Sheet music at the beginning of the 20th Century reflects both the musical and artistic tastes of the times in often colorful ways. It seemed to be a favorite thing amongst songwriters of that era to come up with very wordy song titles. The cover of the sheet music for 1907’s “Every Little Bit Added to What You’ve Got Makes Just A Little Bit More” checks in at fourteen words, but the hand lettered title (done in an Art Nouveau style) made it worthy of transposition into a digital type face. Nouveau Years JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.
The design of Concert Series JNL is based on hand-lettering for a 1930s-era WPA (Works Progress Administration) poster for the Federal Music Project of New York City’s symphony concerts. Held every Sunday at the Theater of Music [located at 254 West 54th Street], the admission in those Depression-era days was 25 cents and 60 cents, with all seats reserved.
Pull up your Jackboots and check out this Teutonic title font designed by Richard Starkings for Rob Liefeld's controversial relaunch of Marvel's CAPTAIN AMERICA.
A "tunesmith" is one so nicknamed because the person or persons craft (compose) a song from scratch. When the area of Broadway known as Tin Pan Alley was in its heyday, every music publisher's office would have sounds emanating from the various cubicles of men and women trying for the next big hit. Sheet music was the main source of songwriter's royalties during those days, and to please the general public with a song destined to be a popular piece was a lofty goal. It's then only fitting that the lettering inspired by a 1920s-era piece of sheet music for a song called "Jerry" would be named Tunesmith JNL.
In the year 1528 Pierre Attaignant led a revolution in music printing. His method of once-press moveable type, greatly simplifying the original 3 impression process developed by Petrucci, remained in use till near the end of the 17th century. The method could only realize one line of music per staff, and the introduction of barlines as a common means of aligning multiple staves brought this method to a close after nearly two centuries of use. This font is meant to allow the printing of music using that method with the notation of that era. It is largely based on an exemplar printed by Snodham of London.
The 1929 sheet music for Cole Porter's "You Do Something to Me" (from the musical stage comedy "Fifty Million Frenchmen") has the name of the play hand lettered in a bold sans with an intersecting inline. This design was the inspiration for Suggestion Box JNL. Not quite Art Nouveau, and not yet Art Deco, the typeface is nonetheless timeless in its clean, appealing style.
Song Publisher JNL features a design based on the 1945 Art Deco-era hand lettered sheet music title "When the Old Gang's back on the Corner (Singin' Sweet Adeline Again)". It's a good thing sheet music wasn't sold by the word count found in song titles, because this twelve word example would have been more costly than titles such as "Nola", "Tenderly" or "Ciribiribin".
CUMBANCHERA, inspired by the old albums cover art of Latino music. Cumbanchera reminds of the iconic, classic, and recognized musical theme «El Cumbanchero» composed by Rafael Hernández Marín «El Jibarito». CUMBANCHERA can be used mainly in titles, display and short texts. Supports East Europe languages. Includes standard and discretionary ligatures, alternative style of upper and lowercase, fractions, numerators and denominators, and other OpenType features.
Although many pieces of sheet music used standardized backgrounds and metal type for their titles and information, there are hundreds of songs with innovative illustrations and clever typography beckoning potential buyers with their cover art. Whether the era was Post-Victorian, Art Nouveau or Art Deco, the sheer variety of eye-catching images offered visual enticement to the potential customer whilst browsing the local music shop.
The term "transcribed" takes on many definitions. In sheet music (the source of this type face design) it means to set down onto paper. In the formative days of radio, and until the advent of the tape recorder, radio stations depended on 16 inch wide recordable discs known as transcriptions. These discs were generally aluminum base with a soft lacquer coating that was cut with a heated stylus. This was the only way a program could be recorded and preserved for later broadcast or copied for syndication. Transcribed JNL is a hand lettered sans in the chamfer style of block lettering, based on vintage sheet music displaying the name and address for Zenith Music Publications.
Songs of the early 1900s were anything but the status quo in topic or style. Excessively long titles, novelty tunes and "foreign themes" permeated the piles of sheet music in the local music shops. 1916's "Oh How She Could Yacki Hacki Wicki Wacki Woo (That's Love in Honolu)" covered a number of these quirks within one publication. This Hawaiian-tinged song evoked the mysterious ways of the South Seas islands, despite the abridging of Honolulu to "Honolu". Nonetheless, the hand lettered title of this particular piece of sheet music featured an Art Nouveau-influenced bold block letter with rounded corners. It's now available digitally as Smooth Sailing JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.
The basic design style for Nouveau Days JNL was inspired by the hand lettering on the sheet music cover for "Linger Longer Letty". This tongue-twisting song title comes from the 1919 musical comedy of the same name. Some of the characters originally had tiny spur serifs, but they were omitted in the digital version to keep the overall design consistent. The font is available in both regular and oblique versions.
The 1951 sheet music of "I Like the Wide Open Spaces" has the cover title set in a casual type design that emulates the "one stroke" or "speed letter" style so popular with sign painters in that decade. Taking the lettering on the sheet music and expanding the character set with a new interpretation, the result is Sign Work JNL which is available in both regular and oblique versions.
Hand lettered, the title on the sheet music for a 1940s hit song "Ti-Pi-Tin" inspired Guadalajara JNL. The melody and original Spanish lyrics were written by Maria Grever, one of Mexico's first successful female composers, with English lyrics supplied by Raymond Leveen. This decorative and fun type face brings to mind fiestas South of the border, and emanates the charm of Mexico's music, dance and colorful costumes.
"Grunge Typography? I invented it!" claims Chank Diesel. Badoni was created in 1993 for use in CAKE, a fanzine that reveled in grunge music. As creative director of CAKE, Chank wanted the magazine's design to reflect the music it glorified. Kurt Cobain was alive and miserable. Soundgarden had long hair. Seattle was everywhere. Chank's answer was Badoni, a gritty and distressed typeface that is a sign of the grunge glory years.
Playing with old rub-on letters led to this alphabet. On the Letraset sheets (the older ones still remember...) there were always letters left over that were never or rarely used. I sometimes let interns play with it. To explain, I first rubbed an example myself. Two y's from a Helvetica made a pretty shape. Looking closely, you see a contoured, italic N. I developed the HGB Ypsilon font from this N. A purely decorative typeface – it could be interesting for some logo.
Reisar is inspired by the vintage sign of motels, automotive logos, and badges, mixed up with urban modern cross-culture of contemporary visuals and brutalism. It makes Reisar born with a fresh vibe combined with the past and future for your visual graphic design needs. Perfectly fit for your logo, branding, clothing, apparel, merchandise, music project, album artwork, cover, book, music video, serial title, movie title, poster, animation, stickers, event, festival, magazine, and many more.
Two pieces of vintage sheet music (“Honeymoon Hotel” and “By a Waterfall”) from Warner Brothers' 1933 musical “Footlight Parade” featured a hand-lettered bold alphabet with a touch of the 1930s Art Deco influence. These song sheets served as the basis for Pocomoke JNL. As informal and casual as the design is, its strength is in the boldness of the letter forms (which showcases the era of pen-and-ink display lettering).
Woodstock is a round, heavy, lovable serif display typeface. Just as music brought many together in the spirit of love during the 1960s and the Woodstock music festival, this face brings a smile to the eye of the beholder. Many traces of the hand can be seen in the curves and the joins of Woodstock's forms. Try using Woodstock in headlines, logos, or greeting cards, in point sizes from 12 on upward.