Mr Dafoe Font

The Charles Bluemlein Script Collection is an intriguing reminder of the heady days of hand lettering and calligraphy in the United States. There were approx 200 professional hand letterers working in New York City alone, from the early 1930s to the end of the Second World War. The advent of photo lettering, followed closely by digital typography, rendered this profession nearly extinct.

The peculiar method through which the Bluemlein scripts were executed and created — by collecting individual signatures and then building complete alphabets from them — is a fascinating calligraphic absolution.

Because the array of new designs bore no resemblance at all to the proprietary signatures the new scripts were dubbed otherwise fictional names. From there, the typeface styles were displayed in Higgins Ink catalogs—which were the main tool used for ordering measured type.

This font is free for personal and commercial use.