Sarah Polyakova

In the 1959 premiere season of “The Untouchables” (based on the book by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley) the opening title jumps off of the cover of the book and stretches out into tall, extremely condensed lettering.

This inspired the type font Federal Agent JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Firmin Didot is credited with establishing the Modern genre of serif typefaces, of which Beaux Arts Didots stands as an exemplary model. Like the French neoclassical architecture of its namesake, Beaux Arts has all the hallmarks of the early nineteenth-century style: a clear and confident construction consisting of simple yet strong lines. Use it for elegant and formal settings, or when a direct typographic tone is desired. Mix it with styles of similar sensibilities such as Plinc Hanover and Davison Spencerian. Digitized from the original Photo-Lettering film matrix in 2014 by Jean-Baptiste Levée.

BEAUX ARTS DIDOT CREDITS:

• Typeface Design: Photo-Lettering Staff
• Typeface Digitization: Jean-Baptiste Levée
• Typeface Production: Ben Kiel
• Typeface Direction: Ken Barber

Like all good subversives, House Industries hides in plain sight while amplifying the look, feel and style of the world’s most interesting brands, products and people. Based in Delaware, visually influencing the world.

The hand lettered titles and credits from the 1958 war film “The Young Lions” command your attention with a bold block slab serif type style.

This design has been digitally recreated as No Entry JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The title and credits for the 1951 Dick Powell and Rhonda Fleming film “Cry Danger” were hand lettered in a freehand brush lettering often seen on store signs and show cards.

Serving as the model for Show Card Freehand JNL, this pleasant and casual typeface is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Say hello to the new workhorse for packaging and advertising design! Chonky — playful version of chunky — is a bold script font based on the former English calligraphy but with touches of the vitality that the commercial lettering of 1950s had, and it is mostly inspired in the work of the master Doyald Young and his lessons. Following the advice where he explains that boldness requires simple forms, this modern typeface wasn’t designed to imitate calligraphy but it was typographically thought, being as minimal as a script could be. The eye was put on legibility as well as on spacing and connections, which were specially cared, as it is usual in all Typesenses’ scripts. The upright axis makes the curves slower while the rounded terminals give a warm look. The ascenders, descenders and capitals are the shorter they could be, mostly in the Regular style. The Poster font, has larger ones in order to achieve more graceful forms. Both options include stylistic sets and ligatures to embellish the words. Just keep the Standard Ligatures and Contextual Alternates features always active and see how the typeface writes perfectly while having fun with OpenType alternatives (*). Additionally, Chonky has extensive Western, Central and Eastern European language support. 

Due to its classical base mixed with modern touches, this is a typeface that will live for decades instead of fading away with fashion.

(*) Take a look at the User Guide to see all the features available.