Wood Type: Slab Serif

Westside™ was designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1989 and can be classified as a "wood type." It is reminiscent of dusty streets, Wild West heroes and swinging saloon doors. The origins of wood types are found in the early nineteenth century, when such types really were cut in wood, and printed on hand presses. Westside has big fat serifs and heavy horizontals that are much thicker than the skinny... Read More

Figaro is a very condensed slab serif design of the kind associated with nineteenth century advertising. The Figaro font has considerable weight contrast in the strokes, with a marked weight emphasis on the horizontal elements, including the serifs. Use the Figaro font for display and advertising and for 'Wild West' style posters.

Branding Iron is similar to Barnum Block. Use the Branding Iron font for headlines, signs, menus and posters, especially where an American Western quality is desired.

One look at the font Wanted brings to mind swinging saloon doors, double shots of whiskey and sheriff's badges. It belongs to the so-called Italienne typefaces which began to appear at the beginning of the 19th century. The distinguishing characteristic of such typefaces is the robustness of its serifs, which exceeds that of the base strokes. Wanted looks almost as though it were stamped on... Read More

Ponderosa font is a joint work of the typeface designers K.B. Chansler, C. Crossgrove and C. Twombly, who also created Rosewood, Zebrawood and Pepperwood together. As the name suggests, it is so-called wood type. The origins of this kind of typeface can be found in the early 19th century. Called Italian or Italienne, these typefaces quickly became very popular. They are distinguished by... Read More

Designed by Dave West and released in 1960, the name Barnum associates this face with the famous nineteenth-century traveling American circus and showman P.T. Barnum. The wood-cut influence of the letter makes the PL Barnum Block font ideal for posters, signage and creative titling and packaging.

PL Davidson Americana is an all-capital typeface based on woodcut designs from the nineteenth century. The PL Davidson Americana font was designed by M. Davison in 1965, during the revival of American headline faces.

Thunderbird is an old American-style typeface. It is based on the kinds of big wood type that were popular in old Wild West advertising, which is evident through its ornate serifs, and the pointy flares that pop in and out of the centers of each stroke. Thunderbird is an all caps font and is best used in very large sizes.

Joy Redick designed Blackoak, a big and heavy Egyptienne-sytle titling slab serif face, in 1990. The extremely robust style of the characters in this typeface was consciously distorted; creating letterforms that appear flattened and stretched, like a rubber band. Blackoak is drawn in the style of old wood tpes, just like those that one envisions when one thinks of the large, decorative posters... Read More