects sports-themed topics.

Print Embellishments JNL gathers together a number of vintage typographic enhancements that can be used as simple spot decorations, rule lines or borders, adding a bit of design elegance to any project.

While watching a 1920s Charlie Chaplin short film, Jeff Levine was taken with the unusually modern looking lettering of the title cards in that silent movie. The lettering was not only right for its time, but could also be adapted to both Art Deco and Techno applications. From this classic film comes the font Two Reeler JNL, a bit of yesterday with an eye toward the future.

A wide and thin hand lettered Art Deco design from the vintage French lettering book "L'Art du Tracé Rationnel de la Lettre" was the inspiration for French Deco JNL; available in both regular and oblique versions.

Pillow Puff JNL is a cottony-soft, fluffy, lighter-than-air display font for novelty applications. Use it for advertising fabrics, bath tissue, baby items or anything that conveys something soft and gentle.

In the 1934 edition of the American Type Foundry’s “Book of American Type” is a selection of letterpress fonts which emulate typewriter faces. One design named “Bulletin Typewriter” served at the model for Cub Reporter JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions. The font has been monospaced in order to add a more traditional typewriter look to any project.

Editorial Comment JNL is another wood type in the Grotesk (also spelled Grotesque) style of sans serif faces. Popular in newspaper headlines as well as posters, the slightly irregular stroke widths add an old-fashioned charm to any print project.

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

The hand lettered credits for the 1942 film comedy “I Married a Witch” were so unusual (with their mix of rounded and flat terminals and varying character shapes) that the only logical name for a digital revival would be So Unusual JNL… which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Eckhardt Freehand JNL is the fourth font based on the lettering of sign painters and show card writers. Jeff Levine has chosen to name this “mini series” of fonts in honor of his friend Albert Eckhardt, Jr., a talented sign man who ran Allied Signs [in Miami, Florida] from 1959 until his passing in 2005.

Narrow Stencil JNL is based on a set of 12 inch tall letter and number stencils, generally used for marking and identification.

Inspired by an old retail stencil lettering guide, Stenciled Message JNL is a bold Roman serif typeface available in both regular and oblique versions.

The hand lettered pre-Deco style title and songwriters' credits on the cover of the sheet music for 1929s "The Love Parade" were the models for Deco Days JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

In its heyday, the Starlight Room of the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City quite frequently printed lunch and dinner menus for not only their rotating bill of fare, but also for special events held there. The 1937 Electrolux (Eastern) Appreciation Banquet has its own menu cover, and the lettering was in a simple, yet Art-Deco influenced condensed block design with squared features. This simple and quirky typeface has been digitally redrawn as Sales Convention JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Wood Clarendon JNL is based on Hamilton Clarendon Condensed (circa 1899) and is available in both regular and oblique versions. The design of this typeface retains many of the charming (but slight) design irregularities often found within pantograph-cut wood type from the 1800s through the early 1900s.

1920s-era sheet music for "Tangos Pour Manon" from Brussels, Belgium had the title hand lettered in an unusual style. The alphabet was square, had serifs and the thick-and-thin stroke weights that were more popular in the upcoming Art Deco years of the 1930s and 1940s. This became the working model for Torrid Tango JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Inspiration for font design takes on many shapes and forms. It can be vintage source material, visualized concepts or simply suggestions made by others. In an email conversation with Kevin Redekop (the Principal Designer for FabArts Creative Fabricators in Canada) who had purchased a number of Jeff Levine Fonts, a sample sketch of a desired stencil font was provided. This set the wheels into motion for the drawing and production of Saskatoon Stencil JNL.

A piece of vintage British sheet music from 1941 entitled “That Lovely Week-End” featured the song’s name in a bold Art Deco sans serif with rounded edges. This lettering design is now the digital type face Weekend Plans JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Monthly Calendar JNL is a companion font to Calendar Blocks JNL, and features classic wood type lettering and numerals from the 1800s. A set of large numbers are on their own keys, while the numbers 1-31 reside on the A-Z and a-e keys respectively. The days of the week are on the lower case “f” through “l” keys, while the names of the months are found on the “m” through “x” positions. An open rectangle is on the lower case “y” key, and a solid black rectangle is on the “z”. For those who wish to use the 23/30 and 24/31 configurations, they can be found on the left and right parenthesis.

In the 1943 Three Stooges comedy short “Higher than a Kite”, Curly reaches into a box with the label “hand grenades” painted on its side and pulls out one of the devices. The bold, squared stencil hand lettering on that prop inspired Stencil Label JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The movie poster for the 1937 film “Cafe Metropole” served as the basis for Outdoor Cafe JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. The extra bold, stylized letter forms with their rounded corners typify the wide variety of typographic styles the Art Deco period offered.

Artful Nouveau JNL was modeled from the hand lettering on the sheet music cover for the 1910 song "Gee, But It's Great to Meet a Friend from Your Home Town".

A 1929 German travel poster had the caption “Wer schlafwagen reist spart zdeit und geld” (“Whoever travels in a sleeping car saves time and money”) hand lettered in an Art Deco sans serif style. This is now available as Foreign Tourist JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

An old printer's advertising cut for Red Star Oil Stoves yielded a typeface that was both vintage and somewhat techno at the same time. Originally drawn as a slanted logo, the individual letters had an array of chamfered, angled and flat sides combined with a bold outline. This font is available in both vertical and oblique versions.

Kevin Curtis runs a site called Damosel's Printer's Blocks, specializing in rare an unusual examples from the years when letterpress was the main source of printed material. He graciously provided the source material for Print Damosel JNL. The collected images represent a varied cross-section of ornamentation, embellishments, attention getters, decorations and whimsical illustrations.

In the beginning of his typographic design work, Jeff Levine produced a large number of freeware dingbat fonts utilizing very rudimentary font creation software. Although popular in the world of home crafts, there were many issues inherent with those early font files. Jeff has chosen to clean up and update some of these fonts and make them commercially available. PLEASE NOTE: Refer to the license agreement regarding use of Jeff Levine's art-based fonts. Logos and derivative works made from these fonts are not allowed.

Take a classic Western wood type where the horizontals are thicker than the verticals and remove the slab serifs… The result is Western Sans JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Lettering on the sheet music cover for the title song from the 1957 Marlon Brando movie "Sayonara" was the model for Pacific Island JNL. The design has an Asiatic influence, but also reflects a bit of show card lettering as well. Available in both regular and oblique versions.

The cover title for “Private Detective” magazine (from October, 1942) was hand lettered in a stylized, extra bold Art Deco type design which is now available as Detective Case JNL in both regular and oblique versions.