String Theory has been a 10+ year project in the making which originated from a type workshop in Graduate School at Otis College of Art & Design. The workshop was hosted by Dutch designer Hansje Van Halem, and we were tasked to play with string to create letterforms. Thus String Theory was born, and slowly migrated from yarn, to an illustrator file, to what it is today as a type family. Each glyph has it’s own custom string set up, along with each weight. Experimental in nature, edgy, with subliminal angst and grittiness.

The Bitstream version of Monotype Rockwell, 1934. Twentieth-century design influence is revealed in strokes of more even weight than in the original nineteenth-century Egyptians or Slab Serifs. Rockwell is a prime example of this twentieth-century approach. It seems to be a simple Constructivist geometric sans with strong square slab serifs added to. Angular terminals make its sturdy design particular sparkling. It is a strong face for headlines and posters, and is legible in very short text blocks. Cyrillic version was developed at ParaType in 2000 by Isay Slutsker and Manvel Shmavonyan.

Stubby is a display type family with 11 styles, was made for titles, headlines and also packages, posters and everything that provide space for a rude, fat and widish type. You should try Stubby in your text blocks if you're looking for an informal shape with some handwriting taste, there are eleven styles mixing from a narrowed thin to a sloppy ultrabold. Stubby has a tight spacing made to fit in squeeze places, not so elegant or clean but definitely an original choice for your real life project.

This square serif typeface is a real workhorse. It is a modern tool for text design: extremely legible, pan-european multilingual (Latin, Greek and Cyrillic), well shaped. Bandera Pro has six weights with original italics, alternatives, small capitals and three sets of digits. It catches attention in headlines of posters and magazines or makes reading comfortable in plain texts. Bandera Pro shares main proportions with sans serif Osnova Pro typefamily so ideally can pair it. Bandera is Spanish for ‘flag’. And Bandera is a symbol of Ukrainian fighting for freedom for many years.

Ljubljana was inspired by art deco lettering seen in Slovenia, Croatia and Romania. It includes the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic alphabets. It is named after the capital of Slovenia. Ljubljana is unicase, composed of as few basic glyphs as possible. The basic glyphs are shown in black, and the derived or duplicated glyphs in grey. Ljubljana attempts to encapsulate the essence of both upper and lower case designs in a single glyph. It also explores the common origins of the Greek, Latin, and Cyrillic alphabets, using the same glyph in more than one alphabet.

Backwash AOE is a typeface I drew up back in 2000 inspired by various graffiti artists. Coming across all of my sketches recently and seeing a trend lately in graffiti inspired styles, I finally came around to finishing it up digitally for release. I love the break the rules, wildchild aspect, of graffiti lettering. And while this typeface is nothing like the wilder inspirations that I spawned this typeface from, it has a more legible direction to it, retaining just the flavor of the originals. I hope you enjoy it.

Foundry Old Style was the first typeface to be released by The Foundry. Inspired by the incunabula typefaces of Nicolas Jensen, the letterforms were first created as calligraphy, with the aim of retaining the structure and free form of the pen stroke in the final drawing development. The resulting face is a contemporary translation that retains the classical tradition of the transitional roman style. Originally conceived as a text face, with a small weight range for good book work, Foundry Old Style is a versatile design that contrasts and compliments Foundry Sans.

Architype Konstrukt is a collection of avant-garde typefaces deriving mainly from the work of artists/designers of the inter-war years, whose ideals have helped to shape the design philosophies of the modernist movement in Europe. Due to their experimental nature character sets may be limited. Architype Van der Leck originates from the lettering that Bart Van der Leck created for ‘Flax’ magazine in 1941. The letterforms‘ restricted shapes and abstract, stencil-like forms reflect the strong geometric language of De Stijl and show influence from his abstract paintings.

The inspiration source for Chaoxiang Monogram is another hand-drawn treasure from a vintage embroidery publication which plays on the anglo-version of chinese letters with stabbing strokes and the charm of the orient. While the original intent of this monogram style is uncertain, the possibilities of its use are up to your imagination. This is one of many monogram designs from the early 1900’s which fall into a two letter format bound within a framing element. Download and view the MFC Chaoxiang Guidebook if you would like to learn a little more.

The Xavier family of typefaces is based on the delightful deco typeface called Ashley Crawford, originally designed in 1930 by Ashley Havinden. After designing Xavier Black (Serif) and Xavier Sans Black, I added Bold Sans, Medium and Medium Sans and finally added lowercase to the medium weights. Although more manageable than Ashley Crawford, Xavier, due to its very playful nature (splayed A, M, etc.) needs to be used with care, especially in terms of spacing. Xavier is a playful typeface and I have been particularly pleased to see it used in children's books.

Ciutadella Display is the extreme partner of the popular Ciutadella family for use in large sizes. The weight has been taken to the limit in both directions. It is available in Open Type format and includes Alternate Characters, Ligatures, Tabular Figures, Fractions, Numerators, Denominators, Superiors and Inferiors. It supports Central and Eastern European languages. The type family consists of 12 styles, 6 weights (Thin, UltraLight, ExtraLight, ExtraBold, Black and UltraBlack) plus italics, creating an expanded and really flexible system. See also the original Ciutadella, Ciutadella Rounded and Ciutadella Slab.

The inspiration source for MFC Gilchrist Monogram is an extremely ornamented letterset from a vintage embroidery publication from the early 1900's. We’ve digitally recreated the ornamental glyphs from the original design, and created a matching set of smallcaps in order to offer more versatility with this monogram. We have also created two additional sets of alternate glyphs with different fills for more variations. Experiment with all of these in different combinations for unique designs. Download and view the MFC Gilchrist Monogram Guidebook if you would like to learn a little more.

Thomas Oldfield’s typeface, Reaper, is reminiscent of inscribed Greek letterforms but he claims that its origin is much simpler than that. “I recall”, Tom says, “that I just began the design by making the uppercase ‘I’ and continued using it to make up the other characters.” The cap only typeface has alternate cap forms in the lowercase positions, including a vastly scaled downed O and Q that make for some unusual text settings. Contrary to what the name might have you believe, there’s a lot of life in this quirky typeface.

A mid-1950s hand lettered ad for Stenso Lettering Guides provided the inspiration for Stencil Company JNL, now available in both regular and oblique versions. The Stenso Lettering Company of Baltimore, Maryland pioneered easy-to-use and inexpensive lettering devices with guide holes for accurate spacing. Originally designed by a school teacher (Ruth Libauer Hormats) around 1940, the company was family run until it was sold in 1962 to Ottenheimer Publishers. They in turn sold the line to the Dennison Manufacturing Company, and it was discontinued in the 1980s after Dennison merged with Avery.

New Alphabet was created as a four weight family in close collaboration with Wim Crouwel. His response in the late 1960s to the first device for electronic typesetting was a radical experiment designed to follow the underlying dot-matrix system. With his strong interest in grids, Crouwel worked within the constraints of existing electronic technology, to produce characters that worked with the mechanical means that conveyed them. His original New Alphabet experiments have now been further developed by The Foundry into a typeface family that also includes the dot version.

This sleek, high contrast typeface means business, but it looks great on any project, no matter how big or small. Solitas Contrast was developed because existing high contrast sans options were neither modern nor crisp. This design challenge was solved through a series of typefaces: the original low-contrast Solitas, its serifed cousins, and now a high contrast sans—each carefully considered for an organic and free flowing look. It evokes a Dutch or european feel. Solitas Contrast is a modern, clean sans-serif with a distinctive style and impact.

Linotype Red Babe is part of the Take Type Library, chosen from the entries of the Linotype-sponsored International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. With Red Babe, Austrian designer Moritz Majce produced an energetic typeface which gives an impression of movement and change. The letter forms seem to be composed of countless fragments which can’t sit still, fragments which make the original forms burst and then draw them back together with their own rhythm. Linotype Red Babe is best used for headlines in larger point sizes.

The specimen book Alphabete: ein Schriftatlas von A bis Z identified the pattern for this typeface as Stymie Black Flair. Although neither the designer nor the original foundry is identified, it bears a strong resemblance to the work of Dave West for Photolettering in the 60s and 70s. Big, beautiful and bodacious, it’s a natural choice for attention-grabbing headlines. Many alternate characters available: see the full character map. The PC PostScript, TrueType and OpenType versions contain the complete Latin language character set (Unicode 1252) plus support for Central European (Unicode 1250) languages as well.

ITC Cushing has a long history. The typeface was originally designed by J. Stearns Cushing, a Boston-based book printer, and famous American type designer Frederic Goudy expanded it to include an italic weight. Under a special license from the American Type Founders, Vincent Pacella modified the design for ITC and added some additional weights. ITC Cushing is slightly condensed with large, bracketed serifs. Pacella changed the capital letters to better complement the lower case and replaced the sloping serifs of the italics to linear type serifs to produce ITC Cushing.

Rundfunk Grotesk was produced together with Rundfunk Antiqua by the Linotype Design Studio in 1933-1935. The combination was originally intended for small point sizes and shorter texts. Unfortunately, this typeface was never completed and consists only of Antiqua roman and Grotesk bold. This unusual combination was chosen because small newspaper ads often use a semi bold for the headlines and a regular antique for the text. Rundfunk Grotesk is intended to be used exclusively in headlines and reflects in its unique character the spirit of the 1930s.

Typold originated out of the desire to improve geometric forms and push beyond previous achievements through collaborative working methods and knowledge sharing. The result is a finely balanced modern sans serif constructed from mathematical inputs, typographers needs, and the natural hand and eye of an artisan. Details include nine weights and matching italics, three separate widths, 1000 characters with an alternative lowercase a and y, small caps, 12 variations of numerals, Opentype features inferiors, superiors, fractions, case sensitive punctuation, extended symbols including emoji's and language support covering Western, South and Central Europe.

Elida JNL was modeled from an image of some wood type for sale online. Although the type design most likely has its roots in the classic Bodoni, there were a few characters in the original wood type that had a bit of a square or block shape to them. Those characters were modified in order to keep with the overall roundness of the other characters. The name Elida JNL comes from a small town in New Mexico. Available in six styles: Regular, Oblique, Extra Condensed, Extra Condensed Oblique, Ultra Condensed and Mega Condensed.

Lewis is a stencil typeface inspired by vintage sign painting. Lewis is designed for display use within printed publications as it has a high contrast of organic forms. Lewis consists of 3 styles; Classic, Display and Inline. Each style is based on the same skeleton but with a different personality. The Classic style is a simple and elegant stencil typeface which is also the original structure of Lewis. The Display style features intertwined flourish like parts and the last member of the family is the Inline style which features subtle internal details.

A 1942 photograph showing the exterior of the famous Hollywood restaurant Sardi’s and it’s unusually lettered sign was the inspiration for Fine Food JNL. Classically Art Deco, the Sardi’s sign had an ‘S’ looking like an inverted ‘J’ with a flat tail, a traditional ‘A’ replaced by a triangle and the ‘R’ composed of a ‘D’ with a diagonal extension. These elements were balanced against more traditional [but complementary] characters to retain the novel charm of the original signage. Fine Food JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Metalet Modern JNL was based on the letters found within the Metalet Movie Titling Set manufactured by the Modern Display Advertising Company of Hollywood, California circa the 1940s. Each stamped metal letter would be affixed to the background surface via the use of miniature magnets. Once in place, titles for home movies or slides could be photographed, the letters then returned to their storage area in their box. The character shapes show unusual stroke movement, which means the original models used for these letters were most likely hand-drawn.

Creating the condensed version for the Brandon Text was the missing project to complete the Brandon series. Brandon Text was created as a companion to Brandon Grotesque. When we started to designed Brandon Grotesque Condensed we felt that there should also a condensed counterpart for small sizes; so we made Brandon Text Condensed. While a condensed typeface is not just a squeezed original, we took the Grotesque Condensed as a starting point for the Text Condensed version simultaneously we also kept an eye on Brandon Text to find the perfect missing variables.

Spark a revolution for a better future with Spark Sans. Super clean and geometric, this display typeface is ideal for tech, transportation, electronic music, revolutionary products or other disruptive ideas that move us beyond the present. Spark Sans has a relatively high x-height and squared off curves that give it a distinctive look while still maintaining a minimalist aesthetic. The design originated with custom lettering for the Primitive Spark identity, which became the foundation for the bold style. With 260 glyphs, Spark Sans is a great choice for many languages with Latin characters.

The first three weights of the family were designed at ParaType (ParaGraph) in 1997 by Dmitry Kirsanov . They were based on the artworks of Moscow graphic designer Andrey Kryukov (1923-1997). The original version was developed by Kryukov at the end of the sixties for Russian railways. The proportions and elements of construction were inspired by Eurostile (1962) by Aldo Novarese. It is intended for use in advertising and display typography. In 2009, Dmitry added the new styles, corrected the old ones, and enhanced them with extended character sets.

Ayita is a new sans serif design by Jim Ford and Steve Matteson. Ayita is a Cherokee name which translates to first in dance" and recalls the rhythm and flow of this new typeface. Originally conceived as an upright italic design, Ayita remains contemporary, friendly and hard working. The open shapes render faithfully at small point sizes and on device screens while the compact design allows more characters per line for headlines. Ayita is a useful design for a wide variety of uses including interfaces, spreadsheets, greeting cards and banners."

Kozmetica is new original elegance from the dynamic team of Koziupa and Paul. Soft, warm forms made of pensively fluid strokes make for comfortable and classy delivery with just enough ornamentation to evoke the rich days of art deco. Kozemtica comes with plenty of alternates, focusing in particular on the degree of lowercase ornamentation. The setting can be simple and straightforward, or swashed with hairlines seamlessly emanating and swirling from beginning or ending forms. Designed by Koziupa and digitized by Ale Paul, Kozmetica’s ideal use is in packaging design.

The evocative and original Retrofit is based on typefaces of the 1940s and 50s, which extolled the virtues of American products in glossy magazines for the new suburban consumer. Oversized terminal bulbs and occasional slab serifs lend a rhythm and a bouncing baseline provides just the "zing" to spice up that bland typographic treatise. Retrofit's easy familiarity can be seen on children's books, games, food packaging, and other places where a kid friendly note is needed. Retrofit has been adapted by Quickutz for their punched letter cutting tool, and re-named "Maggie".

Originally designed by American type designer Morris Fuller Benton in 1933, Agency Gothic is a wonderful, narrow, squarish art deco typeface. I was commissioned by Publish magazine to create digital versions of Agency Gothic Open and Agency Gothic Condensed for a redesign in 1990. Since then, I have added four other styles. Agency Gothic CT is uppercase only and supports most European languages that use the Latin or Cyrillic alphabets. The Agency Gothic CT family is available in six weights/styles: Light, Medium, Bold, Condensed, Inline, and Open.

Akkordeon Slab is the next step in a series of ultra display typefaces. The new Slab version shares the same skeleton and spirit as the original Akkordeon, putting the same concepts into a different shape. Akkordeon Slab provides a stronger voice that enriches the whole family, becoming especially suitable for sports, business, fashion or any situation that requires impact headlines. Learn more about the Akkordeon design process at the Emtype's Blog. See also the Akkordeon Slab PDF. Check out Akkordeon which is a great pair for Akkordeon Slab.

Poplar is an Adobe Originals typeface designed by Barbara Lind in 1990 for the Adobe Wood Type series. Poplar, a Gothic condensed, was designed from photographs taken by Rob Roy Kelly of the one surviving copy of an 1830 William Leavenworth type specimen book. Leavenworth possessed unusual artistic abilities, and his treatment of the letterform counters as narrow slits made it the only wood type of its kind displayed during the nineteenth century. Poplar is an excellent display face, its simplicity making it useful for a broad range of work.

BachelorScript is the preliminary design for GraduateScript, released in june 2013. You can clearly see the resemblance between the two, but while Bachelor is frisky and authentic, Graduate is more polished and staged. GraduateOrnaments was originally designed to complement GraduateScript, but it can be used just as well in combination with BachelorScript. BachelorScript has a casual look and feel and comes in two weights: regular and bold. It offers multiple language support, five numeral styles, real fractions and ligatures for double letters. Various glyphs to mark, underline, circle or cross-out words are also included.

The original sheet music for Ted (Is Everybody Happy?) Lewis’ signature tune, When My Baby Smiles at Me, inspired this whimsical wonder. The sheet music was discovered in the Library of Congress American Memory Collection, an incredible online resource. The typeface gets its name from a slightly loony early 1900s comic strip by Fontaine Fox. This new and improved version has beefed-up outlines, so it renders well even at smaller sizes. Both versions contain the complete Unicode 1252 (Latin) and Unicode 1250 (Central European) character sets, with localization for Romanian and Moldovan.

Colmena studio presents Chula, a geometric typeface 100% original, traced in the beginning by hand, chula is not based in any other typeface, each glyph was drawn in base of circles and rectangles, the tail of certain glyphs gives to the typeface and designs fluency and movement. Chula is fresh and modern but with a little touch of vintage, ideal for big texts and formats, but also legible in small size. You can use it in 3 versions, regular, medium full and full. It works perfectly in logos, monograms and patterns.

Saffron is an elegant contemporary neo-grotesque sans-serif typeface with strong stylistic geometric contrasts, drawing on the aesthetics and the typographic standards of Swiss modernism. The distinctive wide-open stance was designed to give the right visual consistency for branding and communications. This authentic and original typeface represents the shifting contemporary aesthetics. Saffron is perfectly suited for headlines, large-format prints, brand identities, social media, advertising, editorial design, posters, magazines, logos, headings, and more. The Saffron family includes six weights, with their relative italics with over 700 glyphs and multi-language support.

Calcite Pro is a contemporary sans serif italic typeface designed by Japanese type designer Akira Kobayashi. Although it derives its basic character from the italic scripts of the Italian Renaissance, Kobayashi has utilized a highly stylized and rational approach to create an inspired modern Adobe Originals adaptation. Calcite Pro's geometric form and almost crystalline texture evoke images of its mineral namesake. The dynamic appearance of this retro chancery script adds a strong graphic presence to modern typesetting, whether it is used on its own or in conjunction with more traditional typefaces.

Kopik is a modern hand-drawn script inspired by the 1960's architectural handwriting style practised by draftsmen. Originated using a Copic 1.0 Multiliner pen, then traced digitally using a stylus and tablet to help reduce imperfections. The result is a simple, readable, monolinear typeface with a marker pen quality suitable for a wide range of written applications. Details include 440 characters, three weights with matching italics, alternative a, g, and y four numerals variations. Opentype features inferiors, superiors, fractions and language support covering Western, South and Central Europe.