Dilworth

Dilworth is my flagship typeface. The maiden voyage was to build a simple and modern grotesque framework that would lend itself to derivative styles and a fully editorial stockpile of weights and widths. I began with a semi-expanded width to complement the Dt emblem I created in 2005 for my incorporated entity, Dilworth Typographics Inc.

I drew inspiration from two utilitarian workhorses, Jackson Burke’s classic Trade Gothic Extended and Matthew Carter’s ubiquitous Microsoft web font Verdana, for a design that could survive in print and on screen.

The Dilworth typeface is available upon request.

Trauen

Trauen is similar in origin to Dilworth: a simple and printable face that also renders well on screen. Trauen retains legibility at 10 pixels while not falling into pixelfont chunkiness. I tuned it for heading graphics on the TypeTrust website, hence the name. “Trauen” is German for the verb “to trust”.

The Trauen typeface is available upon request.

Yesterday

It’s not quite retro, but certainly familiar. It’s a case of déjà vu in the cosmetics department at Bloomingdales.

My friend Joe Wigdahl debuted Yesterday in his jacket design of Aloha’s 2004 LP Here Comes Everyone. Yeah, I’m in the All Music Guide too.

The Yesterday typeface is available upon request.

Diego

Diego is derived from a custom type design job that called for a bit of Spanish-flavored Western-wear flair. I was imagining Copperplate Gothic sipping Cuervo gimlets.

The Diego typeface is available at TypeTrust.

Fatty

My friend Chris May first drew Fatty’s thick letterforms for some posters he was silkscreening. We reworked this initial stencil version for the retail font release that found its way onto Jarvis Cocker’s solo album.

The Fatty typeface is available at TypeTrust.

Rickety

Another typographic collaboration with Chris May, Rickety began as some rough lettering sketches that we later expanded into a full character set.

The Rickety typeface is available at TypeTrust.

Majestos

Majestos Wide is a custom type design developed for cable television’s saving grace, the Food Network. It is available to the public through TypeTrust as the retooled and renamed retail font reincarnation, Reservation Wide.

The Food Network’s official version of the Majestos corporate fonts are also available upon request.

Sansarah

My one-time neighbor Ben Bilow lined up this custom font project for Columbia College Chicago. His fellow designer in the CCC creative services department, Sarah Faust, was about to depart for maternity leave and her handwriting was an integral part of the College’s identity package. She would literally write headlines and callouts as needed.

I was commissioned to engineer this modest and aptly named stand-in of a typeface while Sarah was taking some time off developing a far more amazing thing than a digital font based on her handwriting.

The Sansarah typeface is available at TypeTrust

Bridge Gothic

The bane of my typographic toil, Bank Gothic, crosses my path almost daily; and it makes me cross. When I began assisting the non-profit Chicago-based publication Bridge Magazine, the entanglement had become too much to bear. I inherited the existing format that was anchored by an unaltered Bank Gothic logo and a loose incorporation of the typeface in other branding aspects.

All my tooth-nashing and mouth-foaming convinced Michael Workman, Bridge’s editor-in-chief, to let me have at it with a logo revision, and hence, a full revision of the Bank plague. I created these fonts from scratch, preserving the right-angled spirit of the sire face while redrawing the numbers with similar rigidity found in the alphabetical forms. A true lowercase array awaits revision on my hard drive — an extensive family will be available at TypeTrust when they meet completion.

Available upon request.

Cooter

Everybody’s doing it... that simple, handwritten, suburban graffiti style. I figured what the hell... heap it into a font. There’s more where this came from, priced to sell.

Available at TypeTrust.

Everafter

I approached this project by drawing each glyph directly in Fontographer (years ago), keeping the outlines as organic as possible for a wavering woodcut appearance. As it progressed, Everafter became more of a text font than the heavier decorative style I had initially intended.

I called upon my experience working with Sage Reynolds on his T26 releases, Rustic Sage and Zebra, for the hand-carved feel of Everafter’s fairytale charm.

The Everafter typeface is available at TypeTrust.

Vandermark

I had a daydream about the arched stroke of a lowercase ‘n’ disappearing to a point just as it reached its vertical stem.

From that premise, I drew Vandermark with all of its crescent curves and extreme contrasts. It remains a geometric experiment, even in its flourishes and flair.

I named it partly for Chicago jazz reedist Ken Vandermark, but moreso because the character array demonstrated a nice rhythm of hard verticals and fading curves.

The Vandermark typeface isavailable at TypeTrust.

Lump

I did an installation of 1" buttons for a show put on by Lumpen Magazine at Heaven Gallery here in Chicago. This font is a tightened up version of the lettering on those buttons.

The Lump typeface is available at TypeTrust.

Midinote

This is one of my older playthings — a geometrically simple and sleek face inspired by electronic instrumentals and minivan nameplates. It’s begging for a good home along the length of a synthesizer or hybrid stationwagon.

The Midinote typeface is available upon request.

Oberon

I set about drawing Oberon with the concept of bevel filters in mind. I rounded almost every hard corner to produce the softest highlights and smoothest transitions in illusory depth.

It turned out very much like Aldo Novarese’s Eurostile which I consulted for direction on some problematic glyphs, most recognizably the miniscule ‘y’.

The Oberon typeface is available upon request.

Soren

This is a distilled variation of Madeline, a purposeful sans I developed for Chicago’s storied 1R Gallery back in 2003. Where Madeline donned some dandy diagonal cuts on the vertical strokes, I took Soren in a stoic, directly horizontal approach.

The Soren typeface is available upon request.

Elidel

This was one of the more involved custom type design projects I cranked out in my tenure at [T-26]. Working only from the Elidel logotype, I created full character sets in regular and bold weights with respective obliques.

The Elidel typeface is not publicly available.

Alphaben

This was a custom type design gig I was hired to engineer working from vectorized samples of handwriting by a talented gentleman named Ben, hence the name he chose. I hand-tweaked the original letterforms for shift-key alternates, and constructed the shadow style in Fontographer for layering effects.

The Alphaben typeface is not publicly available.