When Hal Taylor saw the 1930 logo for the Stetson Shoe Company of Weymouth, Massachusetts, he didn't run out and buy a pair of loafers. Instead, he seized on this striking example of an Art Deco logotype as the basis for a new typeface design. “I was impressed with the delicate and sophisticated letter forms,” Taylor recalls, “particularly the enlarged cap S -- in any other case it would have seemed unbalanced, but in the context of this logo, it worked perfectly.” All the letters in the original all-caps Stetson Shoe logo were rendered with condensed proportions except the O, which was a perfect circle. While the prominent O added visual interest to the logo, Taylor knew that such a character would limit his typeface to display applications. For versatility's sake, he drew his O for ITC Stepp with the same proportions as the rest of the alphabet. Taylor also gave the logotype's inverted S a more traditional design, but kept the original as an alternate character in the OpenType font. Taylor's toughest challenge during the design process was creating a lowercase. “A good type design tells you what it wants to be,” he says, “and after a little while the Stepp caps began to tell me what the lowercase should look like.” Taylor's lowercase is slightly more conventional than the caps. The jaunty g" and almost upside-down "s" add subtle charm, while the capital letters provide the broader gestures of Stepp's personality. Together, they create a versatile and distinctive typeface design. One of Hal Taylor's first jobs was as a photo-lettering typographer in Philadelphia, setting headlines and creating custom lettering. This was followed by a stint doing finished lettering for John Langdon, whose ambigrams appear in Dan Brown's best-selling novel, Angels & Demons. Today, Taylor works as a graphic designer in the publishing industry, but he still finds time to create an occasional hand-lettered book jacket, and draw handsome typeface designs. ITC Stepp is available in four weights, ranging from Light to Ultra Bold. All four weights have companion italics, and the lightest three weights also offer a suite of small caps."

Designed by Malou Verlomme of the Monotype Studio, Macklin is a superfamily, which brings together several attention-grabbing styles. Macklin is an elegant, high contrast typeface that demands its own attention and has been designed purposely to enable brands to appeal more emotionally to modern consumers. Macklin comprises four sub-families —Sans, Slab, Text and Display— as well as a variable. The full superfamily includes 54 fonts with 9 weights ranging from hairline to black. The concept for Macklin began with research on historical material from Britain and Europe in the beginning of the 19th century, specifically the work of Vincent Figgins. This was a period of intense social change--the beginning of the industrial revolution. A time when manufacturers and advertisers were suddenly replacing traditional handwriting or calligraphy models and demanding bold, attention-grabbing typography. Typographers experimented with innovative new styles, like fat faces and Italians, and developed many styles that brands and designers continue to use today, such as slabs, serifs, and sans serifs. Verlomme pays respect to Figgins’s work with Macklin, but pushes the family to a more contemporary place. Each sub family has been designed from the same skeleton, giving designers a broad palette for visual representation and the ability to create with contrast without worrying about awkward pairings. With Macklin, Verlomme shows us it’s possible to create a superfamily that allows for complete visual expression without compromising fluidity. Macklin™ font field guide including best practices, font pairings and alternatives. Featured in: Best Fonts for Websites