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letterformarchive.org
Letterform Archive
@letterformarchive.org
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A nonprofit center for inspiration, education, publishing, and community in lettering, typography, and graphic design. We post items from our collection of over 100,000 objects. Visit, take a class, buy a book: https://letterformarchive.org
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letterformarchive.org
Linear-Antiqua ad/specimen, Ludwig & Mayer, Das Plakat, 1912. (Typeface by Richard Ludwig, 1911 fontsinuse.com/typefaces/23...)

Source: iaddb.org?query=search...
Portrait-oriented page showing a monoline slab-serif typeface along with simple dashed border elements.
November 15, 2025 at 4:19 AM
letterformarchive.org
With in-depth research from sign painter Morgane Côme and dozens of rare alphabet plates, it’s an essential reference and delightful guide to the fashionable letterforms that defined the classic French streetscape.
Two spreads from a book showing decorative letters.
November 12, 2025 at 9:17 PM
letterformarchive.org
Our final batch of 100 Tens features contributions from this brilliant bundle of designers:⁠
⁠
Lucas Sharp⁠
Matthijs Herzberg⁠ @herzberg.bsky.social
Nolan Pelletier⁠ @nolanpelletier.bsky.social
Craig Frazier⁠
Oded Ezer⁠
Christoph Niemann⁠ @christophniemann.bsky.social
Petra Dočekalová
Susan Kare⁠…
October 28, 2025 at 5:44 AM
letterformarchive.org
We continue rolling through 100 Tens to celebrate 10 years of Letterform Archive. This group includes contributions from:⁠
⁠
James Goggin⁠ @practise.bsky.social
Jean-Benoit Levy
Jennifer Morla⁠
John Stevens⁠
Tezzo Suzuki
Juan Villanueva⁠
Julien Priez⁠ @boogypaper.bsky.social
⁠
#100Tens
October 23, 2025 at 8:26 PM
letterformarchive.org
100 Tens—our multi-day fest for 10 years of Letterform Archive—spins on! This segment features contributions from:⁠
⁠
Carl Rohrs⁠
Dinamo⁠ @abcdinamo.bsky.social
Erik Van Blokland⁠ @letterror.bsky.social
Zuzana Licko⁠
Design is Play⁠
Franziska Weitgruber⁠
Ganzeer⁠ @ganzeer.bsky.social
⁠
#100Tens
October 21, 2025 at 6:22 AM
letterformarchive.org
We’re celebrating 10 years of Letterform Archive with #100Tens. This segment features contributions from:⁠
⁠
Thomas Ingmire⁠
Michael Schwab⁠
Sean Adams⁠
Mark SImonson @marksimonson.bsky.social
Alejandro Chavetta
Clement Mok
Marian Bantjes

alongside items from the Archive’s collection by:⁠
October 19, 2025 at 5:34 PM
letterformarchive.org
Our 10th birthday party continues with a subset of the “100 Tens”. This clip includes a wide range of fabulous 1s contributed by:⁠
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Antic-Ham and Francis Van Maele of Redfoxpress⁠
Laura Serra @laureola.bsky.social
Laura Meseguer @laurameseguer.bsky.social
Martin Venezky @martinvenezky.bsky.social
October 16, 2025 at 6:54 AM
letterformarchive.org
To celebrate our 10th anniversary, Letterform Archive partnered with the San Francisco office of COLLINS on 100 Tens — 50 “1”s from the Archive’s collection paired with 50 new works from a range of today’s leading designers.

#LetterformArchive #100Tens
October 14, 2025 at 12:02 AM
letterformarchive.org
Angel DeCora; binding, title page, and initials; Wigwam Stories; 1901–1909

On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we honor Angel DeCora, a Ho-Chunk artist whose lettering filled books like this one. letterformarchive.org/news/angel-d...

#IndigenousPeoplesDay #AngelDeCora #Lettering #BookDesign #HoChunk
Binding of a book showing the front cover and spine. The cover has a “WIGWAM STORIES” title featuring triangular lettering. Title page of Wigwam Stories with the following text: WIGWAM STORIES TOLD BY NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS COMPILED BY MARY CATHERINE JUDD WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANGEL de CORA (CHINOOK • MAHIWI • KILINAKA) BOSTON • USA GINN & COMPANY ATHENAEUM PRESS 1909 Cropped detail of a page from Wigwam Stories showing a drop cap “A” made of tree branches with a wolf peering through. Cropped detail of a page from Wigwam Stories showing a drop cap “A” made of curved lines and surrounded by phases of the moon. A woman inside the “A” looks upward.
October 13, 2025 at 9:07 PM
letterformarchive.org
Calligraphy by Arthur Baker. We’re honored to hold Baker’s archive of hundreds of drawings, paintings, phototype negatives, and other material. letterformarchive.org/collections/...
Black calligraphic, swashy M and N on paper Calligraphic roman “abcd” on paper Calligraphic alphabet with long ascenders and descenders on paper. Calligraphic alphabet with hundreds of ‘a’s on paper.
October 13, 2025 at 7:12 AM
letterformarchive.org
The first step in making better type choices is learning how to see it in a new way. Develop your typographic eye with @stewf.com (Anatomy of Type) & @slye.bsky.social (Fontstand) in our weekend “Crash Course in Type Selection”.

Oct 25–26 at Letterform Archive
letterformarchive.org/shop/a-crash...
A diagram identifying various parts of letters (sometimes called type anatomy), including the spine of an S, the arm of a k, the eye of an e, the arch of an f, the ear of a g, and the tail of an a.
October 5, 2025 at 5:00 PM
letterformarchive.org
Letterform Archive is a living archive, a perpetual project to not only preserve historic design, but to inspire new work. To mark our 10th anniversary we teamed up with COLLINS to create 100 Tens: 50 interpretations of the number “1” from the collection, paired with 50 contributions living artists.
September 19, 2025 at 5:08 AM
letterformarchive.org
Making type is fun! Learn how to create your own font, from sketch to screen (and everything in between) in this 10-week online workshop with Fer Cozzi.

Introduction to Modern Type Design
Wednesdays, Sep 17–Nov 19, 2025⁠
5:00pm–8:00pm PT (10:00am–1:00pm AEST)⁠

letterformarchive.org/shop/introdu...
A photo of a woman with letters overlaid on top: “Intro to Modern Type Design / IMTD" Graphic of a bold lowercase ‘a’ with vector outlines, nodes, skeleton, and other evidence of digital type design. Graphic of a bold lowercase ‘n’ with vector outlines, nodes, skeleton, and other evidence of digital type design.
September 11, 2025 at 3:57 PM
letterformarchive.org
Đức Cao, Homecooked type specimen, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 2021⁠
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Homecooked is a casual sans-serif typeface exploring the warmth and expressiveness of the flat brush.⁠ The French foundry Blaze later released Đức’s typeface as Swirl: blazetype.eu/typefaces/sw...

#TypeDesign #Fonts #TypeWest
Sample of a typeface in a swirling, calligraphic, outline style. Process work for the typeface showing gestural calligraphic marks on pages. Sample of a typeface in a swirling, calligraphic, outline style and other solid styles. Sample of a typeface in a swirling, calligraphic, outline style and other solid styles.
September 8, 2025 at 10:04 PM
letterformarchive.org
Joe Caroff, West Side Story movie poster, United States, 1961⁠
⁠
Caroff, designer of book covers, posters, and logos, including the “007” for the James Bond franchise, died on Sunday, just before his 104th birthday. Among his iconic creations was this poster often misattributed to Saul Bass.⁠
Detail of a poster focused on the words “WEST SIDE STORY” in a weathered stencil style, and an illustration of a man dancing on a stairway. Detail of the same poster but showing more of the dancing illlustration, including a woman on the stairway. Full, uncropped poster with this text on the top, “The screen achieves one of the great entertainments in the history of motion pictures.”
August 19, 2025 at 6:16 AM
letterformarchive.org
TypeCon2025 happens this week in Portland, and Letterform Archive will have a table at the first-ever Volumes Market (www.instagram.com/p/DMGG9HNP2eG/) which is free and open to the public. Aug 8–9, 11am–6pm at Revolution Hall. See you there?

#VintageBooks #BookFair #Books #TypeCon #Typography
Graphic with a collage of books, apparel, and other design ephemera. Text: VOLUMES PRESENTS MARKET NEW & VINTAGE COLLECTIBLES BY MULTIPLE VENDORS AUGUST 8th - 9th, 2025 FREE & OPEN TO ALL @ REVOLUTION HALL Graphic with the “Volume Presents Market” at the top and a list of vendors in the middle: Chess Club Hi Books Letterform Archive Monograph Bookwerks Outlet Passage Bookshop The Idea of the Book The Shop at Matter & More 11AM - 6PM 8/8 - 8/9 @ REVOLUTION HALL
August 5, 2025 at 5:25 PM
letterformarchive.org
This [1901] Bruce catalog has a rather odd title page layout, but we love two things:

1. A fairly early halftone photograph of the New York building.
2. “BRUCE QUALITY BEST QUALITY”

#TypeFoundries #BruceTypeFoundry #TypeHistory #Typography #TypeSpecimens
Photo of a book spread. On the left page is a photo of a building with this text: “ESTABLISHED IN 1813 / LOCATED IN THIS BUILDING FOR THE PAST EIGHTY-SIX YEARS”. On the right side is a title, “BRUCE TYPE FOUNDRY” across two columns. The left column has a seal with an eagle, a pattern of fleuron ornaments, and a box with the text, “BRUCE QUALITY / BEST QUALITY”. The second column has this text: OUR HANDY BOOK OF TYPES, BORDERS BRASS RULE AND CUTS PRINTING MACHINERY & GENERAL SUPPLIES BRUCE TYPE FOUNDRY 13 CHAMBERS STREET NEW YORK, U.S.A. Zoomed detail of the building photo. Zoomed detail of “BRUCE QUALITY BEST QUALITY”
August 1, 2025 at 1:43 AM
letterformarchive.org
Meant to astonish and amuse, the practice drew countless admirers, but it also provoked many critics, who grumbled over how far it strayed from writing.

Birds proved a popular subject for writers, maybe out of respect for the creatures they robbed for their quills.
A bird (made of calligraphic lines) brandishes a quill in Johann Jacob Losenauer’s 1719 book, Vorschrifft, Teutsch- lateinisch- und frantzösischer Schrifften.
July 17, 2025 at 11:18 PM
letterformarchive.org
Hanns Lohrer and Walter Krafft, Folio type specimen, Bauersche Gießerei, Frankfurt am Main, ca. 1959.

#FolioTypeface #BauerFoundry #TypeSpecimens #1950s #HannsLohrer #WalterKrafft
Spread of a booklet promoting a typeface. On the left side, small text, rotated 180 degrees, appears to rain down on a black-and-white photograph of a chair. On the right side, a reversed (white on black) photographic silhouette image of spoons with red text between them.
June 19, 2025 at 8:25 PM
letterformarchive.org
Recently we hosted a tour of Arabic calligraphy and type with Sabiha Basrai, Letterform Archive docent and co-owner of Design Action Collective.

Sabiha’s next tour is Design and Social Justice on July 11: letterformarchive.org/shop/collect...

#LetterformArchive #DecolonizingDesign #DesignMuseums
June 18, 2025 at 5:39 PM
letterformarchive.org
Nobody does warm modernism better. A mailer in our collection:
June 13, 2025 at 2:47 AM
letterformarchive.org
Martin Venezky (Designer), Appetite Engineers (Agency), The 18th San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festival brochure, United States, 1994⁠

See this and other work by Venezkyy in our Online Archive: oa.letterformarchive.org?dims=Collect...
⁠
#PrideMonth #SanFrancisco #MartinVenezky #LGBT
Unfolded cover and back cover of a tall leaflet printed in green and black. The main headline: “We’ve been proving there’s a lesbian & gay market for years.” Other tiext: THE 18th SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL LESBIAN & GAY FILM FESTIVAL For more information contact FRAMELINE 346 Ninth Street San Francisco, California 94103 415 703 8650 415 861 1404 (fax) 1 800 869 1996 In Berlin, contact Mark Finch, Festival Director at Hotel Arco (030) 882 6388 Nancy Fishman, Distribution Director c/o A/FA stand Zoomed detail of the main headline in staggered text set on in a collaged background of arrow sign photos, irregular shapes, and ovals.
June 11, 2025 at 8:15 PM
letterformarchive.org
Ganzeer, Justice for Mona (from “Of Course the Army Protected the Revolution”), 2011⁠
⁠
Dive into the rich history and future of the Arabic script. Join Sabiha Basrai for a special tour, in person at the Archive.

Fri, Jun 13, 2025
1:30pm–3:00pm PT

Register: letterformarchive.org/shop/collect...
An illustration of a woman with casts on her hands. Overlaid are the words, “When injustice becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.” in English (screen printed) and Arabic (spray painted).
June 6, 2025 at 6:57 AM
letterformarchive.org
fierce pussy, For the Record, 34 × 22.75, New York⁠, 2013

From its appearance in our 2022 Strikethrough exhibition (exhibitions.letterformarchive.org/strikethrough/):

“In 1991, at an ACT UP meeting in New York, activists announced the formation of a new group—
⁠
#PrideMonth #HIVAIDSActivism
Unfolded poster with the left side in large text: if he were alive today he'd still be living with AIDS In smaller text on the right side: if he were alive today he'd be standing next to you if she were alive today you'd be texting her right now if he were alive today he'd be going gray if they were alive today I wonder what pronoun they'd be using if he were alive today he'd still be living with AIDS if he were alive today he would be at this opening if she were alive today she could tell you about getting arrested at City Hall if he were alive today you would have met him by now if she were alive today you'd be just her type if he were alive today he'd be outside smoking if they were alive today they'd still be living with AIDS if she were alive today she'd be having a hot flash if they were alive today they would have finished writing that book if he were alive today he'd have you on your knees if they were alive today you'd still be sharing an office if she were alive today she'd laugh at that if he were alive today I wonder if they would have gotten married if she were alive today she'd be going down on you tonight if he were alive today you could ask him about that if she were alive today she still couldn't afford healthcare if they were alive today you'd have such a crush on them if she were alive today she'd be out walking the dog if he were alive today you'd probably still be arguing about that if she were alive today maybe she'd have a gallery by now if he were alive today he'd never let them get away with that if he were alive today we'd be going dancing later if she were alive today she'd tie you up and spank you if he were alive today do you think he would have gotten sober if they were alive today they'd know exactly what to say if she were alive today she'd still be living with AIDS if he were alive today he'd have his arm around you if he were alive today he'd be in this picture
June 4, 2025 at 7:17 AM
letterformarchive.org
It also presents and preserves the pre-digital process of custom lettering―from initial pencil sketches to printer mechanicals to final art (plus some spurned client proposals for good measure).⁠
⁠
Leaen more and get the book: letterformarchive.org/shop/doret/?...
June 3, 2025 at 4:28 PM