font_category: decorative

A typographic conundrum presented itself with the hand lettered title on the cover of the 1919 song “I Am Always Building Castles in the Air”. The capitalized portion [“Castles in the Air”] was a...

The cover of a 1950s-era catalog for the Freedman Novelty Company (of San Francisco California) had the word “Novelty” hand-lettered in an unusually angular type style against various geometric shapes somewhat resembling balloons. While...

The unusual, thin line hand lettering on the cover of the sheet music for 1936’s “If You Love Me” was the basis for Light Line Deco JNL, which is available in both regular and...

Library Book Initials JNL was modeled from examples of Sidney Gaunt’s Publicity Initials; originally sold in metal type by Barnhart Brothers and Spindler as a companion to the Publicity Gothic typeface. The smoothed-down lines...

The lettering style of Location JNL is based on sets of “vintage” metal house identification letters and numbers seen for sale online. As these sets are available from overseas sources, it’s not clear whether...

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.

Manual Typewriter JNL was modeled from an example of the 1933 design originally created by Morris Fuller Benton, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Marketing Strategy JNL was inspired by some display signage used in an episode of the classic “Alfred Hitchcock Hour”. Evoking the early-60s feel of kitchy advertising, this display font has a limited character set...

The cover of “Intermediate Steps to the Band” (an instructional book for marching band originally published by Mills Music in 1947) featured the title in a hand lettered multi-line sans serif with Art Deco...

The cover of the 1908 sheet music for “When the Meadow-Larks Are Calling, Annie Laurie” has the title hand lettered in a semi-formal Art Nouveau Roman type design with gentle spurs. This is now...