-Movie-Inspired-

OKLAHOMA is a fancy Western-style font, inspired by the opening titles of the classic musical film of the same name (1955, directed by Fred Zinnemann, art direction by Joseph C. Wright.) A graceful wood type that sings, a nice complement to the early 1900s setting of the story. Version 1.5 includes an expanded character set and improved spacing and kerning.

MOCKINGBIRD was inspired by the opening title for the classic film, To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), designed by Stephen Frankfurt. A child’s hands browse a cigar box of treasures and make this crayon rubbing that forms the title. I modeled my letterforms on Franklin Gothic as the closest match. I didn’t fake the texture which comes from an actual rubbing of a photopolymer plate. Includes upper-and lowercase, punctuation, numbers, international characters, plus special end-caps and space for a complete look.

MAGIC CARPET is a calligraphic font with a lively, brush-like style, even vaguely exotic. It was inspired by the hand-painted titles (below) of the film Lust for Life (1956), a biography of Vincent Van Gogh, directed by Vincente Minnelli, art directed by Cedric Gibbons, Hans Peter and Preston Ames. Includes upper and lowercase, numbers, punctuation, and international characters.

IMITATION is a free-spirited brush script, more a fashion statement than the work of a diligent signpainter. Imitation was inspired by the credits of two soapy Lana Turner films, Imitation of Life (1959) and Madame X (1963). They are credited to different art directors so I don’t know who originated the style. IMITATION includes many alternate characters so you can do an all-lowercase look that looks more hand-lettered, or choose from two sets of caps. VERSION 4.0 uses Opentype features to make these useful alternates easier to use, as well as an expanded character set and improved spacing and kerning…. continued

HUMERUS is a spooky/funny font with letters formed of loosely arranged bones, more in the spirit of a Halloween party than real horror. Think of “funny bone”, “rib tickling” and “numbskulls,” all appropriate to the inspiration for this font, the opening credit sequence of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948, directed by Charles Barton, art directed by Hilyard M. Brown and Bernard Herzbrun, with animated sequences by the great Walter Lantz, who may have had a hand in the credits as well. The Regular font has the bone shapes defined by calligraphic outlines; there’s also a Solid font that can… continued

Playful and offbeat GENERATION B has a late 50s-early 60s vibe that goes from beatnik coffeehouse to rustic beach shack and beyond. It’s basically an all-caps font, with big and small versions of each letter plus some alternates, easily giving you the look of quirky hand-lettering. Inspired by the animated opening titles of the classic live-action Disney film, The Parent Trap (1961), designed by T. Hee, Bill Justice and Xavier Atencio. With its irregular alignment, letter shapes and pairs, this kind of lettering could be seen as a descendant of naïve sign painting or of the deliberate nonconformity of Beat… continued

The GAUMONT fonts are elegant sans serif fonts in the Art Deco style. These were inspired by the hand-lettered titles of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 The 39 Steps, a Gaumont-British Picture. I’ve taken a few liberties, regularizing the characters but preserving the quirkier letterforms and rounding out the font in the same spirit. In Regular, Italic, and Light varieties. Version 1.5 has the alternate characters accessed as Stylistic Alternates, an expanded character set, and improved spacing and kerning.  

GAINSBOROUGH is a bold geometric font in a high Art Deco style. I was attracted to the extreme distortion in some of the letters, emblematic of the style, and preserved that in my design. Gainsborough was inspired by the hand-lettered titles of the 1938 Alfred Hitchcock film, The Lady Vanishes, “A Gainsborough Picture,” produced by a sister company of Gaumont-British, namesake of Gaumont. Version 1.5 includes an expanded character set and improved spacing and kerning.  

FISH OUT OF WATER is the perfect comedy font, inspired by the opening titles of Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot (1959, art direction by Ted Haworth). Loose-shaped large and small caps suggest unpredictable fun. In 3 weights for greater flexibility. The FISH OUT OF WATER fonts include large and small caps, numbers, punctuation, and international characters.   

DIRECTORS SCRIPT was inspired by the sort of dramatic hand-drawn script used in 1940s film credits. As seen in classics like Crossfire, Laura, and Gilda, a very sloped cursive (about 45 degrees) is paired with a heavy roman. To approximate the style at left (from Crossfire), you could use Directors Script paired with my National Debt, Impact or similar. Add a drop shadow, and voilà. A second font has capitals that are 50% larger than the regular caps, re-weighted and aligned to harmonize with the lowercase for an even more dramatic look. Includes upper and lower case, numbers, punctuation, and… continued

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