A 1930s travel poster from American Airlines had the airline’s name in a classic thick-and-thin Art Deco design of hand lettering. With the addition of angular spurs, some of the characters become semi-serif in nature.
This type style is now available as Travel Plans JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.
Around 1931, the Los Angeles Times (in partnership with the Richfield Oil Company) installed on its building a moving message board similar to the one at the New York Times in New York City which they dubbed an “electric newspaper”.
The style of characters used on this electronic sign were the basis for the namesake font Electric Newspaper JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.
A blank space to place between words is available on both the solid bar and broken bar keystrokes.
The words “Benny Goodman & His Orchestra” on an appearance poster for the band from 1936 were rendered in a beautiful semi-script style of hand lettering.
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 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.
The thin and stylish Art Deco lettering of a neon sign above the Greyhound bus terminal entrance in a 1930s New York City photo inspired Transit Station JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.
A 1930s WPA (Works Progress Administration) poster advertising an exhibit of New Jersey area posters had its main lettering rendered in a very condensed hand lettered interpretation of the ever-popular Futura Black Art Deco style.
This has now been re-drawn and digitized as Art Event JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.
In the opening scenes of the 1938 Three Stooges comedy “Tassels in the Air” the Stooges are working as maintenance men inside an office building. Their immediate job requirement is to paint the tenants’ business names on the corresponding office doors with pre-cut stencils. Of course, they get it all wrong.
Nonetheless, the stencils appear to be a hand cut sans serif design in a squared or ‘block’ style with rounded corners, and some of the applied lettering made for an interesting challenge to recreate as a typeface.
The end result is Maintenance Stencil JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.
The movie poster for the 1934 comedy/crime drama “Jimmy the Gent” (starring James Cagney) featured the title hand lettered in an ultra-bold Art Deco sans serif style.
This type design has been turned into Social Club JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.
The movie poster for the 1934 comedy/crime drama “Jimmy the Gent” (starring James Cagney) featured the title hand lettered in an ultra-bold Art Deco sans serif style.
This type design has been turned into Social Club JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.
The hand lettered film credits for 1937’s “Make Way for Tomorrow” were done in a sans serif design with an ever-so-slight flare and a slightly semi-calligraphic look.
Unusual in both style and varying character thicknesses, the lettering has been digitally redrawn as Retirement JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.
It’s Art Deco “thick and thin”… It’s wide… It’s quirky… It’s a hand lettered sign over the lanes of the Bryant-Lake Bowl – a landmark bowling alley in Minneapolis, Minnesota… and it was spotted in an amazing YouTube video from a “drone tour” of the facility!
The sign inspired the font Pin Spotter JNL which is available in both regular and oblique versions.
Precursors to Torrone, the fonts are found among the type experiments of Art Deco artists in 1930’s Europe. Fonts of this type with chunky, geometry-driven lower case letters combined with somewhat flamboyant, brush-influenced upper case can be found in the logotypes for Mignon Chocolate Factory in Germany and Baci bon-bons still in use today by Italy’s Perugina Candies.
Torrone includes alternate lower case characters and full Central European glyph sets with over 550 characters included!