Oak Street
There’s a little restaurant in an old house on a sidestreet in town (Rockland, Maine, USA) called Cafe Miranda. The staff is friendly, the setting intimate, and the appetizer a basket of hot bread...
font_designer: Brian Willson
Professor
My father is retired from teaching after a distinguished career as a professor at the University of Texas (and other colleges). He’s also retired from writing in longhand, ever since I digitized his script...
Pumpkinseed
The tale of Pumpkinseed began with a bit of hand-printing I noticed on the dinner menu at a local restaurant. I took a menu home for future reference. Several months later, some similar hand-lettering...
Houston Pen
Early Texas patriots had fascinating penmanship. In researching Texas Hero years ago, I had occasion to pore over copies of letters by the likes of Stephen F. Austin, William B. Travis, Thomas J. Rusk,...
Lamar Pen
Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar had an exotic name for a historic Texan, but he left his mark beginning in 1836, the year of Texas independence and the first year that pioneers other than mountain men...
Marydale
While helping produce a trade magazine years ago, I admired the hand-lettering of the art director — a woman named Marydale — and suggested she let me model a font after her penmanship. She...
Chromosome
It hit me one day that the ’60s-vintage labelmaker I had lying around might make an interesting display face. I began playing with it — clicking out letters at various pressures, scanning the results,...
Emily Austin
An indomitable woman who traveled a lot, Emily Austin (Bryan) Perry was one of the children of Moses Austin, of Austinville, Virginia. Like her famous brother, Stephen F. Austin, she settled in Texas as...
Attic Antique
Attic Antique by Three Islands Press. Flipping through a friend’s old hardbound collection of John Burroughs nature essays a while back, I thought it’d be fun to try to develop a typeface with the...
Bonsai
Years ago, I developed an interest in the Japanese art of dwarfed potted trees, bonsai. I bought some books on the subject from Brooklyn Botanic Garden. In one — Handbook on Bonsai: Special Techniques...