FF Imperial Spike was originally developed as part of a logo for Imperial Recordings, a Dutch techno/trance record label. The idea was to make a logo with a fantasy, or sword and sorcery look, something along the lines of “Conan the Barbarian” or Tolkien’s “The Hobbit.” The logo was rejected as being too Old German and Gothic, things the client associated with hard rock and heavy metal music, but its designer Donald Beekman found the typeface interesting, and decided to finish it.

FF Imperial Bone is a spin-off of FF Imperial Spike. It came about after Beekman showed Spike to smart drugs maker Conscious Dreams, who were looking for a logo for Kanna, a new herbal snuff. They liked the design, but felt that a softer, more organic look would be more appropriate for the product. So Beekman began blunting the spikes and ended up with a whole new design. Because some letters resembled bones (especially E, F, J, 5 and !) the name FF Imperial Bone was decided upon.

The variants named FF Imperial Long Bone and FF Imperial Long Spike are long-tailed (i.e., ascenders and descenders) versions of FF Imperial Bone and FF Imperial Spike.