TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Fri Dec 13 00:42:56 EST 2024

FONT RECOGNITION VIA FONT MOOSE

LUC DEVROYE

ABOUT

Three Islands Press (was: The Type Quarry) [Brian Willson]

Brian Willson (b. 1951, New Haven, CT), grew up in Austin, TX, and obtained a degree in radio, TV and film from the University of Texas in 1979. Since 1980, Willson has lived in coastal Maine, where for 15 years he worked as a writer and journalist, in both broadcast and print media, and was managing editor of National Fisherman magazine for one year. In the mid 1990s, he left the magazine business to devote his full time to Three Islands Press (3IP), a digital design and publishing company he founded in Rockland in 1989. He has been designing type since 1993. Three Islands Press (or 3IP, or The Type Quarry) used to offer 10 dollar shareware fonts. They went commercial and are now located in Rockland, ME. 3IP Type Foundry also enjoys the contributions of type designers Patricia Lillie and Lars Bergquist. Their fonts:

• Abigail Adams (2014). An epistolar script based on he hand of Abigail Smith Adams, first Second Lady and second First Lady of the United States.
• American Scribe: 2003, after the handwriting of Timothy Mattack, who penned America's Declaration of Independence.
• Antiquarian (2010): based on the titles and captions and place labels on a page I have of Henri Abraham Chatelain's Atlas Historique.
• Antiquarian Scribe (2010): based on the body text in an 18th century atlas by Henri Abraham Chatelain.
• Attic Antique: old pitted characters.
• Austin Pen (2018): Stephen F. Austin (1793-1836) is considered by many the father of Texas for leading the first Anglo-American colony into the then-Mexican territory back in the 1820s. A few years later, while on a diplomatic mission to Mexico City, Austin was arrested on suspicion of plotting Texas independence and imprisoned for virtually all of 1834. During this time he kept a secret diary of his thoughts and musings. Austin Pen is my interpretation of Austin's scribblings in this miniature prison journal.
• Bonnycastle (2015). Based on the charts of Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle (1791-1847), an English officer and military engineer who served in the War of 1812 and ultimately settled in Canada.
• Bonsai.
• Botanical Scribe (2013, a warm copperplate script): "The Raphael of Flowers" is what they called Pierre-Joseph Redouté a couple hundred years ago. The Belgian native became famous in France, where he painted floral watercolors for both Marie Antoinnette and Empress Josephine. But what cemented his legacy was his perfection of a stipple engraving technique that brought his art to the masses. Botanical Scribe is modeled after the neat, cursive hand-inscribed legends on these antique prints. Because it simulates handlettering, the font retains a warm, organic quality not seen in fancy modern scripts while remaining both elegant and legible.
• Broadsheet
• Castine (1998).
• Cedar Street
• Chromosome (1995): a label-tape gun font.
• Dingos: free.
• Douglass Pen (2011): inspired by the handwriting of Frederick Douglass, who was born an American slave but died a distinguished 19th century statesman, orator, and abolitionist leader. He also had fine penmanship. Douglass Pen is modeled chiefly after Douglass's handwritten account of John Brown's 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, VA.
• Emily Austin (2001) is modeled after the penmanship of Emily Margaret Austin (Bryan) Perry, an early Texas colonist along with her brother, Stephen F. Austin, for whom the state capital was named. Specimens were letters dating from 1837 until 1851, the year of her death at 56. It is a beautiful historic handwriting font.
• Geographica (2016), Geographica Hand (2017), Geographica Script (2017). He writes: Thomas Jefferys (ca. 1710-1771) was the best-known map engraver in 18th-century England, chiefly because he won (and hyped) the title Geographer to King George III. Jefferys was more an engraver/publisher than a geographer, really, since he mostly relied on the cartographic materials of others. Geographica is a four-style serif text-type family modeled after the neat hand-lettered place names and peripheral text on Jefferys's maps. Geographica is characterized by long serifs and ample x-height, and comes with a set of unique cartographic ornaments. Geographica Script is a roundhand calligraphic typeface influenced by the maps of Emanuel Bowen (1694-1767).
• Houston Pen (after the handwriting of Sam Houston.
• Horsefeathers.
• Lamar Pen: 2003, after the handwriting of poet Mirabeau B. Lamar, ca. 1830s.
• Marydale. Willson wrote: While working at National Fisherman magazine several years ago, I admired the hand-lettering of the production director, Marydale Abernathy, and suggested she let me model a font after her penmanship. She drew out the alphabet, I launched Macromedia (then Altsys) Fontographer, and (to shorten a long story) I ended up developing my first typeface. For the heck of it, I released it first as shareware, then as a full-featured typeface and, astonishingly, it took off.
• Military Scribe (2015). Military Scribe is modeled after the compact utilitarian script on the mid- to late-1770s muster rolls of the (British) Tenth Regiment of Foot.
• Oak Street
• Old Man Eloquent (2010): a connected script based on an 1810 sample of the handwriting of John Quincy Adams.
• Professor
• Pumpkinseed
• Remsen Script.
• Schooner Script: after the 1825 handwriting of pastor Samuel Clarke of Princeton, MA.
• Sluggo.
• Speed Bump
• Texas Hero: after the hand of Thomas J. Rusk, 1836.
• Terra Ignota (2013). Based on the handlettering on Amerique Septentrionale, a 1650 map by French cartographer Nicolas Sanson.
• Treefrog (1993): beautiful unevenly inked handwriting style, inspired by the quirky inkpen doodlings of Philip D. Cyr, a graphic designer who lives in Arizona.
• Viktorie (2007, handwriting).

Alternate URL. MyFonts link. Alternate URL. alternate site. Agfa-Monotype page. Fonts sold by Mindcandy. Creative Market link. FontShop link. Klingspor link.

View Brian Willson's typefaces.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Three Islands Press (was: The Type Quarry)
 [Buy fonts]
 [Designer info]
Fontspring link [Buy fonts]
Monotype link
Creative Market page
Klingspor Museum page
MyFonts search
Monotype search
Fontspring search
Google search

INTERNAL LINKS
Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Commercial fonts (small outfits) ⦿ Handwriting fonts ⦿ Type scene in Connecticut ⦿ Type scene in Texas ⦿ Type scene in Maine ⦿ Treefrog typefaces ⦿ Type scene in Arizona ⦿