Moore 003 was inspired by Henryk Tomaszewski's poster lettering for the Moore Exibition (Warsaw, Poland 1959). The headline "Moore" is composed of paper collage. The lettering, in Tomaszewski's vision, contrasts in ways that recall the contrast of Moore's sculptures. It was my intention to continue this research using lettering in the form of a typeface.

This was put together by Dan X. Solo to provide a quick way to set headings for a circus brochure. The name was given in recognition of the Baraboo Circus Museum. The end pieces are in pairs on the uppercase keys A-B, C-D, etc. The alphabet itself is in the lowercase position.

Franklin Gothic Hand Demi Shadow is another one in my series of hand-drawn fonts from way back in time – before computers changed the way we worked in advertising. This one was especially used for what we called "pork-belly-ads": ads for food-stores! I think it is very useful for all kinds of advertising that demands a lot of bang! Your powerful typedesigner Gert Wiescher

Rock Face was inspired by a crude but effective home made sign I came across advertising a garage sale. The lettering was created using sticky black insulation tape which, like a child's drawing, had a certain naive charm. The type design presented here is obviously more considered, but I like to think it has the same raw dynamism.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy in all English history began in 1642 when, for five years, families and friends were divided by violent struggle. Respect for the monarchy was as great then as it is today; but it was squandered by Charles I and Civil War ensued. Out of Cromwell's eventual victory came a period of absolute rule just as arbitrary. In communicating the affairs of Court, Mercurius Aulicus can claim to be England's first regular newspaper, printed at Oxford and reprinted in London almost throughout the entire war. This typeface family echoes the calligraphic scripts of newspaper cartoons of the time.

The Art Nouveau hand lettered title on the sheet music for the 1909 composition "If the Wind Had Only Blown the Other Way" was the basis for Courtship JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Reserv was inspired by a logo, which I crated for the company, EVROTERM. Once I saw this logo I asked myself: "Why not font based on this? In two or three weight?" For use in advertising and display typography.

Zapped is a grungy font with a sort of extruded look. I was working on a poster for the punk band MAXILLA (they are hot check'm out). It looks like it came out of a war zone. Abuse it!

I saw an old logo for Giro d'Italia on telly, and was just smitten by the truly ugly type: just ruler and compass work, no intakes or optical corrections whatsoever. I just had to turn that into a font.

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.

Inspired by a find a coarse but decorative font was created. "Fundstueck" ist the German term for it. Fonts can be so simple. That is what I was thinking as my attention was turned to this rusty piece of metal. Only a few centimeters in size, I couldn’t imagine which purpose it might truly serve. But my eyes also saw an E, even a well-proportioned E: a width to height ratio of approximately 2/3, black and fine strokes with a 1/2 proportion — could I create more characters on this basis? Thought it, did it. The form is based on a 5mm unit. The strikingly thick middle stroke of E suggests that the emphasis is not necessarily placed on the typical stroke, and likewise with the other characters. But if the font is going to be somewhat legible, then you cannot leave out slanted strokes completely. Eventually I found enough varying solutions for all letters of the alphabet and figures. A font designed in this way doesn’t really have to be extremely legible, which is why I forwent creating lower case letters. Nevertheless, Fundstueck still contains some diverse forms in the layout of upper and lower case letters. Thus, the typeface is a bit richer in variety. By the way — the “lower” letters with accents and umlauts stay between the baseline and cap height. And with that, you get wonderful ribbon-type lines.

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.

Blastered was originally inspired by an old horror movie poster - but I find it more laid back and less horrifying…but feel free to use Blastered for your next horror project and use the more than 300 interlocking ligatures! Wow!

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

Drawn with a loose hand and keeping the eye off what's considered right (regarding typefaces) Bonkey saw the light of day on a napkin during dinner, and was scanned, cleaned up (just a bit) It's an unpredictable font that just wants to have some fun!

The idea for this came from a logo I saw which was adapted and simplified to make this font. Almost italic in appearance, it can be used as an alternative sans stencil although that wasn't envisaged at the start. An Italic is also available.

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!).

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.