Spur Stencil JNL gets its inspiration from the single word "stencils" lettered on a vintage package of Glass Wax Christmas stencils.

An antique hand-cut brass stencil of the phrase "No Hunting on These Premmises" (with the word "premises" misspelled) was the model for Brassmark Stencil JNL.

Paris Doodles... memories of a feeling, a rainy afternoon, a glass of wine, an outdoor cafe, a metro stop… 28 hand drawn whimsical icons and 2 scripted words. Ooh la la!

Utshani means "grass" in the African language: Zulu. Grass has softness but it also has great strength and many African craft implements are made from it. When we describe someone as being "like the grass", it is meant as a compliment for it means that they can be tender and strong. The fluid African font, Utshani, was designed to suggest the flexibility and strength of grass. In this way it contrasts with the majority of other "African-inspired" fonts, which tend to be heavy and hard-edged. It can be used in a wide variety of situations, in adverts and on posters and invitations. The font includes all upper and lower case letters, all numerals and punctuation as well as all special and accented characters. The font has been professionally letterspaced and kerned, and the inter-line gap has been carefully checked.

Formalized from some hand lettering by the multifaceted Jugendstil designer Bruno Mauder, perhaps better known for his work in glass and ceramics.

The design idea for Meter Room JNL comes from a vintage brass hand-cut stencil of the words "High Voltage". What makes this stencil font a bit different than others is the placement and angle of some of the "breaks" within the letters.

Lumberyard Stencil JNL was inspired by the image of an antique brass stencil that was probably used for marking various wood products by a lumber company. It's available in both regular and oblique versions.

Bouteilles is French for bottles. No fancy name this time, just bottles. You’re probably wondering why I chose this name… Well, I was taking out the glass (in Holland we recycle just about everything, glass, paper, plastic, metal, garden and kitchen waste, etc.), which included a number of French wine bottles. As I was throwing them into the underground container one block from where I live, I realised that the word Bouteilles actually sounds great and it would be a nice name for a font! Yes, it is that simple! Bouteilles is a nice brush font I made with my trusted Chinese ink and a really worn brush I found. It comes with all the diacritics you need plus two sets of alternates, which you can play with!

Inspired by the lettering on Koloman Moser’s poster design for Fromme’s Calendar (circa 1912), Nouveau Calendar JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions. According to Wikipedia: “Koloman Moser (30 March 1868 – 18 October 1918) was an Austrian artist who exerted considerable influence on twentieth-century graphic art and one of the foremost artists of the Vienna Secession movement and a co-founder of Wiener Werkstätte. Moser designed a wide array of art works, including books and graphic works from postage stamps to magazine vignettes; fashion; stained glass windows, porcelains and ceramics, blown glass, tableware, silver, jewelry, and furniture.”

An image spotted online showed a rendering of a ladies’ fashions storefront that had appeared in the Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Company’s 1939 brochure. The signage consisted of the hand lettered word ‘Apparel’, and was done in a variant of the Art Deco stencil style of lettering that’s most recognizable in Futura Black. From these few sign letters came the inspiration for a digital font of the same name, Apparel JNL – which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The sight refracted through glass is mysterious. The san serif font was designed to look like it is visible through glass. Try using beautiful fonts. I put a lot of effort into each and every letter.

Stencil Sheet JNL was modeled from an antique brass stencil sign that was custom hand punched for the customer. Sets of punch dies were available for years that allowed rubber stamp shops and similar trades to make custom stencils out of sheets of zinc or brass.

An old brass stencil of the word 'large' was spotted for sale in an online auction. What set it apart from many other vintage stencil items was the beautiful, hand-punched Western letters with a diamond-shape center. Those five letters served as the basis for Old Chisholm JNL, which retains the look and hand-made charm of the original metal stencil.

The origin of this font was a frieze in the RAF Chapel in Westminster Abbey which Michael Harvey was commissioned to design and create. It was comprised of the names of the top brass in wartime Bomber Command, namely Dowding, Harris, Newall, Tedder, Portal and Douglas. The Brief was to cut the letters in bronze and gild them. Instead, they were cut in perspex and gilded. To sit comfortably within the long and narrow vertical space available beneath the chapel’s stained glass window, extended letterforms were used with many vertical serifs omitted and with lengthened horizontal serifs. Some twenty years later, the missing upper-case letters were drawn together with the lowercase letters and Frieze, the font, was born. Subsequently, additional weights and styles were added to create a font family of six styles.

This cheerful charmer is based on Glass-Antiqua, designed by Franz Paul Glass for the Genzsch & Heyse foundry of Hamburg in 1912. Great for engaging headlines with a playful twist. Both versions feature the complete Latin 1252, Central European 1250 and Turskish 1254 character sets, with localization for Lithuanian, Moldovan and Romanian.

Narrow Roman Stencil JNL was modeled from a vintage brass sign for identification of a ballroom.

An assortment of antique, hand-punched brass stencils from Australia [used for crate marking and shipping] served at the models for Aussie Stencil JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. The lettering of the original stencil punches had rounded edges to the characters; looking more machine rendered than hand punched into the brass sheets.

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.

Dangereous can on E, sharp grass on C, strong tree on O, drop of water on N and hand shovel on S = ECONS, set of 52 ecological symbols made after spending one day fishing on the river in my municipality and seeing so miscellaneous garbages in the water.

The 1935 catalog for Vitrolite (a brand of pigmented structural glass) featured artist renderings of how the glass could be applied to business exteriors. One of the lettering styles used in these examples was an Art Deco lower case. This design has been turned into a digital typeface called Retail Establishment JNL and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Tanker Stencil JNL is a sans serif design based on a vintage hand-punched brass marking stencil for oil barrels.

With electronics taking over virtually every aspect of manufacturing, packaging and shipping, it's almost difficult to envision a time when wooden crates were marked for identification by using brass stencils. Many of these stencils were hand-cut or manufactured with special punches that perforated the brass sheets with pre-formed letters and numbers. One such stencil was the design model for Marking Stencil JNL.

Corporal JNL gets much of its inspiration from brass interlocking stencils, and a touch of the look of military or industrial markings.

Paramilitary JNL from Jeff Levine was modeled after a set of brass interlocking stencils and offers another choice in digital stencil typeface design.

Case Closed JNL is a bold, slab serif stencil font inspired by a set of brass stencils spotted for sale in an internet auction.

A basic sans serif letterform was used to create the impression of broken glass in this unique typeface. Created by talented designer Vic Carless.

Oil Barrel JNL is roughly based on lettering spotted in an online auction of custom brass stencils made for marking different petroleum grades on oil company barrels.

Stencil Monograms JNL combines elements from vintage paper and brass stencils to create this attractive set of monogram initials for print, stencil making and other creative applications.

A hand-cut antique brass stencil for marking barrel tops of dill pickles was the source of inspiration for Surface Stencil JNL, available in both regular and oblique versions.

Merry Baubles is a set of fleurons in the form of traditional painted glass Christmas Tree ornaments. That's really all there is to say about this piece of typographic fun.

Cookogram is a package of 50 pictograms which have been drawn in two styles - outline & solid. The pictogram set consists of cooking and eating utensils, pots, pans, glasses, bottles and crockery.

Antique brass stencils hand-cut for shipping items during the early part of the 20th Century were for sale in an online auction; and are the basis for Carton Stencil JNL.

Examples of Australian brass stencils used for baling form the basis of Farming Stencil JNL. The hand-cut look of this typeface gives a more casual approach to a standard stencil design.

Browsing online auctions is a wonderful way to pick up ideas for font designs. Take Condensed Stencil JNL for example. This font was modeled from a set of vintage brass interlocking stencils.