Yalla PRO was inspired during a trip Mateusz Machalski took to Cairo (Egypt). The vast array of strong Arabic headline type, geometric forms working in interesting ways and contrasting with smooth, calligraphic details fed the design. Due to the same proportions and heights, Yalla works great together with Afronaut. Yalla was extended in 2024 by Mateusz Machalski & Małgorzata Bartosik with new weights.

There are a lot of things to say about fashion. I never really cared about what people meant was fashion, at any time of my life...well, not counting my teenage years!!! I was a teenager in the 1980ies and I was really into what was hot or not...but when I look at photos of myself from that time, I always wonder what kind of fashion trends I was following! :) Brutal Fashion is really not brutal in any way, but more attractive, nice, charming, handsome, delicate and graceful - with a stunning amount of handmade roughness!

FranklinGothicHandLight is part of a series of hand-drawn fonts from way back in time – before computers changed the way we worked. When I was in advertising – before computers – a very time consuming part of my daily work was sketching headlines. I used to be able to sketch headlines in Franklin Gothic, Times, Futura, Helvetica and several scripts. We had a kind of huge inverted camera – which we called Lucy. We projected the alphabet onto a sheet of transparent paper, outlined the letters with a fineliner and then filled them in. It was very tedious work, but the resulting headline had its own charm and we had a permanent race going on who was best and fastest. I won most of the time! They used to call me the fastest "Magic Marker" this side of the Atlantic. Great days, just like today! Your sentimental type designer from the past Gert Wiescher

FranklinGothicHandDemi is part of a series of hand-drawn fonts from way back in time – before computers changed the way we worked. When I was in advertising – before computers – a very time consuming part of my daily work was sketching headlines. I used to be able to sketch headlines in Franklin Gothic, Times, Futura, Helvetica and several scripts. We had a kind of huge inverted camera – which we called Lucy. We projected the alphabet onto a sheet of transparent paper, outlined the letters with a fineliner and then filled them in. It was very tedious work, but the resulting headline had its own charm and we had a permanent race going on who was best and fastest. I won most of the time! They used to call me the fastest "Magic Marker" this side of the Atlantic. Great days, just like today! Your sentimental type designer from the past Gert Wiescher

Martin Wilke’s underrated yet influential deco classic from 1932 has both feet firmly planted in the high traditions of Western European calligraphy while carefully and subtly introducing some traits from the sweeping geometric/minimalist vision of the time. In a way, it was one of the representatives of the European anti-type typefaces of that era, when print media was searching for the elusive aesthetic balance between humanism and geometry. This typeface enjoyed some popularity in Germany for a few years, and went on to influence further type designs in Holland and Italy. After the second World War, the black hole that swallowed a big chunk of Europe’s print culture, new influences and technologies overtook the scene, and selective historical emphasis ensued, highlighting some of the era’s designs and overlooking others. Further selective picking in the digital era all but buried Wilke’s body of work - unfairly so, because he was just as important in German type history as Bernhard, Post, Schneidler, Tiemann and Trump. The original metal Wilke Kursiv came in one weight. This digital version goes a long way in expanding on that original offering. Now Wilke’s masterpiece comes in three weights, and with a full Pro treatment including swash caps, small capitals, five types of figures, automatic fractions, and plenty of other OpenType niceties. Each of the Wilke Kursiv Pro fonts comes with over 700 characters, and contains support for most Latin-based languages. Also available are three non-Pro fonts in each weight.

The other day, I ate an orange - and I absolutely love oranges! This one was perfect - juicy, sweet and crispy in a very delicate way. This font is also juicy, sweet and crispy and on top of that, organic and handmade!

Tenison is a semi-formal script which echoes the way the designer was taught to write in school. It is not overly decorative and it is highly legible. All lowercase characters link with each other, just as we were taught.

SK Bade is a demi serif and condensed font. It was designed by Salih Kızılkaya in 2020. This is a completely decorative font, but legibility is at the forefront. In this way, it can be used easily in long texts.

This font was inspired by the swirling steam drawn on a chalkboard at a coffee shop. Not actually a script font though it has a similar feel. This font dances and twirls the way a wisp of smoke or steam would.

I was in a bit of a gloomy mood just before I created this font. I had no inspiration whatsoever (which always affects me in a bad way). I was trying to create a font using broken satay skewers, as using those gives the letters a unique look. I broke about 25 skewers and they all broke ‘the wrong way’. Yes, it’s pathetic, I know, but that’s how it is. I decided to go to the gym and do a little workout, hoping my dark mood would pass. When I came back, I broke one more skewer and lo and behold, it broke exactly the right way! I made this font in one go, using that fantastic skewer and lots of Chinese ink. Darkness Rising comes with all the diacritics you’ll need, plus double letter ligatures and some cool underlined alternates.

I was listening to the radio and a song caught my attention. It was ‘Demagogue’ by a band called the Urban Dance Squad. That song brought back memories from when I was a student, so I decided to name this font after it. Demagogue was made using a Sharpie pen and a piece of expensive paper. The result is a very legible, very neat and very bold font. Demagogue is ideal for when you want to get your message across, but hopefully not in a demagogue-ish way! ;-)

Years ago the company that developed Fontographer marketed a program called Font-o-Matic, a program that distorted fonts in various ways. 99% of what it produced was garbage, but every once in a while it would yield something interesting. Since I had designed a lot of typefaces by that time, I had lots of material to feed it and it was fun to see what it produced. YahoschWormy is one of rare results that was interesting enough to save and clean up. The source font was Yahosch.

Morning News is the sister font of Evening News which I designed some years ago for use with my local newspaper Abendzeitung. Morning News is an adaption, a little bit rounder, which gives the font a much softer touch. The general design dates back to the pre-Hitler era, the time when Germany had already lost the first World War and was taking a short deadly breath to start the second big war. Lets hope there will be a day when there will never be another war in Europe (or elsewhere!). Another new peaceful font by your pacifistic designer, Gert Wiescher.

Sur is a modern minimalist sans-serif typeface available in two weights (normal and bold), with a good shape for big editorial headlines and fashion publications. It was developed during 2009, trying to find a new way to express ideas in editorial projects.

FranklinGothicHandCond is another part of a series of hand-drawn fonts from way back in time – before computers changed the way we worked in advertising. When I was in advertising – before computers – a very time consuming part of my daily work was sketching headlines. I used to be able to sketch headlines in Franklin Gothic, Times, Futura, Helvetica and several scripts. We had a kind of huge inverted camera – which we called Lucy. We projected the alphabet onto a sheet of transparent paper, outlined the letters with a fineliner and then filled them in. It was very tedious work, but the resulting headline had its own charm and we had a permanent race going on who was best and fastest. I won most of the time! They used to call me the fastest "Magic Marker" this side of the Atlantic. Great days, just like today! Your sentimental type designer from the past, Gert Wiescher.

FranklinGothicHandBold is another part of a series of hand-drawn fonts from way back in time – before computers changed the way we worked in advertising. When I was in advertising – before computers – a very time consuming part of my daily work was sketching headlines. I used to be able to sketch headlines in Franklin Gothic, Times, Futura, Helvetica and several scripts. We had a kind of huge inverted camera – which we called Lucy. We projected the alphabet onto a sheet of transparent paper, outlined the letters with a fineliner and then filled them in. It was very tedious work, but the resulting headline had its own charm and we had a permanent race going on who was best and fastest. I won most of the time! They used to call me the fastest "Magic Marker" this side of the Atlantic. Great days, just like today! Your sentimental type designer from the past Gert Wiescher

Originally ZionTrain was built as a (probably first in Cyrillic!) navigation typeface for the Kharkiv identity project and Kharkiv subway and airport navigation systems. We wanted comprehensible, distinctive letterforms, that can help everybody on the way from Babylon to Zion. The project was used in Kharkiv promotion at homeland and abroad, but was rejected by the new government. As a corporate typeface it was used for a few cultural projects. Now it is equipped with Slavic Cyrillic and Monotonic Greek and has special Stencil faces especially for low-budget navigations (don't forget to get your own Stencil Medium for free!).

Sometimes you get an idea stuck in your head and the only way to get rid of that demon is to put something down on paper. A year later the doodles became a skeleton, and then the skeleton had a body, then the body had a name, then the name got a personality. What was left was a clean set of ten fonts that encompass a very simple skeleton with a lot of visual appeal. During the process, I saw ways to expand the typeface's display capabilities by producing inline styles as well as a down-and-dirty rough set. Each font has a full set of glyphs that include Central European and Small Cap characters.

Sometimes you get an idea stuck in your head and the only way to get rid of that demon is to put something down on paper. A year later the doodles became a skeleton, and then the skeleton had a body, then the body had a name, then the name got a personality. What was left was a clean set of ten fonts that encompass a very simple skeleton with a lot of visual appeal. During the process, I saw ways to expand the typeface’s display capabilities by producing inline styles as well as a down-and-dirty rough set. Each font has a full set of glyphs that include Central European and Small Cap characters.

Sometimes you get an idea stuck in your head and the only way to get rid of that demon is to put something down on paper. A year later the doodles became a skeleton, and then the skeleton had a body, then the body had a name, then the name got a personality. What was left was a clean set of ten fonts that encompass a very simple skeleton with a lot of visual appeal. During the process, I saw ways to expand the typeface's display capabilities by producing inline styles as well as a down-and-dirty rough set. Each font has a full set of glyphs that include Central European and Small Cap characters.

Architype Universal is a collection of avant-garde typefaces deriving mainly from the work of artists/designers of the inter-war years, whose ideals underpin the design philosophies of the modernist movement in Europe. Their ‘universal’, ‘single alphabet’ theory limits the character sets. Architype Bayer was drawn from Bauhaus Archiv sketches for a minimal sans typeface that was created in 1925 by Herbert Bayer, based on his single-alphabet student thesis. This ‘universal’ alphabet was designed for exclusive Bauhaus use, but never cut as a typeface.

After the Second World War, the Ionic style replaced Modern Face as the favored typeface for newsprint. A couple decades later, it was in turn replaced by the next generation of newspaper fonts, a mix of Old Face, Transitional and Modern Face forms. Rotation was designed by Arthur Ritzel and presented by Stempel/Linotype in 1971 and named for the rotation newsprint machine for which is was particularly suited. The font displays the influence of Old Face design and gives newsprint a feeling of lightness and elegance.

Paperly is the perfect way to add a friendly, hand-written touch to any project! It's simple and minimalist design conveys a calm and friendly feel. It was designed by Rachel Kick based on original hand-drawn letters. Each character was initially drawn on paper before being transformed into a simple typeface. It has 4 styles that can be combined or used individually to fit the needs of any project.

The front page of a late-1940s sales catalog for the [now defunct] Duro Decal Company of Chicago had its company name hand-lettered in a tall, condensed chamfered sans serif type design. Although chamfered lettering had been popular for decades, the way the "R" was shaped gave the letters a bit of an Art Deco influence, and this influence was carried through in the creation of Durable JNL.

Here's another old-timer that needed a lowercase, so we drew one. Originally issued as a caps-only type by The American Type Founders Company about 1898, this font found its way into Craftsman period design. It was the inspiration for Galadriel, a dry transfer sheet alphabet.

Thymesans was one of Chank’s earliest fonts, created way back in 1994 for CAKE Magazine. Sometimes it's got serifs, sometimes it doesn't. “What a weird and fickle futuristic font!” says Chank. Emancipate your designs with this decidedly modern font. Good for funk or country album covers.

The design of Bramber was inspired by Allied propaganda posters of the second World war, especially Russian posters. It has a distinctive solid, geometric appearance. 
Bramber also has a feel of mid 1980s design. Bramber is ideal for use as a distinctive headline or display font.

I really like the UK and I quite enjoy the British slang. Off Yer Trolley is one such expression. It means ‘behaving in an unusual way or doing something silly’. It just popped in my head when I was looking for a name for this rather silly font. Off Yer Trolley is a handmade cartoon or kids font. As the name implies, this font certainly behaves in an unusual way and you can use it for something silly as well!

Ishtar was the Babylonian goddess of war, fertility, love and sex - all in all a lethal combination. She wasn't the sweetheart her lovers had hoped for; I guess the 'war' part in her resume is a dead give-away. Ishtar font is no sweetheart either: it doesn't have a real baseline and its spooky character might not be everyone's cup of tea. It does have a certain charm, however, and befitting a Babylonian goddess, it comes with Babylonian language support!

Kwikspeed is a italic display font that was developed from typography used in e sport themed design work. The font is designed so that the capital letters link together in a cool way. The font includes lots of alternative capital letters to provide many different options allowing you more versatility. The same goes for the ligatures - they also present cool ways of displaying letter combinations. The font includes uppercase, lowercase, numbers, alternative capitals, discretionary ligatures, basic Latin international and punctuation characters.

The roots of this font go back to 1967. A book title in trendy letters was created in a completely ingenuous way as a film prop for a Super 8 fun film. I drew the letters with felt-tip pen and poster paint without thinking too much about it. It wasn't until a good 50 years later that I realized, this was a first awkward typeface draft. The flower power vibe was captured here subconsciously. In 2019 I completed the few glyphs and created variants that I would not have thought of at the time.

Years ago the company that developed Fontographer marketed a program called Font-o-Matic, a program that distorted fonts in various ways. 99% of what it produced was garbage, but every once in a while it would yield something interesting. Since I had designed a lot of typefaces by that time, I had lots of material to feed it and it was fun to see what it produced. KolkFizzy is one of rare results that was interesting enough to save and clean up. The source font is Kolkman.

The design idea for this condensed sans serif stencil font was inspired by a post-World War II brass stencil spotted in an online auction. The United States was assisting Europe with much-needed goods, and the text in the middle of a “stars and stripes” shield used for marking the shipping containers read “For European Recovery supplied by the United States of America”. It was the first line (“For European Recovery”) that became the working model for Supplier Stencil JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Years ago the company that developed Fontographer marketed a program called Font-o-Matic, a program that distorted fonts in various ways. 99% of what it produced was garbage, but every once in a while it would yield something interesting. Since I had designed a lot of typefaces by that time, I had lots of material to feed it and it was fun to see what it produced. BaumSquiggle is one of rare results that was interesting enough to save and clean up. The source font is Baumfuss.

When letterpress started with the Gutenberg Bible, the typeface was like a texture. Before humanism, type did not really need to be legible. The letters were rather drawn in an ornamental way. It filled a space. My idea for Matrona was to create a similar structure. I wanted it to be very bold and still as legible as possible. The result was a headline typeface that can fill spaces. You can even fill it with a picture. Or you create an ornament with contents. There are 3 weights to extend the usage to different sizes.

The roots of this font go back to 1967. A book title in trendy letters was created in a completely ingenuous way as a film prop for a Super 8 fun film. I drew the letters with felt-tip pen and poster paint without thinking too much about it. It wasn't until a good 50 years later that I realized, this was a first awkward typeface draft. The flower power vibe was captured here subconsciously. In 2019 I completed the few glyphs and created variants that I would not have thought of at the time.

RMU Siegfried Pro is another breathtaking Art Nouveau font from the fin-de-siècle period which underlines your stylish projects in a remarkable way. The font was carefully redesigned, some oddieties abolished, and the font was extended to make it usable for Central European languages too. Three embedded graphic elements let you make a fitting frame. The letter k has an alternative form, so look for all OT features in this font.

Lettering has an unusual way of adapting itself to many needs. The type style for Sporting Chance JNL was based on metal house identification letters used for Welcome Home JNL. The same type of block design was prevalent in 1920s-1930s era window signage via die-cut foil characters. Yet we tend to nowadays associate block lettering with sports-themed items. No matter the application, Sporting Chance JNL will fill the bill.

A 1917 informational poster for shipbuilders during World War I detailing the importance of their governmental work was hand lettered in a style closely resembling Cooper Black, yet retaining its own look and feel. This inspired Industrial Poster JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.