-Famous Artists-

PEACEFUL PROTEST is a bold, impactful font. The straight lines and strong verticals are reminiscent of runes, but were inspired by this poster designed by the Milwaukee-based artist Francisco Ramirez. Using quickly torn masking tape and assembled with urgency, his poster captured both the message and the moment, and has now been acquired by the Whitney Museum of American Art. So grateful he let me make this font! Use this font to say your own message loud and proud. It has LARGE and small caps. You can use all of one or mix and match for a more hand-lettered feel…. continued

DECOY is a bright geometric font with Art Deco flair. The Stencil version is solid, the Template is outlined. Both also come in an alternate version without all the decorative circles on the caps. Decoy was inspired by one style of signature by the popular American artist, Norman Rockwell.

The Wm Blake fonts were inspired by the work of the great English poet and artist. William Blake (1757-1827) wrote, illustrated, lettered, printed, and hand-colored his “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience”, inventing a new form of printmaking along the way, all very inspirational to me as a printmaker and font designer. These fonts maintain the romantic charm of Blake’s original hand lettering—quite different from typeset—in both roman and italic forms as he used.

BLUELAKEHAWK is a collaboration with my friend, Jason Martinez, an artist and teacher. Jason is inspired by his love of Southwest Pueblo pottery patterns and tribal art. He is a registered member of the Taos Pueblo and takes inspiration from his heritage. I started with 8 letters from Jason and developed the rest. Now Jason is recovering from brain tumor surgery. Please consider making a small donation to his fund when you download this free font. https://www.youcaring.com/jason-martinez-480855

BIRDWHISTLE is a handwriting font with an artistic flair. Inspired by notes from the artist Willie Marlowe, Birdwhistle is like its namesake: pretty, playful, distinctive and a little unpredictable. Birdwhistle mixes upper- and lowercase in a creative way, and includes alternate characters for an even more spontaneous look. Willie is a dear friend, longtime colleague, and marvelous artist with an international reputation; please check out her paintings. Using 25 years of her notes and letters to me, I made Birdwhistle, striving to keep some of the whimsy and spontaneity of the original. Here is a sample of her handwriting.

Factura is a set of fonts that looks hand-carved. The letters are drawn almost entirely with straight lines, with offbeat shapes and jagged edges that can seem alternately playful or sinister. Inspired by Saul Bass’s classic poster for “Vertigo,” Factura has two widths and full upper- and lowercase. The “Rough” version of each font reproduces the block print technique I used in the design process.

POPSTREET is a pair of fonts inspired by the work of Keith Haring (1958-1990) an artist whose work referenced both Pop and street art. Haring first became known for his graffiti-style drawings done in the subway, but was also respected for his gallery work and public art, his accessible, affordable design, and his social activism. The set includes an Outline and a Fill font that can be used separately or layered together in different colors.

SYNCOPATED SCRIPT was loosely inspired by the work of the painter Stuart Davis. His jazzy canvases bridge Cubism and Pop Art, often featuring words, written in this style and others. Davis’s work always seems fresh and inventive to me. After looking at all the reproductions of Davis’s paintings I could find, I used some of his writings and my own intuition to fill out the alphabet. I’ve tried to maintain both the erratic, jumpy quality and the continuous linking. The originals were painted; these feel as if they were cut out of paper. Includes caps, lowercase, punctuation, numbers, several alternates… continued

REPENT was inspired by the work of Jesse Howard (1885-1983), a folk/outsider/naive artist. I first saw his work in Self-Taught Artists of the 20th Century, published as an exhibition catalog by the Museum of American Folk Art. What is striking to me about Howard’s work is the intense effort contained in his paintings-as-rants, and the overall texture of their deliberate lettering. Howard’s work can be seen in the collection of the Kansas City (MO) Art Institute. Jesse Howard’s obsessively lettered paintings and sculptures are the cousins of these signs (left) which appear from time to time nailed to telephone poles… continued

LAUGHTRACK is a set of 3 fonts in a quirky, cartoon style that says “funny”. Inspired by the work of Jerry Robinson, whose “True Classroom Flubs and Fluffs” was a highlight of the Sunday News comics section when I was a kid. Robinson also did a panel called “Still Life” in a similar humorous drawing and lettering style. Although he’s better known for his work in superhero comics, the “funnies” interest me more. His papers are archived at Syracuse University. Each font includes caps, lower case, numbers, punctuation, and international characters.