font_foundry: Jeff Levine

An ebay purchase of a vintage Speedball lettering pen set yielded an extra bonus… numerous alphabets on paper rendered in both pen and ink and via pencil sketches. One such design in rough pencil...

The 1939 sheet music for “Sea Dreams” had its title hand lettered in an unusual Art Deco style that employed many unusual character shapes and widths within the font design. A teardrop-shaped ‘D’, a...

For 138 years, the Milton Bradley Company (of Springfield, Massachusetts) has been the leading producer of board games, toys and educational/instructional materials. The company was acquired by Hasbro in 1984. It was merged with...

On the cover of the 1926 sheet music for “There Ain’t No Maybe in My Baby’s Eyes”, the title is rendered in Art Nouveau hand lettering; pen-drawn with rounded ends. The type design is...

Manufactory JNL and its oblique counterpart were re-drawn from examples of a now-antique typeface used within many advertisements found throughout the pages of The American Stationer magazine, circa 1879. The term ‘manufactory’ was popular...

The 1927 beginner’s book for Shefte’s Rapid Course in Modern Piano Playing had its title hand lettered in a bold serif typeface that reflected some of the influences of the Art Nouveau era. This...

While watching the 1947 holiday classic “Miracle on 34th Street”, one scene in particular presented a chance to develop a retro type design. ‘Kris Kringle’ suggests to a mother visiting with her child in...

Many alphabet style examples from the Speedball Textbook on pen lettering have offered amateurs and professionals a source of inspiration since its first publication in 1915. A 1940s edition presented a simple sans serif...

The hand lettered word ‘puzzles’ from the box cover of a 1940s set of metal “connected” puzzle pieces manufactured by the A.C. Gilbert Company was the initial typographic model, but some additions and changes...

F.W. Woolworth was once one of the giants of the variety store chains, along with the likes of Kress, S.S. Kresge, McCrory’s, Neisner Brothers, Ben Franklin and others. In 1960, the company brought out...