Inspired by the diverse and dynamic neighborhoods around their studio, kapitza’s most recent work is about observing and recording the transient nature of inner-city populations. This visual research results in vibrant sets of silhouettes with site-specific names like ‘Liverpool Street’, ‘Victoria Park’ and ‘Brick Lane’. This ongoing project charts the visual component of local transformation, managing to reflect something that is deeper, invisible and beyond the surface. These fresh, creative typologies make sense of sensory overload. Though stark and simple, these silhouettes make the increasingly complex connections between people (s) and place(s). Somehow identities are represented in the absence of context and locations are curiously referenced without surroundings. By focusing on an area’s inhabitants, their work highlights distinct subtleties regarding the interplay time and place.

In the late 1930s, old Egyptiennes (or Italiennes) returned to the collective consciousness of European printers and type houses — perhaps because political news were front a centre, especially in France where Le Figaro newspaper was seeing record circulation numbers. In 1939 both Monotype and Lettergieterij Amsterdam thought of the same idea: Make a new typeface similar to the reverse stress slab shapes that make up the titles of newspapers like Le Figaro and Le Frondeur. Both foundries intended to call their new type Figaro. Monotype finished theirs first, so they ended up with the name, and their type was already published when Stefan Schlesinger finished his take for the Amsterdam foundry. Schlesinger’s type was renamed Hidalgo (Spanish for a lower nobleman, ‘son of something’) and published in 1940 as ‘a very happy variation on an old motif’. Although it wasn’t a commercial success at the time, it was well received and considered subtler and more refined than the similar types available, Figaro and Playbill. In the Second World War, the Germans banned the use of the type, and Hidalgo never really recovered. Upon closer inspection, Schlesinger’s work on Hidalgo was much more Euro-sophisticated and ahead of its time than the too-wooden cut of Figaro and the thick tightness of Playbill. It has a modern high contrast, a squarer skeleton, contour cuts that work similarly outside and inside, and airy and minimal solutions to the more complicated shapes like G, K, M, N, Q and W. It is also much more aware of, and more accommodating to, the picket-fence effect the thick top slabs create in setting. Basilio (named after the signing teacher in Mozart’s Figaro) is the digital revival and major expansion of Hidalgo. With nearly 600 glyphs, it boasts Pan-European language support (most Latin languages, as well as Cyrillic and Greek), and a few OpenType tricks that gel it all together to make a very useful design tool. Stefan Schlesigner was born in Vienna in 1896. He moved to the Netherlands in 1925, where he worked for Van Houten’s chocolate, Metz department store, printing firm Trio and many other clients. He died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz in 1944. Digital revivals and expansions of two of his other designs, Minuet and Serena, have also been published by Canada Type.

C.H. Griffith was commissioned by the American telephone company, Bell, to design a typeface which would be particularly suited to small, compressed sentences and inferior paper quality. The font was intended for use in the company’s telephone books. Griffith had already had experience with the conception of newsprint fonts and was interested in legibility issues. In 1922 Griffith created the Legibility Group, which contained particularly legible fonts predestined for newspapers. Bell Gothic has all the typical characteristics which optimize a font’s legibility. The modern heir of Bell Gothic is Bell Centennial, designed by Matthew Carter in 1974 in celebration of the Bell Company’s 100th birthday.

Brandon Grotesque is a sans serif type family of six weights plus matching italics. It was designed by Hannes von Döhren in 2009/10. Influenced by the geometric-style sans serif faces that were popular during the 1920s and 30s, the fonts are based on geometric forms that have been optically corrected for better legibility. Brandon Grotesque has a functional look with a warm touch. While the thin and the black weights are great performers in display sizes the light, regular and medium weights are well suited to longer texts. The small x-height and the restrained forms lend it a distinctive elegance. Brandon Grotesque is equipped for complex, professional typography. The OpenType fonts have an extended character set to support Central and Eastern European as well as Western European languages. Brandon Grotesque won the TDC2 Award, 2011.

Ardone is a well-modulated humanist serif font family with Garalde roots. A distant ancestor is Minister (a German font designed by Fahrenwaldt in 1929) through my first font, Diaconia Old Style. This first style, book, is slightly condensed and very elegant with thin bracketed serifs. There are many OpenType features with over 600 characters: Caps, lower case, small caps, ligatures, discretionary ligatures, swashes, small cap figures, old style figures, numerators, denominators, accent characters (including CE), ordinal numbers (1st-infinity: lining and oldstyle), and so on. Ardone is designed for text use in body copy.

The first Antique Olive fonts were produced by the French type foundry Olive, in 1962-1966 and designed by poster designer Roger Excoffon (1910-1983). All Excoffons fonts are flamboyant, elegant and highly stylistic. They include the Banco, Mistral, and Calypso fonts. Antique Olive was launched to rival Helvetica and Univers, but the shapes it took were totally refreshing. Antique Olive is probably the most striking Sans Serif since Futura and Gill, and more refined than either. It is perfect for posters and display material as it works well in larger sizes.

A heavy, cartoonish and fun font based on a hand lettered 1960s advertisement. The hand-lettered original gave me the idea to expand this into an OpenType font with multiple interlocking ligatures. There are over 260 alternate ligatures found the in the "Discretionary Ligatures" OpenType Feature, which will lend the font a hand drawn look. The ligature glyphs can also be accessed via the glyph palette. Great for any design that requires a fun and light-hearted mood. Contains language support for both Latin-based and most Eastern European languages.

The 1930 Geneva Motor Show (Salon International De l'Automobile Et Du Cycle) showcased a lot of new cars, but one item in particular took my interest: the amazing art deco poster announcing the show. Lokomotiv font was based on this poster. It is a very deco-ish font, futuristic, angular, with bold squares, rounds and triangles. As I had to work with just a handful of glyphs, and needed to fill an entire font, I made up the missing ones myself. Lokomotiv, by the way, is German for Locomotive.

Lodge Introducing our retro chunky serif font, a bold and nostalgic typeface that brings a classic and timeless design to your projects. With its thick, distinctive serifs and strong character set, this font is perfect for creating eye catching headlines, vintage posters, and stylish branding. Embrace the 1970s-inspired aesthetics with this unique typography that adds a touch of nostalgia to your designs. Whether you're working on print materials, display graphics, or editorial layouts, our retro chunky serif font will give your projects a bold and timeless appeal.

Happy Trails is a font that is based on the lettering (all upper case) used on most Trailways buses from 1936 through the very early 1960s. It also has a newly created set of lower case letters which never existed before. The font was tweaked and digitized by Bob Alonso & John Bomparte. Happy Trails has not only the flavor of the early Trailways buses but also a folksy, Western feel to it, and it’s even a bit silly or goofy, a fun font that has a variety of uses.

Tiemann Antiqua was designed by Walter Tiemann in 1923 and appeared with the Klingspor font foundry. It is one of the modern book typefaces created in the first half of the 20th century, but differed from most in its Modern Face forms. It displays the same strong stroke contrast and flat serifs but its proportions have more in common with those of neorenaissance fonts. Tiemann Antiqua is an elegant, legible font suitable for books and longer texts, but also found in headlines, newspapers and magazines due to its classic yet unusual appearance.

Cooper Black The Cooper Black font should be used in display sizes only. Cooper Blacks serifs are rounded and the counters are small. Cooper Black was designed by Oswald B. Cooper for Barnhart Brothers & Spindler in 1921 for advertising and posters. The capital O and Q of the Cooper Black font are tilted back; in the lowercase, the dot on the I and j become elliptical. The extra bold Cooper Black font has a remarkable personality and reproduces well in sizes over 18 point in titles, subheadings and generally short sentences.

Brody’s fonts borrow elements from both Art Deco and non-Western styles. His designs received international recognition for their innovative, computer-oriented style, reaching almost cult status. Four original Brody fonts are available from Linotype Library GmbH: Insignia, Industria-Solid, Industria Inline and Arcadia. For your convenience, we have gathered all four into one package. Insignia has the basic forms of constructed grotesque fonts and was influenced by the New Typography of the Bauhaus during the 1930s. Its image reflects the Zeitgeist of that age, suggesting technology and progress.

Klagia is a font inspired by the advertising media back in 1970. The glory of printing and handpainted signs and visuals. Emphasizing the bold, loud, yet poppin' and modern retro vibes that will be stylish in any era. It makes Klagia a font that you need to have in your design arsenal. Contains a bunch of Ligatures and Stylistic Alternates to give a distinctive vibe in every message conveyed using Klagia font. Perfectly fit for logo, branding, advertising, poster, food and beverages, restaurant, book cover, album artwork, decoration, sign painting, and many more.

K-Type’s ‘Banks & Miles’ fonts are inspired by the geometric monoline lettering created for the British Post Office in 1970 by London design company Banks & Miles, a project initiated and supervised by partner John Miles, and which included ‘Double Line’ and ‘Single Line’ alphabets. The new digital typeface is a reworking and extension of both alphabets. Banks & Miles Double Line is provided in three weights – Light, Regular and Dark – variations achieved by adjusting the width of the inline. Banks & Miles Single Line develops the less used companion sans into a three weight family – Regular, Medium and Bold – each with an optically corrected oblique. Although the ‘Banks & Miles Double Line’ and ‘Banks & Miles Single Line’ fonts are based on the original Post Office letterforms, glyphs have been drawn from scratch and include numerous adjustments and impertinent alterations, such as narrowing the overly wide Z and shortening the leg of the K. Several disparities exist between the Post Office Double and Single Line styles, and K-Type has attempted to secure greater consistency between the two. For instance, a wide apex on the Double Line’s lowercase w is made pointed to match the uppercase W and the Single Line’s W/w. Also, the gently sloping hook of Single Line’s lowercase j is adopted for both families. The original Single Line’s R and k, which were incongruously simplified, are drawn in their more remarkable Double Line forms, and whilst the new Single Line fonts are modestly condensed where appropriate, rounded letters retain the essentially circular form of the Double Line. Many characters that were not part of the original project, such as @, ß, #, and currency symbols, have been designed afresh, and a full set of Latin Extended-A characters is included. The new fonts are a celebration of distinctive features like the delightful teardrop-shaped bowl of a,b,d,g,p and q, and a general level of elegance not always achieved by inline typefaces. The Post Office Double Line alphabet was used from the early 1970s, in different colours to denote the various parts of the Post Office business which included telecommunications, counter services and the Royal Mail. Even after the Post Office was split into separate businesses in the 1980s, Post Office Counters and Royal Mail continued use of the lettering, and a version can still be seen within the Royal Mail cruciform logo.

A Stylish Technology Sans Serif Initiate began as a digitization of a film typeface from LetterGraphics in the early 70's known as "Kent". The original specimen was only in a Black weight with a tall x-height and included standard Capitals, Lowercase, Numerals and minimal Punctuation. It was a techno style sans-serif, ripe with potential. As a single weight typeface, it yearned for so much more: from family weight development to stylistic variants. We also decided to create a more normalized x-height version as well, leaving the original design as the Display series. Extras we developed for this family are Unicase variants, High & Low hairline position glyphs, as well as other alternate styled characters. The Initiate standard family has 1154 characters per font, while the Display family and Monoline font has 685 characters per font. A comprehensive character map preview is at the end of the poster graphics collection. Opentype features for Initiate Family include: Ligatures Unicase Stylistic Alternate Set Stylistic Set 02 - Limited Alternate Characters (A,K,X,Y,k,u,x,y and variants) Stylistic Set 03 - Lower Hairline Characters (B,C,E,F,G,H,P,R,Æ,a,c,e,r,s and variants) Stylistic Set 04 - M & N alternates Stylistic Set 05 - I alternates Smallcaps Set Smallcaps Lower Hairline Set when Stylistic Set 03 is enabled Limitless Fractions Ordinals Superscript & Subscript Opentype features for Initiate Display Family & Monoline font include: Ligatures Unicase Stylistic Alternate Set Stylistic Set 02 - Limited Alternate Characters (A,K,X,Y,k,u,x,y and variants) Stylistic Set 03 - Lower Hairline Characters (B,C,E,F,G,H,P,R,Æ,a,c,e,r,s and variants) Stylistic Set 04 - M & N alternates Stylistic Set 05 - I alternates Limitless Fractions Ordinals Superscript & Subscript

I love geometric sans serifs, their crispness and rationality. Le Havre taps into this style, but for a while, I've wanted to create a font recalling the printed Futura of the 1940s, which seems to have an elusive quality all its own. After seeing an old manual on a World War II ship, I developed a plan for "Le Havre Metal" but chose to shelve the project due to Le Havre's small x-height. That's where Steagal comes in. When Robbie de Villiers and I began the Chatype project in early 2012 (a project which led one publication to label me the Edward Johnston of Chattanooga!), we started closely studying the vernacular lettering of Chattanooga. During that time, I also visited Switzerland, where I saw how designers were using a new, handmade aesthetic with a geometric base. I was motivated to make a new face combining some of these same influences. The primary inspiration for the new design came from the hand-lettering of sign painters in the United States, circa 1930s through 1950s. My Chatype research turned up a poster from the Tennessee Valley Authority in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which exhibited a number of quirks from the unique hand and style of one of these sign artists. Completing the first draft of Steagal, however, I found that the face appeared somewhat European in character. I turned then to the work of Morris Fuller Benton for a distinctly American take and discovered a number of features that would help define Steagal as a "1930s American" vernacular typeface--features I later learned also inspired Morris Fuller Benton's Eagle. The overall development of Steagal was surprisingly difficult, knowing when to deliberately distort optical artifacts and when to keep them in place. Part of type design is correcting optical illusions, and I found myself absentmindedly adjusting the optical effects. In the end, though, I was able to draw inspiration from period signs, inscriptions, period posters, and architecture while retaining just enough of the naive sensibility. Steagal has softened edges, which simulate brush strokes and retain the feeling of the human hand. The standard version has unique quirks that are not too intrusive. Overshoots have almost been eliminated, and joins have minimal corrections. The rounded forms are mathematically perfect, geometric figures without optical corrections. As a variation to the standard, the “Rough” version stands as the "bad signpainter" version with plenty of character. Steagal Regular comes in five weights and is packed with OpenType features. Steagal includes three Art Deco Alternate sets, optically compensated rounded forms, a monospaced variant, and numerous other features. In all, there are over 200 alternate characters. To see these features in action, please see the informative .pdf brochure. OpenType capable applications such as Quark or the Adobe Creative suite can take full advantage of the automatically replacing ligatures and alternates. Steagal also includes support for all Western European languages. Steagal is a great way to subtly draw attention to your work. Its unique quirks grab the eye with a authority that few typefaces possess. Embrace its vernacular, hand-brushed look, and see what this geometric sans serif can do for you.

Naratif is a condensed display based on an early 1900 sans-serifs and gothic faces and it has 7 weights including italic. Great for anything big and for not so small text or display. With a wide range of latin support, and OpenType features such as Small Caps, Fractions, Alternates Character, Inferior and Arrows.

Pop Tune JNL comes from the hand-lettered title on sheet music for "Does Your Heart Beat for Me?". This 1940s hit was co-written and made famous by Russ Morgan and His Orchestra. Many vintage pieces of sheet music employed hand-lettered titles and cartoon illustrations to emphasize the topic of the song itself.

French Stencil Moderne JNL is modeled from an alphabet found in the 1930s publication "100 Alphabets Publicitaires" by M. Moullet, and is available in both regular and oblique versions. Strongly resembling the stencil motif of Futura Black, this French stencil alphabet has enough variations to give it a unique design flavor all its own.

The Federal Music Project was part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's WPA (Works Progress Administration), putting many people back to work in the Depression years of the 1930s. A hand-lettered poster advertising an "American Music Festival" featuring the Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra offered up the extra bold Art Deco inspiration which became Music Festival JNL

Ornata F is the sixth of a series of old ornaments that I am trying to save from oblivion. I am completely redesigning the ornaments from scratch. These ornaments have been designed around 1910, I could not find out by whom. This set is perfect to design flowery frames. Your digitizing typedesigning savior, Gert Wiescher

Sheet music for a selection from the 1928 musical “New Moon” had the show’s title hand lettered in a bold sans serif that reflected the upcoming Art Deco movement, along with a contoured outline around the letters. This served as the model for Poster Contoured JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Thalia is a wonderful Artdeco typeface design reminiscent of 1900. Very likely, it was originally designed at that time. Unger redesigned the typeface based on old prints, completed the character set and expanded the typeface to cover the full Latin glyph set. Thalia is perfect for anything about theater, such as posters, programs, etc.

Pen Nouveau JNL is a perfect example of the fluid, free-form pen lettering popularized during the Art Nouveau era of the early 1900s. The type face was modeled from the lettering on the cover of a piece of sheet music from 1911 entitled "If You Talk in Your Sleep, Don't Mention My Name".

Inside the book “New Zanerian Alphabets” (1900) by C.P. Zaner is a set of thin monoline letters and numbers along with many chamfered characters offered as alternates to the main design. This simple, but effective type style has been redrawn digitally and is now available as Apprentice Signwriter JNL in both regular and oblique versions.

The 1960 revised edition of Sam Welo’s “Studio Handbook – Letter and Design for Artists and Advertisers” showcases the many interesting lettering designs Welo hand lettered for his book. One such example is an extra-bold serif typeface which is now available as Law Office JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. --------------

A 1940s ad flier for the Los Angeles restaurant “Lucca Paris Inn” had its name hand lettered at the top of the page in a condensed Art Deco slab serif with some stylized characters. Given a more uniform look, the end result became Dining Out JNL and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Another example of 1930s French Art Deco lettering from the 1934 publication L'Art du Tracé Rationnel de la Lettre (which roughly translates to “The Rational Path Art of the Letter”) resulted in the digital typeface French Slab Serif JNL. This bold and slightly eccentric slab serif design is available in both regular and oblique versions.

ITC Snap is the work of American designer David Sagorski and represents both the creativity and humor of the native Kansan. It clealy displays the influence of cartoon graphics of the 1960s and 70s, but does not need to be limited to period or animated graphics. ITC Snap is ideal for headlines which demand attention.

The titles and credits from the 1960 French film “Le Passage Du Rhin” (English release title: “Tomorrow is My Turn”)” are hand made in a free form bold alphabet resembling both cut paper and quickly sketched lettering. This avant garde style inspired the digital type revival, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The typeface (formerly known as Kudryashevskaya Entsiklopedicheskaya) was designed in 1960-1974 by Nikolay Kudryashev and Zinaida Maslennikova at Polygraphmash type design bureau for the Bol'shaya Sovetskaya Entsiklopedia (the Large Soviet Encyclopaedia) publishing house. New improved digital design and extention of character set was done by Natalia Vasilyeva and released by ParaType in 2008

CompassOne was a design I began in 1990 or so, but did not bother to finish until five years later. Its name comes from the fact that all the letters could have been drawn with a compass (which draws circles) and a straight edge. The typeface Demotte was a further development of this design idea.

Overton JNL is based on some of the preliminary letter designs by Rudolf Wolf which evolved into his 1929 type design Memphis and is available in both regular and oblique versions. Memphis was the design model for the later typeface family Stymie and Overton JNL was named after Overton Park; located in Memphis, Tennessee.

From the title on the sheet music for the 1935 composition "Along Tobacco Road" comes Deco Triline JNL in both regular and oblique versions. Reminiscent of Broadway if done as a neon sign, this typeface virtually shouts about the Manhattan nightlife of the 1930s. For maximum readability, space the letters a bit wider than normal.

Riley is an elegant brush Script with its roots in the 1950s American sign painting. Riley has Stylistic Alternates for every lowercase standard character and it’s equipped with Contextual Alternates and Ligatures that keep the flow and connections smooth. Riley is great for headlines and posters or as a logotype with an elegant touch.

WL Dot Matrix is another typographic flashback to computing of the mid 1980s, when 9-pin dot-matrix printers were the state of the art. Compatible with the cleaner WL Rasteroids family, WL Dot Matrix explores some of the common failure modes of old printers: smudging ribbons, slipped tractor feeds, and gummed up print heads.

ITC Juice is the work of American designer David Sagorski and shows a clear influence of cartoon graphics of the 1960s and 70s. The typeface has a number of unique letter forms as well as an extensive set of alternate characters. The creative, humorous ITC Juice hides a subtle sophistication beneath its funky exterior.

Emerge BF was inspired by Admiral, c.1900, from the Keystone Type Foundry. Its relatively condensed proportions allow for a close fit in a distinctive, yet highly legible form. It's a great choice for headlines and text settings (where it shows a beautifully crisp, typographic color) on book covers, magazine advertisements, posters and so forth.

A 1930s WPA (Works Progress Administration) poster advertising an exhibit of New Jersey area posters had its main lettering rendered in a very condensed hand lettered interpretation of the ever-popular Futura Black Art Deco style. This has now been re-drawn and digitized as Art Event JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.