Examples of Timeless Vintage Typography

Being in the business of custom embossing we see a lot of logos with a vast array of imagery and typography. It's interesting to see the various styles of type and how they are used to represent brands.

Katherine Brooks, Senior Arts & Culture Editor, for The Huffington Post wrote an article titled, 10 Examples Of Vintage Typography At Its Finest. In the article, Brooks shows visual examples of the historical beauty of typography and wrote:

"In the age of digital design there are literally no limits to the field of typography. Forget Comic Sans and Helvetica, the new millennium has ushered in Abril Fatface and UnifrakturMaguntia. But that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re experiencing the pinnacle of font making."

"Some of today’s type faces don’t hold a candle to the handiwork of early 19th century craftsmen who created gorgeous, ornamental letters with metal, wood and a whole lot of mechanical power. And thanks to a new book from Taschen titled “Type: A Visual History of Typefaces & Graphic Styles,” we can salivate over the gaudy history of roman, italic and bold type specimens of yore.

The anthology of early graphic styles surveys the typography eras before the computer, providing a beautiful overview of type artists like William Caslon, Peter Behrens and Rudolf Koch. It covers the years 1628-1938, so the entire compilation is a treasure for type face diehards. We’ve sampled just a few of the calligraphic masterpieces below, sourced from vintage font collector, Jan Tholenaar. Behold:"

Monotype Gill Sans, The Monotype Corporation, London, 1935