Hedwig Gerasimova

A 1930s advertising poster for the Inman Brothers Flying Circus offered up an interesting hand lettered Art Deco design that’s a cross between both squared and rounded character shapes. 

Because of it's 'futuristic look', the resulting type style can also lend itself to 1970s and 1980s retro projects as well as those from the 1930s and 1940s.

Now a digital font, Air Circus JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A “Flying Circus” is a troupe of ‘barnstormers’ (stunt pilots) who performed aerial tricks either individually or as a team along with selling airplane rides to the general public. 

Here’s yet another interpretation of the classic “thick and thin” sans serif lettering most popular during the Art Deco era.

This particular design comes to you through the courtesy of a hand lettered 1930s travel poster from the Pennsylvania Railroad. Some capitals are much wider than others, while the lower case ‘i’ is somewhat truncated.

Rail Travel JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A beautiful and stylish pen lettered alphabet appears within the pages of the 1921 publication “How to Write Show Cards” and its Art Nouveau stylings made it a perfect candidate for a digital revival.

Pleasant Show Card JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The free form hand lettering from the titles and credits of the 1964 French film comedy “Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez” [“The Policeman from Saint-Tropez”] was the basis for Off Duty JNL – which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The hand lettered title found on the 1924 sheet music for the tango “Sentimiento Gaucho” (“Sentimental Gaucho”) offered a different take on the thick-and-thin lettering that permeated the late 1920s through the Art Deco age.

A ‘slash’ or ‘swipe’ is cut through the characters (similar to “Directa JNL” – another take on this type of design).

Last Tango JNL is the digital recreation of this novelty lettering and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The namesake for this type design was the dust jacket for the 1926 book “Revelry”.

A classic Art Deco thick-and-thin design, Revelry Deco JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A hand lettered emulation of a Roman stencil type face on the cover of the folio for the Stenso School Set was the basis for Eutaw Stencil JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The Stenso School Set (circa 1940-41) was comprised of three stencils – two lettering guides and a map of the [then] 48 United States.

Developed and patented by Baltimore school teacher Ruth Libauer Hormats, her stencils were the first to offer a system for accurate letter spacing and ease of use.

“Eutaw” (as part of the font’s name) is taken from Eutaw Place, the street where Ruth and her husband lived at the time of Stenso’s inception. To the Cherokee, the name means “Creek Indian”.

A 1942 menu cover for the restaurant at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles features its name in a stylized Art Deco serif design.

This is has been turned into the digital typeface Bill of Fare JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

The hand lettered credits for the 1942 film comedy “I Married a Witch” were so unusual (with their mix of rounded and flat terminals and varying character shapes) that the only logical name for a digital revival would be So Unusual JNL… which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

An image found online of the first [1923] “Oreo Sandwich” package provided a type inspiration from the pen-lettered block sans with rounded corners used for the product's name. Prior to 1923, the cookies were sold in boxes or tins.  

The result is Packaged Cookies JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Inspired by the lettering on Koloman Moser’s poster design for Fromme’s Calendar (circa 1912), Nouveau Calendar JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

According to Wikipedia:

“Koloman Moser (30 March 1868 – 18 October 1918) was an Austrian artist who exerted considerable influence on twentieth-century graphic art and one of the foremost artists of the Vienna Secession movement and a co-founder of Wiener Werkstätte.

Moser designed a wide array of art works, including books and graphic works from postage stamps to magazine vignettes; fashion; stained glass windows, porcelains and ceramics, blown glass, tableware, silver, jewelry, and furniture.”

The free form hand lettered titles for the 1961 film “The Children's Hour” inspired the digital typeface Late Hours JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Beachside is a cool handwritten font. Clean and a little bit quirky, this font is suitable for all of your logos, branding, social media, and crafty DIY projects. This font beachside contains 194 glyphs, supporting 66 languages from English to Zulu.