Cherish Mccormick

Matrijs is the Dutch word for mold. It comes from the Latin word for mother or womb and is somewhat similar to the English word Matrix.

Matrijs is a handmade Garamond which can be used for a wide range of projects.

A photo of the now closed [circa-1953] Lowell Municipal Pool (at 1601 N. 28th St.) in Boise, Idaho shows the words “Municipal Pool” formed into the cement of the entrance to the above-ground swimming facility.

Both the lettering and building entrance designs harken back to the Art Deco era and the sign features stencil-like characters. 

This inspired a typeface aptly named Municipal Pool JNL, and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Images of ‘lost’ or forgotten signs from the past are on a number of sites all over the web. 

One in particular partially revealed a vintage sign for “J. Yormark Shoes” behind a barbershop sign at 15 – 8th Avenue in New York City.  The sign remained until 2014.

The stencil effect made by the formation of the stained glass letters inspired On Your Mark JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.  The font’s name is a play on the shoe vendor’s name… “Yormark”.

A 1930s advertising poster for the Inman Brothers Flying Circus offered up an interesting hand lettered Art Deco design that’s a cross between both squared and rounded character shapes.

Because of it’s ‘futuristic look’, the resulting type style can also lend itself to 1970s and 1980s retro projects as well as those from the 1930s and 1940s.

Now a digital font, Air Circus JNL is available in both regular and oblique versions.

A “Flying Circus” is a troupe of ‘barnstormers’ (stunt pilots) who performed aerial tricks either individually or as a team along with selling airplane rides to the general public.

A 1930s WPA (Works Progress Administration) poster advertising an exhibit of New Jersey area posters had its main lettering rendered in a very condensed hand lettered interpretation of the ever-popular Futura Black Art Deco style.

This has now been re-drawn and digitized as Art Event JNL, in both regular and oblique versions.