Dog Love, In Photos
Don't worry, everything is fine with our pup Yoshi, this isn't a dog memorial note! In fact, I'm publishing this a week ahead of the third …
Don't worry, everything is fine with our pup Yoshi, this isn't a dog memorial note! In fact, I'm publishing this a week ahead of the third …
You didn't come here for a hot take on a 20 year old album but that's what this is. Yesterday I saw a tweet, and it made me anxious. Because I'm …
Once a month I'll inevitably get an email from Paypal saying that "a nice dafont visitor" threw a couple bucks my way. Almost always $5. It's awesome …
Well, RBG died tonight and America is literally on fire. Metaphorically too, but not in a rad way. So, perfect timing for me to rebuild this blog …
I've been working on revisions to seven ETC typefaces for almost eight months now. Before that, I had high hopes for a little project called Public …
I haven’t mentioned this on my website but on January 1st I began a 52 week long project . The goal? Record one song every seven days. All year. I …
What better way to start a quarantine/lockdown than with semi-ominous instrumental music, right? These six ambient tracks span three years of …
I didn’t think I’d be writing a “love letter” to a certain device today, but here I am. The last time I did this was about my favorite ebook reader, …
It's been five years since I blogged photos from the New York State Fair, and you know what? We still hit the same spots and eat the same food. Fewer …
I'm writing this on a Monday, but the title comes from the fact that I spent many hours yesterday finalizing on improvements made to League Mono and …
This blog post started as a silly note on my phone. Less than a note really, just a list of every digital camera I've owned and used and loved and …
I just finished downloading all of my content from Flickr. It amounts to 21 ZIP files that Flickr prepared when I requested my archive, totaling …
This is a quick (relatively, it's 18 minutes long) video tutorial on converting an existing single style font to a multiple master/variable …
For the past few months I have been working on converting my typeface League Mono from eight weights (up from 5 when it launched) to a variable …
Kingston to Negril and back, with a mountain adventure in between. March-April, 2018. Allison rented a car for us that I had the pleasure to drive …
I recently made a quick (15 minute) video tutorial on introductory letter making in Glyphs Mini 2 . I think it is an improvement over my previous …
This is a follow up to last year's running infographic. I'll just let this thing do the talking for now, and get down to some of the details after. …
The world has more free fonts than ever, at a higher quality than I can handle (in a good way). I'm not going to make this a regular Friday thing, …
It has never been a better time to be a graphic designer in Ithaca. I write this as someone who has made a living here doing just that since 2006. We …
I've spent a lot of time over the years thinking about how I get by. Many of those years I was an employee with a salary. Some years were 100% …
I packed a microphone for my annual trip to Maine. You can see it in the photo above, very small, in almost the exact center of the frame. Aside from …
I began work on League Mono at the end of 2016, and had the bulk of it in a usable form in March of this year. Why? I had been looking through the …
This isn't a race recap as much as it's my experience as a bystander, but here we go. The date: Saturday, May 13th. Location: Philly's Pennypack …
Create Upstate is a great design event that has lived in Syracuse, NY for the past three years. It was wonderful there, but this year the organizers …
I'm not the first person to write something like this and given how much I love my Nook, I probably won't be the last, either. So I'll keep this …
In September of 2015 I quickly and quietly launched New O'Clock , a website that publishes and tweets an interesting, true fact every day at two …
I still have a soft spot for Gluten, now more than ever. Literally. Figuratively. In food, especially, but I'm talking about my font. I've recently …
My friend Josh returned home to record his third album at Wilburland . He invited me to the studio to document some of the process. I showed up with …
I’m writing this on a bus to New York City. A last minute getaway with my wife. After admiring the winter scene that also distracts me when I’m …
I’m going to try something new with upcoming typeface releases: overdramatic fake movie posters. So I set out to make a simple design and realized …
I was late to join my local (Upstate NY) AIGA chapter, and even later to hop on the chapter’s Slack list. Deplorable, I know, but I tried to make up …
I ran a lot over the past 12 months. More than ever, which was a surprise to me. I didn't have a goal of running over 100 miles each month for a year …
I visit a used book store in Ithaca’s Commons at least once a week. It’s called Autumn Leaves and sits on the ground level above a record/cd store, …
The Rio Summer Olympics kicks off tonight and even though I don’t often watch sports, hit the track, or the road if I can help it, I look forward to …
The Planetary Society (a non-profit with thousands of dues-paying members) needed a few different print pieces created. An advocacy pamphlet, the …
In the fall of 2015 I created a birdfeeder using a single sheet of 24″ x 12″ birch plywood. I designed the three dimensional object in two dimensions …
Yesterday after my son (age 10 at this posting) and I finished up some collaborative Portal 2 levels he went up to his room. He came down about 10 …
A few years ago I had an idea to create ambient music from classic literature. The concept was simple: choose a piece of writing, remove every bit of …
As I always say, if you want one of your fonts on a book cover, you’ve got to do it yourself. Okay I don’t say that, and honestly I’ve seen my stuff …
A simple thought popped into my brain during a run in the rainy woods today: replace the word “fight” in key quotes from the movie Fight Club with …
If only everyone had paid 50¢ per download It feels like not too long ago I wrote a similar blog post about hitting 1,000,000 free font downloads. A …
Things I'm Over India Pale Ales Higher education Apps “Entrepreneurs” Google Chrome Coffee that costs more than $2 Reddit Road races Seeing social …
This isn’t science, it’s personal. I don’t drink a lot. That is to say, when I enjoy a grown-up beverage, I do so in moderation. There are three …
In a flurry of awesomeness and dollars flying everywhere, the first expansion deck for Assumptions is here. After finding, hiring, loving Louie Chin …
I’ve never met Lauren Baker But back in February she emailed in response to my tweet looking for character illustrators for an upcoming project. In …
I got sucked into a bit of a 90s black hole when /r/typography shared a link to screenshots of every title shot from the show Seinfeld …
Sometimes all it takes to find great talent is a tweet asking for exactly that. Looking for the first expansion pack artist led me to Louie Chin, a …
When my friends at Adjacent asked me to take a few photos of their freshly updated space, I was happy to say "absolutely" and wise enough to bring …
I used to love bright, busy, vibrant wallpaper/background on my phone. They were fun but made the locked view/home screen busy, especially at night, …
In 2012 I put out an instrumental album called The Return Voyage of Christopher Mackenzie (TRVOCM). The music is kind of wacky, but it is exactly …
Jonah and I have been going to the Maritime Aquarium of Norwalk ever since my sister moved to that area over five years ago. My favorite room/exhibit …
My kid busted out a brand new hoodie recently. Not one he bought but one that he designed! He is still slightly obsessed with frogs, which I think is …
There was a lot going on in town yesterday, but I was able to stop by Singlebrook's latest hackathon (hosted at their place, sponsored by many other …
A few days ago I saw this and got really excited: #twithaca this friday, come make paper creations on the laser cutter @IthacaGen …
A lot of times I try to zoom out, or step back from something, to gain perspective. In this case I got in a close as I could. Closer than possible …
My kid is getting bigger, smarter, faster, older. Summer is gone. Even our schedule is completely opposite what it has been for the past 5 years. Our …
I've used Southpaw quite a bit since Allison and I brought it to life earlier this year. Almost every day, at the Beer co. actually. In fact, it is …
The fairgrounds are in Syracuse, just over an hour away from our home. It hosts the Great New York State Fair, an annual celebration of epic …
We've left Ithaca, barely, but it feels like a wonderful new world. Actually, we’ve been out of “the city” for almost two months now, but that time …
It isn’t new but it is hugely popular, and I’m using it these days in place of Rockwell Extra Bold (which is lovely, but not Chunk). I’ve also been …
That’s right, I made these three pixel fonts in 2007. Flash was a big thing that I seemed to spend a bit of time with, and tiny text was huge (lol). …
Had it been a clear day this view 👇would have included Mount Washington and the beast we hiked on the exact same day last year, Mount Madison. But …
For the second time in my life I was treated to a Lips experience that stimulated every sense and also left me more inspired than I could have …
Last week I received an email from someone asking about a specific usage and style stuff for one of my fonts blah blah blah. I linked them to the …
An Adirondack High Peak Adventure I packed light, aside from the dog, and pitched a tent near the trail as the sun went down. Thunder and lightning …
So when I do manage to get off the ground I find myself amazed at the experience. Luckily I’ve been able to share the past few trips with my son (who …
It’s rare for me to write about concert experiences. Over the past few years I’ve enjoyed MIA, Flaming Lips, Phoenix, and Fiona Apple (among others), …
One day at AWP I took a few hours to conceptualize and design a new kind of text overlay app. I started with the concept, a simple interface, and …
My sister has lived within an hour of New York City for a few years now. I'm not a city guy, but I can certainly love it for brief periods. How …
We went to find scarred landscape. I needed to see the environmental catastrophe that everyone around here has been talking about, trying to prevent. …
Metroid has been on my mind lately. It started when my kiddo obtained Nintendo Land / WiiU and found the Metroid level, which begins with the …
My friend Keith lives in a pretty sweet spot in New Hampshire. So the day after Christmas, while we were all in the same area, my life long friends …
Last month Adam Baker had a very impressive photo show in town. Having only seen his work as large as my browser window would allow I was blown away …
Seriously. Justin James Muir takes a good photo. When he sent me a few sample portraits for his beard book, titled A Book of Beards, my (bearded) jaw …
"Also known by the Indian name Tahawus, meaning Cloud-Splitter" I'm not really hiking all 46 Adirondack high peaks and it seems like cheating a bit …
Each year at the end of May all of Ithaca seems to come out for the Ithaca Festival parade! Sometimes it rains but this year we had beautiful …
I’m standing on what used to be Route 61, the now closed off southern path into Centralia, Pennsylvania. Underneath the road, and much of the old …
I recently released an instrumental album that tells the story of a spaceman (whose ancestors originated on Earth) returning home. I, for better or …
I posted this on Vimeo . I’ve been holding on to it for too long and putting off making the video, but here it is. This is in my opinion Radiohead’s …
Once a month I'll inevitably get an email from Paypal saying that "a nice dafont visitor" threw a couple bucks my way. Almost always $5. It's awesome and absolutely unnecessary (because everything I have on dafont is 100% free or open source). It's also inspiring. I ultimately end up visiting DaFont and get lost in the variety and quantity of typefaces. So that's what this blog post is about. Buckle up, I'm handpicking some recent favorites that you can use for anything. Yes I downloaded, installed, and used these all 24 of these fonts to make the graphics below👇
A lot of these are attention getting display faces that might work best with only a word or two. SOME of them could work for far more than that, but the easiest way for me to quickly make this fun was to imagine that each of these badass dafonts represent signage for a food court restaurant. You know, all of a sudden you're in the wing of a mall where a few dozen places are vying for your attention/money, and because you're in a mall (or in this case DaFont) you're like "why the hell not?" Here we go, in order of how I found them...
Uppercase only, but that probably works in this font's favor. If this was an actual restaurant it'd probably cost a lot and be a tiny portion. But it'd be delicious, obviously.
Lowercase only, and some of the script connections don't work great, but it's definitely usable! And who doesn't love a smoothie place?!
It's got that weathered look which, in my opinion, screams bar food, or something. Pairs well with a beer, I'm sure. Lowercase and uppercase are the same, which is fine, really.
Not gonna lie, some of these letters are a bit of a stretch in terms of readability (the E, for instance, which is the most commonly used letter in the English language). But this one is super fun, memorable, and perfect in small quantities (unlike milkshakes which are perfect in any quantity).
A nice and round, pseudo-script font. Beautifully clean uppercase and lowercase letters. I'd love some alternates, here, but hey, it's free.
This is one of my favorites from this DaFont adventure. I love it. Soft with some nice chunks. So friendly, anything you type in it is just happy.
And now for something completely different. Monospace, no curves, cold as h*ck. But, sturdy and reliable.
I don't make or use script fonts like this. And they're everywhere. And they're all giving off the same Pinterest vibe for me. But this one is kind of nice and clean.
This is a pretty solid brush painted font. At first glance I thought it was House Slant (which I also love) but nah, this is something different and also beautiful.
Ok this is the first on the list from Vladimir Nikolic who apparently has 773 DaFonts. I can't even. What? A lot of them are complex like this and kind of mind-bending.
See what I mean? Another from Vladimir. I set each of these letters individually and rotated them slightly which – if this was my font – I would alter permanently. This font is so fun and unpredictable that having a sharp/hard baseline feels jarring.
I mean, I didn't even have to give this food court stop a different name. The font name works fine. It's the most DaFont of these DaFonts, if you know what I mean. But it absolutely has a place here.
I didn't expect to find a freebie from The Northern Block here, but it turns out they have a bunch of great stuff on DaFont. Cool. This is a lovely normal thing.
The name is rough, and it looks like each weekly free font on Creative Market, but you know what? It works. Also, I want Noodlebar to be a thing where I live. Maybe that's what I should start next.
I'm not sure why I felt like bacon worked with this blackletter, but that's what happened. Each of these "restaurants" kind of became a word association/first impression sort of design without being too obvious. But yeah, bacon.
I'm getting ready to see this on Soundcloud album art, for sure. When I first saw it I thought it was ripped from Future Fonts or Velvetyne, and maybe it WAS, but I don't think so. It certainly wouldn't be out of place at either website. Cool.
I can't remember the last time I sat in a coffee shop (because: pandemic). But when I did, I usually had a laptop. That's why cafes exist, right? Anyway, this has a typewriter vibe, but it is proportionally spaced, and inconsistently weighted. Those are all fun things, I'm just sayin.
Vlad! Friend! You're back! I mean, this thing is detailed. Shrink it down enough and it's almost solid. But I bet it would print out real nice. Also, I'm almost always craving Thai food.
No name is necessary when you've got DONUTS. This font has no letters, just tons of different donuts. I deem it essential in your graphic design toolbox.
Talk about a hidden gem. I'm not sure the legality here, but you might be safe to use it for anything. I'm just copying/pasting the description because it is so cool: Bat Fight is a collection of 72 Bat Fight words used in the hit 60s TV show Batman, hand traced from the screen using the iPad Pro. I'm not sure what food KAPOW! would have, but it'd probably be hot and painful.
A seriously swishy cursive brush font. It has some nice contrast and is pretty welcoming. I do love the angle that it is leaning, too.
This one is interesting because it is handmade, but also very square. I don't think you see those two things together very often. If it had alternates I'd be using it for something, for sure.
Bravo Mr Nikolic, you've contributed 4 fonts to this list! Turkish comes in a few different styles, and they're all cool. But this one seemed to work the best. Still, it might be hard to read, even at a large size. Worth the risk, IMHO.
Thought I'd leave out a sushi place? No way. Why this font? I can't really say, honestly. It's the last one on the list, which might mean something. This was my stopping point. Still, it has some very nice curves and is conveniently wide.
Did I get lazy with some of these layouts/lockups? Sure. But I kept everything black on white and let the font do the talking with only rotating/scaling text. I might have kerned a pair or two, ok? But I didn't outline anything or make adjustments. These fonts are cool, I promise.
Why am I doing this? I'm thrilled that two of my ETC typefaces just hit Google Fonts, and GF is better than ever, to be honest. 1000+ typefaces there, and literally hundreds of them are ridiculously high quality, full featured, AND open source. It's wild. But, it was FUN making this. I had FUN browsing DaFont. Which is why I got into all of this over 15 years ago to begin with. I don't always browse Google Fonts for fun, I browse it because I need something reliable. DaFont is the exact opposite for that, for me. I'm there for entertainment and maybe something a little wild. That said, this made for a great exercise. Feel like you're in a rut? Find something fun on DaFont and design something with it.
Future typography students of mine, this might be an assignment some day, we'll see. Like what you see? Tell me on Twitter: @typeler 👋
📍Ithaca, New York
Currently I write and release one open source song every week and make new type on Google Fonts through ETC👍