Claudia Toosey

Balloon No2 is a decorative typeface published by SoftMaker.

Binario Soft is a gently rounded version of Binario, which is also available on this vendor’s website.

Binario Soft is a geometric sans serif typeface with subtlly rounded edges to give a softer and warmer impression. It comes in three weights (light, regular, and bold) with matching obliques. Its simple, compact, and tightly cornered forms lend themselves well to screen-reading. 


Italian Art Deco and early 1900s advertising and shop signage were the inspiration for Binario. It also to pays homage to early modernism’s optimism, modularity, and efficiency. The shape of the rounded counters are based on the curve of the classic Roman arch. The bold has a vertical emphasis and is suitable for headlines or large body text. The light is more open and provides a nice pairing to the regular or bold weights as body text or as large display text. It comes with a small set of dingbats; an arrow, a printer’s fist, a train, some flowers, and several interface icons.

Bourget is a Display-Sans, which is inspired by the Art Déco Typo­graphy of the 1920´s, 1930´s years. It has a very characteristic and unique style by its thin line through every letter. The upright and italic versions have each 750+ Glyphs with Open Type Features, playful Ligatures and a lot of Alternates as Stylistic Sets. So there is a lot to discover and to play around with. Bourget is good to use for Branding, Signage, Packaging, Invitations, Advertising, Headlines, Displays, Magazines, Book titles or everything you want to use it for. Bourget has an extended character set to support 219 latin based languages in 212 countries and Pinyin.

The 1930s era French textbook on lettering "100 Alphabets Publicitaires déssinés par M. Moullet" featured a hand lettered chamfered alphabet with slab serifs reminiscent of sports lettering. Although intended for advertising and signage inspiration, only a partial lower case was illustrated along with the capitals and no numbers or other characters existed. These had to be created from scratch.

The finished result is not only a bit of classic lettering from the past, but the font also doubles as a typeface with a sports look and feel.

A traditional (rather than stylized) M and N are located on the solid bar key and the broken bar key respectively.

Old Sport JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

From a vintage textbook on “modern” lettering circa the 1930s or 1940s comes a simple chamfered sans with oddly irregular shapes.

Amateur Lettering JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Many great lettering examples were found in the 1939 French publication by Georges Léculier, "Modèles de Lettres Moderns" (“Models of Modern Letters”). One design in particular is a stencil alphabet so typical of the Art Deco movement of the 1930s.

Artwork Stencil JNL is now available digitally in both regular and oblique versions.

An Art Deco geometric alphabet found within the pages of the 1939 French lettering book "Modèles de lettres modernes par Georges Léculier" ("Models of Modern Letters by Georges Léculier") is the basis for French Geometric JNL; available in both regular and oblique versions.

A bold spur serif design found within the pages of the 1934 French lettering instruction book “L'Art du Tracé Rationnel de la Lettre” provided the inspiration for Railway Depot JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The 1930s French publication L'Art du Tracé Rationnel de la Lettre was a treasure trove of font revival ideas from the Art Deco era. One example featured a serif typeface with a number of stylized characters.

This is now available as French Bistro JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

Another example of 1930s French Art Deco lettering from the 1934 publication L'Art du Tracé Rationnel de la Lettre (which roughly translates to “The Rational Path Art of the Letter”) resulted in the digital typeface French Slab Serif JNL.

This bold and slightly eccentric slab serif design is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The 1939 French publication “Modèles de lettres modernes par Georges Léculier” ( “Models of Modern Letters by Léculier”) presented some unique and stylized type designs with Art Deco influence.

One such example is an abstract modular alphabet constructed of rectangles and circles. This is now available as Modular Deco JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.

The 1934 French publication L'Art du Tracé Rationnel de la Lettre is a vintage guide book on lettering chock full of interesting alphabets that have been an ongoing source of digital type revivals from the designs found within its pages.

Monthly Statement JNL is a squared slab serif design with some Art Deco flair; available in both regular and oblique versions.

This style of type evokes images of billheads, bank statements and other important documents of the era.

This decorative, scalloped thick-and-thin Art Deco type design is one of the many inspirations found within the pages of the 1934 French lettering book “L'Art du Tracé Rationnel de la Lettre”.

Now in digital format, Fancy Deco JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

French Art Deco lettering found within the pages of the 1934 publication L'Art du Tracé Rationnel de la Lettre (roughly translated to “The Rational Path Art of the Letter”) have provided a number of designs well-suited for digital revival.

A hand lettered sans with varying character widths was the basis for Colmar JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

As the source of the lettering design was a French publication, the typeface is named for the city of Colmar, which (according to Wikipedia) is the third-largest commune of the Alsace region in north-eastern France.

From the pages of the 1939 French lettering book “Modèles de lettres modernes par Georges Léculier” (“Models of Modern Lettering”) comes an attractive and unusual set of initial drop caps made from square letters adorned with multiple vertical lines.

Originally designed as white letters on black backgrounds, an additional set with black letters on white backgrounds comprise Deco Drop Caps JNL; available in both regular and oblique versions.

A 1930s casual Art Deco type style with as much influence in 1970s graphic design as in its day was found within the pages of the 1930s French publication L'Art du Tracé Rationnel de la Lettre.

Discotheque JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

An instructional page from a vintage lettering book displayed online showed the construction of an Art Deco sans design with varying widths and stylized character shapes. This was the basis for Eccentric Sans JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Eight years after the initial release of Brandon Grotesque, the typeface has grown into a font family of 48 styles, including a version for small sizes and a space saving condensed version. This type family was completely drawn from scratch with the look and feel of the original normal-width version. Today, Brandon supports at least 116 languages, from Latin based languages to Greek and Cyrillic.

Based on a Monotype 1930s condensed poster typeface, Placard Next is bursting with personality. Unexpected details appear throughout the design, from its wedged diagonals and single storey a to its round tittles – which would more ordinarily be square, and mechanical. The warmth and quirkiness of its character really shines through when set at larger sizes, making this a typeface for posters, headlines, and anywhere else designers need to make a statement. Designer Malou Verlomme has paid particular attention to the typeface’s ‘word images’, further amping up its impact, and added some vintage flavor with Placard Next Round.

As well as a striking display typeface, Placard Next’s four widths and six weights – hairline to bold - mean it’s a versatile design, that can be adapted for use in almost any environment. The complete family contains 48 fonts: 24 in Placard Next and 24 in Placard Next Round. It includes a large multilingual character set.