Showing posts with label 1940s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1940s. Show all posts

Download Shopping Guide Font Family From Jeff Levine

Download Shopping Guide Font Family From Jeff Levine


While watching the 1947 holiday classic “Miracle on 34th Street”, one scene in particular presented a chance to develop a retro type design. ‘Kris Kringle’ suggests to a mother visiting with her child in the Macy’s toy department to try Gimbel’s for a toy she couldn’t find at the store. The news of this behavior reaches Mr. Macy himself, who embraces the practice as a brilliant marketing strategy. A number of departments are then presented with reference books containing competitor ads, and the visual of the cover stating “R.H. Macy & Co. Shopping Guide for the Convenience of Our Customers” shows on screen. The thin, Art Deco sans serif monoline with a few serif-like hooks added onto some characters became the basis for Shopping Guide JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.


Download Shopping Guide Font Family From Jeff Levine


Download Pen Sans Rounded Font Family From Jeff Levine

Download Pen Sans Rounded Font Family From Jeff Levine


Many alphabet style examples from the Speedball Textbook on pen lettering have offered amateurs and professionals a source of inspiration since its first publication in 1915. A 1940s edition presented a simple sans serif design rendered with the style ‘B’ round nib pen point, and has been recreated as the digital type face Pen Sans Rounded JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.


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Download Narrow Deco JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine

Download Narrow Deco JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


The hand lettered word ‘puzzles’ from the box cover of a 1940s set of metal “connected” puzzle pieces manufactured by the A.C. Gilbert Company was the initial typographic model, but some additions and changes were made. Instead of the right side of the ‘P’ being a semi-circle, it was changed to a more conservative ‘’squared’ look. After drawing out all of the necessary glyphs, the overall height of the characters was extended to make the letters and numbers appear taller and narrower. The end result is Narrow Deco JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.


Download Narrow Deco JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


Download Ornate Deco Font Family From Jeff Levine

Download Ornate Deco Font Family From Jeff Levine


Ornate Deco JNL is a thick-and-thin Art Deco serif typeface with diamond shapes inside the thicker parts of the characters. It is based on an alphabet example found in the 1949 French lettering book “Album de Lettres Arti”, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.


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Download Allerton Font Family From Jeff Levine

Download Allerton Font Family From Jeff Levine


Presenting a condensed Art Deco sans serif font with rounded corners and squared inner lines, based on the hand lettered title on the cover of the sheet music for 1944’s “Just A Little Fond Affection”. Allerton JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions, and was named after a neighborhood in the Bronx, New York.


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Download Maitre d Stencil JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine

Download Maitre d Stencil JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


Maître d' Stencil JNL is based on an alphabet example found in the 1949 French lettering book “Album de Lettres Arti”, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.


Download Maitre d Stencil JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


Download Silly Behavior Font Family From Jeff Levine

Download Silly Behavior Font Family From Jeff Levine


Silly Behavior JNL is based on a hand lettered alphabet found within the pages of the vintage lettering book “100 Alphabets Publicitaires” (100 Advertising Alphabets). The fun, haphazard arrangement of the letters and numbers convey a casual approach to titling.


Download Silly Behavior Font Family From Jeff Levine


Download Sign Studio Font Family From Jeff Levine

Download Sign Studio Font Family From Jeff Levine


The French lettering book Album de Lettres Arti (1949) displayed a number of examples of unique, stylized typefaces. One in particular features a multi-line sans serif in a classic Art Deco style with open-ended characters. This design is now available as Sign Studio JNL in both regular and oblique versions.


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Download Fine Food Font Family From Jeff Levine

Download Fine Food Font Family From Jeff Levine


A 1942 photograph showing the exterior of the famous Hollywood restaurant Sardi’s and it’s unusually lettered sign was the inspiration for Fine Food JNL. Classically Art Deco, the Sardi’s sign had an ‘S’ looking like an inverted ‘J’ with a flat tail, a traditional ‘A’ replaced by a triangle and the ‘R’ composed of a ‘D’ with a diagonal extension. These elements were balanced against more traditional [but complementary] characters to retain the novel charm of the original signage. Fine Food JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.


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Download Chinese Song JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine

Download Chinese Song JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


The unusual hand lettering found on the 1945 sheet music for “Chinese Song” provided not only the design inspiration but the font’s name as well. A hybrid of Asian and Art Deco influences, Chinese Song JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.


Download Chinese Song JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


Download Garment Bag Stencil JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine

Download Garment Bag Stencil JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


Searching the internet for interesting type ideas leads one to many unusual items for sale online. An antique, hand-cut metal stencil from France with the word “Bagagens” [luggage] provided a condensed Art Deco design in a semi-stencil format (some solid letters, others with traditional ‘breaks’ within the characters). The digital version of the type style has a more traditional stencil character set. Garment Bag Stencil JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.


Download Garment Bag Stencil JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


Download Supplier Stencil JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine

Download Supplier Stencil JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


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.


Download Supplier Stencil JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


Download Department Store JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine

Download Department Store JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


Amongst a number of items for sale in an online auction was a font of metal type featuring a thin, condensed serif font with decidedly Art Deco styling. This was the inspiration for Department Store JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.


Download Department Store JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


Download Sign and Display JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine

Download Sign and Display JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


Sign and Display JNL is a long-overdue companion font to 2009’s Sign and Poster JNL. The original design models were Art Deco influenced die-cut cardboard letters and numbers manufactured by the Duro Decal Company of Chicago. Square in shape with rounded corners, the thick cardboard letters were used for making show-cards and other display signage. Subsequently, Duro used the same style of lettering to manufacture water-applied decals for boat identification and other uses. It was a set of these decals (with a black outline and yellow interior) that inspired the outline typeface Sign and Display JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.


Download Sign and Display JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


Download Kiddie Stencil JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine

Download Kiddie Stencil JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


At one time, the Hampton Publishing Company of New York specialized in producing reading and activity books for children. The “Letters and Numbers Stencil Book” (probably from the late 1940s or early 1950s) was the basis for Kiddie Stencil JNL. This bold sans serif type style replicates the handmade steel rule dies used for cutting the stencil pages of the book, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.


Download Kiddie Stencil JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


Download Sky Clipper JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine

Download Sky Clipper JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


Sky Clipper JNL is a bold, Art Deco sans serif typeface derived from the hand lettered title on a 1940s-era “Big Little Book” entitled “Flying the Sky Clipper with Winsie Atkins”. The design is available in both regular and oblique versions. “Big Little Books” were published by the Whitman Publishing company and featured short stories printed in a tiny sized book format for young children.


Download Sky Clipper JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


Download Century PS Pro Font Family From SoftMaker

Download Century Schoolbook Pro Font Family From SoftMaker

Download Mimeograph Template JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine

Download Mimeograph Template JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine


Before ink jet and laser printers; before copy machines, the main way to make multiples of anything not provided by printing press was by a mimeograph machine or spirit duplicator. The mimeograph utilized a porous drum which inked the backside of a waxed stencil sheet. Unlike traditional stencils which have cut out areas that are directly inked or painted, a mimeo stencil has the area to be printed scratched away by removing the wax coating with a stylus. The resulting image allows the ink from the drum to seep through the sheet and transfer to the blank paper. Based on a plastic lettering guide once manufactured by the A.B. Dick Company of Chicago, Mimeograph Template JNL is available in regular and oblique versions. Albert Blake Dick, the company’s founder, coined the term ‘mimeography’. The font’s character shapes follow the routed letters of the template, complete with rounded terminals. An earlier font release [designed with flat terminals and some alternate characters] is available as Interoffice Memo JNL.


Download Mimeograph Template JNL Font Family From Jeff Levine