I started writing this for last month’s Headline Heads Up and didn’t finish, but here it is now. Feeling bad, I decided to throw in an early Christmas present for those that celebrate. (I recently sorted out my RSS and got it loaded into Google Reader so now time just gets away from me as I continually have inspiring things to look at and resources to read and evaluate. I guess it’s time to work on some curatorial discretion and time management.) But here’s to getting back on track with a wrap up of awesome fonts and fun links to check out.
Desk
Foundry : UPPERTYPE
Designer(s) : Pedro Lobo
Cost: €10
Desk by UPPERTYPE makes the list this month because it’s a bold statement. It doesn’t try to be a lot of things; Desk is built for display purposes — end of discussion. It has uppercase, numerals, and punctuation. There isn’t a filled in variant, just the shadowed version shown. The narrowness leans slightly art deco but the curves and shadow update it a bit. Somehow I read both high fashion catalog and emo band nostalgia album cover.
FM Bolyar Ornate
Foundry : The Fontmaker
Designer(s) : Jordan Jelev, Vassil Kateliev
Cost: $29
Next on this month’s list is an elegant copperplate adorned with spikes. FM Bolyar Ornate is uppercase only, but still comes with a few stylistic alternates, swash variants, and ornaments. It has a medieval look which lends itself easily for use in crests, seals, and labels. The letters have so much personality — especially the swashes — they could also form the basis for a logo or the headlines in an identity system. If the spikes are too much, there is also the more tame, plain version of FM Bolyar to check it out.
Caustic
Foundry : Alias
Designer(s) : Gareth Hague
Cost: $96
Third up is Caustic by Gareth Hague. It’s a successful merger of seemingly opposing ideas. Straight lines and pointed angles are combined with an italic, almost calligraphic lean. Add to that the high contrast among strokes and you have a typeface built full of movement that is noticeable and screams to be used at large headline sizes.
Chalk Hand Lettering
Foundry : Fontscafe
Designer(s) : Fontscafe
Cost: $79
I had just read this great tutorial on creating a chalkboard effect, when lo and behold I run across this gem of a typeface via Webdesigner Depot. Chalk Hand Lettering is a distressed, upright script with swash-filled capital letters. There’s a slight roughness around the edges that reinforces the handwritten aspect. Along with the plain and shaded variants, there is an elements set of flourishes, borders, badges, and words to help add to the vintage magic. These fonts would be the perfect tool for digitally recreating sidewalk street signs and adding similar little touches to a coffee shop or restaurant website.
The Christmas Present
As a little treat this year, I present a snowy pixel wonderland. I’m thinking of making a poster with it — once I incorporate some pixel type of course. I’m offering it up as a free, public resource for anyone who wants it. It’s not much but maybe it’ll inspire you with the holiday spirit to make fun things.
Download the packaged vector file! (.ZIP — 276KB)
Final Mentions
- Pixabay Find stunning public domain images
- Top 10 Ugly Christmas Sweaters You be the judge on whether these are good or bad. I would wear the first one in an ironic hipster sort of way.
- The Toolbox A collection of the best time-saving apps, tools, and widgets from around the web.
- ByPeople Pre-Launch Download Bundle I still haven’t had a chance to look through all 5.5 gigabytes of icons, templates, and textures, but what I have seen looks good.
- RGB Stitch Alphabet Experimental, pattern typography
- Bobber Typeface Art Deco slab serif with grid based construction
- Twenty12 Typeface A hand sketched blackletter
- Fusion Typeface A futuristic Didone
- I Can’t Draw Animals via The FontFeed — simple, powerful, makes you want to pick up a pen