Broad pen script typeface from 1930s and 40s; magazine advertising.

Broad pen script typeface from 1930s and 40s; magazine advertising.

Broad pen script typeface from 1930s and 40s; magazine advertising.

F. H. Schneidler’s ‚Kontrast‘, released by Weber in 1930, revived.

In 1990 I designed the font XLeafMeAlone. In 2006 I decided that it was time to improve it. Instead of adding to it, I created two new fonts containing almost 200 leaves: MapleOaks and More Leaves. Among the leaves you will find in MoreLeaves are elm, cottonwood, tulip tree, ash, hickory, locust, ginko, aspen, sassafras, hawthorn, beech, and birch. There are also a few that come from shrubs and I am not sure what they are, but they looked interesting so I put them in. You will not find oaks, maples, or sycamores--they are in MapleOaks. Why leaves? Because people like them. As a large part of the biological world that is all around us, leaves are fascinating in their shapes and endless variations. In XLeafMeAlone I took about 50 shapes and rotated them 180 degrees to give a typeface with approximately 100 glyphs. In each of these two typefaces, MoreLeaves and MapleOaks, there are almost 100 glyphs. Each of those glyphs is rotated in 90-degree increments to yield two families of four typefaces that should be very useful if one wants to create borders of leaves.

An example from the vintage lettering book "100 Alphabets Publicitaire" ("100 Advertising Alphabets") provided the inspiration for French Lettering JNL. This stylized Victorian [or Western] type face evokes the era of fanciful lettering design from the late 1800s. Available in both regular and oblique versions.