Ahmet Simons

The above-the-store signage for many newspaper stands, soda shops, candy stores, luncheonettes and pharmacies of the 1950s and early 1960s were what was referred to as “privilege signs” provided by one of the major cola brands.

Consisting of the brand’s emblems on the left and right, the remainder of the sign would carry the desired message of the storekeeper (such as “Candy – Soda – Newspapers”) in prismatic, embossed metal letters.

Inspired by these vintage signs, Privilege Sign JNL recreates the condensed sans serif lettering style in both regular and oblique versions. The typefaces are solid black, but adding a selected color and a prismatic effect from your favorite graphics program can reproduce the look and feel of those old businesses.

A photo of the now closed [circa-1953] Lowell Municipal Pool (at 1601 N. 28th St.) in Boise, Idaho shows the words “Municipal Pool” formed into the cement of the entrance to the above-ground swimming facility.

Both the lettering and building entrance designs harken back to the Art Deco era and the sign features stencil-like characters.

This inspired a typeface aptly named Municipal Pool JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Inspired by the hand lettered opening credits for “(The Many Loves of) Dobie Gillis” – a teen-oriented televisioncomedy that ran from 1959 to 1963 on CBS - Teenagers JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Klangfarbe is a quirky ultramodern script with unique stroke tapers and droplet-like finials. This font is a true chameleon and is very much at home with a variety of looks: from a reimagining of kitschy 1950s scripts, to analog retro-tech, to steampunk, to high-fashion futuristic logos and beyond. Klangfarbe — a German language term meaning “timbre” or “sound color” — references the visual appearance of audio frequency waveforms echoed in many of the lowercase letters. A truly eye-catching choice.

Fast Rewind: A Timeless Handwritten Script Font

A handwritten brush script with a versatile, relaxed and nostalgic feel.

This illustrative brush script owes its inspiration to the 1950s art direction typical of mainstream magazines and book covers. A relaxed hand-lettered title was often paired with illustrations of handsome couples or escapist scenes, encouraging readers to settle into the latest gripping story from authors such as Ray Bradbury, Donald Westlake or Arthur Miller. 

Fast Rewind aims to repurpose this vintage look for contemporary designers with two handwritten fonts, drawn in ink and brush, and then digitally mastered to maintain those all-important human imperfections.

Included are the Regular and Alternative designs, with a complete set of uppercase and lowercase characters, along with numbers, symbols and language support. Also included are a variety of underlines and illustrations as seen in these visuals. Each style also comes with its own selection of extra glyphs to helps you achieve the perfect flow between characters and avoid tell-tale repetition.

Thanks to all the great photographers who provided images for these visuals.