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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
Thank you @ebbooksellers.bsky.social for stocking our stationery!
Two shelves of books and stationery boxes. On the top shelf: Calligraphic Menagerie; Sprigs, Leaves & Flowers; Science Fiction Postcards; Japan Moderne; Mythical Creatures; Secession Style
December 25, 2025 at 5:23 AM
letterformarchive.org
Marget Larsen, Joseph Magnin holiday box, 1963.⁠

One of two gift boxes in our collection from the hip San Francisco mid-century department store, Joseph Magnin.

#MargetLarsen #JosephMagnin #Typography #Packaging #Ampersand #MidcenturyModern #VintageChristmas
Top of the box showing a purple ampersand on red background with decorative green border. A cube-shaped box on a table. Three sides of the box are visible: “XMAS”, “XOXOXO”, and an ampersand. Closeup of label inside the box reading, “Joseph Magnin (c) 1963 Marget Larsen”.
December 22, 2025 at 6:48 PM
letterformarchive.org
“The series drew me in—a row of colorful spines with a hint at the hand-drawn variety that awaits you on the covers. … Every little tome charms. While the books are a regular fixture in Czech households, they are rarely seen in the US. I knew we had to bring some home to the Archive.” — @stewf.com
A hand pulls a small book from a shelf. The cover is blue, with a casual, hand-drawn illustration of star constellations in the background and a title in the center: Árpád Tóth, Od srdce k srdci. A row of colorful small books on shelf. They all share the same basic sans-serif type style on the spine, but each has a different illustrative background pattern.
December 21, 2025 at 2:22 AM
letterformarchive.org
Tezzo Suzuki Calendars have arrived from Japan! Order now to get yours before 2026. letterformarchive.org/shop/tezzo-s...

#TezzoSuzuki #Calendars #Lettering #Typography #Numbers
December 17, 2025 at 8:12 AM
letterformarchive.org
Reminds us of the neon sign paintings by our friend Jim Parkinson who passed away earlier this year.
Photo of a painting depicting a neon sign for Hotsy Totsy Club, white letters on a red X and blue background. Photo of a painting depicting a neon sign for Donut Time, with white letters on a red background surrounding a clock. Photo of a painting depicting a neon sign for Hotsy Totsy ClubTin Sheung Herbs, with yellow letters on a black background crowned by an art deco ornament.
December 11, 2025 at 4:05 PM
letterformarchive.org
Vera Evstafieva, Cyrillic calligraphy, Cambridgeshire, 2021⁠
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Gift of @infonta.bsky.social.
⁠
#calligraphy #VeraEvstafieva #lettering #typography #graphicdesign #script #handlettering
⁠
closeup detail of calligraphy in large bold and small light styles. full piece of calligraphy in 14 lines, alternating bold and light.
December 10, 2025 at 5:16 AM
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:⁠
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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:⁠
⁠
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
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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