P22 Type Foundry

The folks over at the P22 type foundry have won my heart by designing typefaces focus on design and art history. They have a website but it is counter-intuitive and feels like the year 2000—but they have some really great stuff, I swear. Lucky those savants over at You Work for Them have a grip of them for sale, and are hosting the P22 faces in an intuitive and pleasant way. I’m always trying to find a nice serif to use, and this one in particular has the right feel to it. It’s classic and hand-made looking. I dig. It’s called P22 PanAm. 

About the font, from YWFT

This font was created to help celebrate the centennial of the Pan-American exposition of 1901 which was held in Buffalo, New York. It is based on a variety of printed ephemera from the exhibition (which incidentally is most noted not for the spectacular electrical illuminations provided by nearby Niagara Falls, but rather for the assassination of President William McKinley).

Furthermore, I find it interesting that one can buy these historic/classic looking type-faces from the eras past, and use them on a various designs, thus contributing to the weird non-contextualness that is our times. The only thing I can do is navigate all the randomness with a strong intuition, and my gut says “that font looks classy”. Another thing I keep wondering, is—why do I keep finding myself drawn to things of the past more than what is being made now.