TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Sun Oct 13 14:48:26 EDT 2024

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ABOUT

K-Type [Keith Bates]

K-Type is Keith Bates' (b. 1951, Liverpool) foundry in Manchester, UK, est. 2003. Keith works as an Art&Design teacher at a Salford High School. They custom design type, and sell some of their own creations.

Commercial typefaces:

• Adequate (2012). A basic geometric monoline sans family.
• Adventuring (2010, comic book style)
• Alan Hand (2005, based on some blobby lettering, handwritten by printer and mail artist, Alan Brignall)
• Alex (2002-2004)
• Alright (2004, cursive script)
• Anna (2002-2007).
• Argot (2019). Characterized by square counters, this typeface family exhales brutalism and industrialism. See also Argot Machine (2019).
• Artist Hand (2019).
• Axis
• Bank of England (2012, blackletter): Bank of England is loosely based on blackletter lettering from the Series F English twenty pound banknote introduced in 2007. The font also takes inspiration from German Kanzlei (Chancery) typefaces and the 17th century London calligrapher, John Ayres.
• Banks & Miles (2018). Inspired by the geometric monoline lettering created for the British Post Office in 1970 by London design company Banks & Miles, a project initiated and supervised by partner John Miles, which included Double Line and Single Line alphabets. The new digital typeface is a reworking and extension of both alphabets.
• Barbica (2015). A glyphic typeface.
• Bricola (2020).
• Brush Hand New (2013): Brush Hand New is a full font based on a copy of Flash Bold called Brush Hand marketed by WSI in the 1990s and more recently distributed through free font sites. Brush Hand was an anonymous redrawing of Flash which simplified, slightly lightened, smoothed out ragged edges, and improved the legibility of the original classic created by Edwin W. Shaar in 1939.
• Building&Loan (2007, engaved face)
• Bigfoot (2005, a Western font based on the slab capitals used by Victor Moscoso in his 1960s psychedelic rock posters)
• Bolshy (2009)
• Bolton750 (2003, a mechanical typeface done with John Washington).
• Chancery Lane (2021). An italic text typeface that is based on chancery scripts.
• Charles Wright (2016). A set of fonts based on the UK license plate fonts.
• Chock (2009)
• Circa (geometric sans)
• Cloudbuster (2019). Inspired by Imre Reiner's Corvinus Skyline of 1934.
• Club.
• Coinage Caps (2017). Coinage Caps is a trilogy of small caps fonts based on the roman lettering used for the designs of British coinage. Coinage Caps Eric Gill is a regular weight, spur serif style drawn by Eric Gill for silver coin designs in the 1920s which were rejected by the Royal Mint. Coinage Caps Humphrey Paget is a medium weight serif based on the lettering of Thomas Humphrey Paget, designer of the Golden Hind Halfpenny first struck in 1937. This font simulates the soft, slightly rounded corners of the minted letterforms. Coinage Caps Kruger Gray is a glyphic, flare serif font typical of the bold style engraved by George Kruger Gray for numerous British and Commonwealth coins during the 1920s and 30s. This font also simulates the slightly rounded corners of the minted letterforms.
• Collegiate (2009)
• Component (2012). A font for lost civilizations and dungeon rituals.
• Context (experimental)
• Credit Card (2010, font for simulating bank cards)
• Curwen Sans (2018). A monoline sans from the early 1900s originally created for in-house use at the Curwen Press in London.
• Cyberscript (2006, connected squarish face)
• Deansgate (2015). Deansgate and Deansgate Condensed are based on the clearest and most distinctive of the sans-serif letterforms used on Manchester street nameplates, and easily identified by a pointy Z and pointed middle vertices on M and W.
• Designer
• Digitalis
• English
• Enamela (2013). Keith writes: Enamela (rhymes with Pamela) is based on condensed sans serif lettering found on vitreous enamel signage dating from the Victorian era and widely used in Britain for road signs, Post Office signs, the plates on James Ludlow wall postboxes, railway signs, direction signs and circular Automobile Association wayfinding plaques throughout the first half of the twentieth century. The original model goes back to Victorian times, ca. 1880.
• Engravia (2018). Engravia is a didone display typeface supplied in three varieties of engraving---Inline, Shaded and Sawtooth---plus a plain basic font.
• Example (2017). A workhorse neo-grtesque typeface family.
• Excite
• Flip (2011), a western grotesk billboard face.
• Flyer (2009, techno)
• Frank Bellamy (2009, an all-capitals family based on the hand lettering of English artist Frank Bellamy, who is most famous for his comic art for Eagle and TV21, and his Dr Who illustrations for Radio Times)
• Future Imperfect
• Gill New Antique (2003)
• Greetings
• Helvetiquette
• Hapshash (2010): an all capitals font inspired by the 1960s psychedelic posters of British designers Hapshash and the Coloured Coat (Michael English and Nigel Waymouth), in particular their 1968 poster for the First International Pop Festival in Rome. A dripping paint font.
• Irish Penny (2016). An uncial typeface based on the lettering from Percy Metcalfe's influential pre-decimal coinage of Ireland, the Barnyard Collection.
• Ivan Zemtsov (2009)
• Kato (2007, oriental simulation face)
• Keep Calm (2015). A geometric sans inspired by a British war poster from 1939.
• Keith's Hand
• Klee Print (2010, Klee Print is based on the handwriting of American artist Emma Klee)
• Latinate (2013). A vintage wedge serif wood style typeface, and a rough version.
• Lexie (an improved or "adult" version of Comic Sans) and Lexie Readable (2006, modified in 2015). Keith writes: Lexie Readable (formerly Lexia Readable) was designed with accessibility and legibility in mind, an attempt to capture the strength and clarity of Comic Sans without the comic book associations. Features like the non-symmetrical b and d, and the handwritten forms of a and g may help dyslexic readers.
• Licencia (2016). A blocky typeface inspired by the tall, soft-cornered lettering on vehicle licence and registration plates world-wide.
• Londinia (2016).
• Matchbox
• Max
• Ming
• Modernist Stencil (2009).
• Monterey Pop (2020). A psychedelic / popart typeface based on Tom Wilkes's poster lettering for the Monterey International Pop Festival in June 1967.
• Mythica (2012). A slightly condensed lapidary roman with copperplate serifs.
• Modulario (2010): a contemporary sans.
• New Old English (2010, blackletter)
• Norton (2006)
• Nowa (2004, a play on Futura)
• NYC (octagonal)
• Openline (2008, an art deco pair)
• Oriel Chambers Liverpool: A Lombardic small caps font based on the masonry lettering on Peter Ellis's 1864 building, Oriel Chambers, on Water Street in Liverpool.
• Pentangle (2008, based on album lettering from 1967)
• Pixel
• PixL (2002-2004)
• Plasterboard (2004-2005)
• Pop Cubism (2010) is a set of four texture fonts, combining elements of cubism and pop art.
• Poster Sans (2006). A wood type family based on Ludlow 6 EC. See also Poster Sans Outline.
• Rick Griffin (2006, more psychedelic fonts inspired by a 1960s Californian artist)
• Rima (2020). A stencil typeface with heavy slabs.
• Roundel (2009, white on black)
• Runestone (2010, runic).
• Sans Culottes (2008, grunge)
• Serifina
• Solid State (2008, art deco blocks)
• Solus (2004, a revival of Eric Gill's 1929 typeface Solus which has never been digitized; read about it here)
• Stockscript (2008, down-to-earth script based on the pen lettering of the writer, Christopher Stocks)
• Susanna (2004)
• Ticketing (2011): pixelish.
• Total and Total Eclipse (2004, squarish display typefaces based on the four characters of Jaroslav Supek's title lettering for his 1980s mailart magazine, Total)
• Transport New (2009: a redrawing of the typeface designed for British road signs. In addition to the familiar Heavy and Medium weights, Transport New extrapolates and adds a previously unreleased Light weight font originally planned for back-lit signage but never actually applied. Originally designed by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert beginning in 1957, the original Transport font has subtle eccentricities which add to its distinctiveness, and drawing the New version has involved walking a tightrope between impertinently eliminating awkwardness and maintaining idiosyncrasy.)
• Union Jack (octagonal)
• Victor Moscoso (2008, psychedelic)
• Wanda (2007, art nouveau)
• Waverly
• Wes Wilson (2007, psychedelic, inspired by 1960s psychedelic poster artist Wes Wilson).
• 3x5
• Zabars (2001): a Western face.

His free fonts:

• Blue Plaque (2006: a distressed font based on English heritage plaques)
• Blundell Sans (2009)
• Celtica (2007) has Celtic influences
• Dalek (2005, stone/chisel face: Dalek is a full font based on the lettering used in the Dalek Book of 1964 and in the Dalek's strip in the TV21 comic, spin-offs from the UK science fiction TV show, Doctor Who. The font has overtones of Phoenician, Greek and Runic alphabets). See also Dalek Pinpoint (2018).
• Designer Block (2006)
• Flat Pack (2006)
• Future Imperfect (2006, grunge)
• Gommogravure (2005)
• Greetings (2006), Greetings Bold (2006)
• Insecurity (2005, experimental) won an award at the 2005 FUSE type competition.
• International Times (2006, inspired by the masthead of the International Times underground newspaper of the 1960s and 1970s)
• Keep Calm (2011). Related to London Underground.
• Kindersley Sans (2017). A modernized version of David Kindersley's 1950s type used for many street name plates in Britain, about which Bates writes: Kindersley Sans is a humanist sans-serif that conserves the Gill-inspired character and some of the calligraphic qualities of Kindersley's lettering, it retains the Roman proportions and its Britishness, but traditional prettiness and intricacy are discarded in favour of a clean modernity.
• Klee Capscript (2005: based on the handwriting and capitals drawn by artist Emma Klee (USA) for her Color Museum Mail Art invitation. The upper case is based on Emma's capitals and the lower case is freely adapted from her script)
• Lexia and Lexia Bold (2004)
• MAGraphics (2004)
• Magical Mystery Tour (2005, outlined shadow face), Magical Mystery Tour Outline Shadow (2005), Magica (2015, a serifed titling typeface family).
• Mailart (2004), Mailart Rubberstamp (2004), Mailart Rubberstamp Sans (2018).
• Mandatory (2004, a UK number plate font based on the Charles Wright typeface used in UK vehicle registration plates).
• McKnight Kauffer (2021). A retro poster font in the style of poster artist Edward McKnight Kauffer.
• Motorway (2015), a companion typeface to Transport, the British road sign lettering. This is an extension of an original design by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert: The Motorway alphabet was created for the route numbers on motorway signage, and is taller and narrower than the accompanying place names and distances which are printed in Transport. However, for Motorway Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert created only the numbers 0 to 9, the capitals A, B, E, M, N, S and W, ampersand, slash, parentheses and a comma. So, although the lettering made its first appearance on the Preston bypass in 1958, K-Type Motorway is the first complete typeface and contains all upper and lower case letters, plus a full complement of punctuation, symbols and Latin Extended-A accented characters. As with the Transport alphabet the starting point was Akzidenz Grotesk, Motorway taking inspiration from condensed versions. Changes were mainly driven by a quest for legibility, resulting in some reduced contrast between horizontal and vertical strokes, and Gill-esque straight diagonal limbs on the 6 and 9, and high vertex for the M.
• Penny Lane (2014). A a sans serif derived from twentieth-century cast-iron signs displaying Liverpool street names.
• Possible (2020). A 10-style mini-serif typeface.
• Provincial (2014). A Victorian set of outline fonts.
• Ray Johnson (2006-2008)
• Roadway (2005, based on New York roadside lettering).
• Romanica (2017). A humanist sans.
• Sam Suliman (2020). A condensed squarish typeface which was inspired by lowercase lettering on a Sarah Vaughan album cover designed by Sam Suliman in 1962. Suliman was born in Manchester, England in 1927. After working for McCann Erikson in London, he moved to New York where he took on freelance work designing album covers, particularly celebrated are his striking minimalist designs for jazz records. He moved back to England in the early 1960s, designing many book jackets, film titles and fabrics, also working in Spain and India before settling in Oxford in the 1980s.
• Savor (2011). An art nouveau family.
• Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club (2014).
• Sinkin Sans (2014, free) and Sinkin Sans Narrow (2015, commercial). Open Font Library link.
• Soft Sans (2010)
• Subway Ticker (2005)
• Taxicab (2016). A squarish style.
• This Corrosion (2005).
• Toppler (2018). A modern and full range top-heavy cartoon font family that includes a Popdots style. Bates was striving to improe on 1990s clasics such as Baby Kruffy (Ben Balvanz), Comix Heavy (WSI) and Startling (Dave Bastian).
• Wildcat (2016). An athletics typeface family.
• Zinc (2018). A monoline sans with diagonal nubs.
• Colnage Caps Kruger Gray (2018). Coinage Caps is a trilogy of lapidary small caps fonts based on the Roman lettering used for the designs of British coinage.
• Dalek Pinpoint (2018). Based on Dalek comic book lettering from the 1960s.
• Icky Ticket Mono (2018). IckyTicket Mono is a monospaced font based on the coarsely printed numbering from 1960s bus tickets.
• Sexbomb (2018). A psychedelic typeface family.
• Mancunium (2019). A monoline sans family.
• Straight Line (2020). An outlined font with chamfered corners and straight edges, possibly useful as a blackboard bold type.
• We The People (a blackletter font based on the peamble of the American constitution).
• Bowdon (2021). A six-style warm, Bodoni-inspired English Modern, influenced by the 1930s lettering of designer Barnett Freedman.
• Oxford Street (2021). A condensed grotesque with horizontal and vertical stem terminals; it is a street a signage font that began as a redrawing of the capital letters used for street nameplates in the borough of Westminster, which in turn were designed in 1967 by the Design Research Unit using custom lettering based on Adrian Frutiger's Univers 69 Bold Ultra Condensed.

Custom / corporate typefaces: With Liverpool-based art director Liz Harry, Bates created a personalized font, loosely based on Coco Sumner's handwritten capitals, for the band I Blame Coco. Medium and Semibold weights of Gill New Antique were commissioned by LPK Design Agency. Stepping Hill Hospital and Bates created Dials, a pictorial font to help hospital managers input data about improvements. A custom font was designed for Bolton Strategic Economic Partnership.

Abstract Fonts link. View Keith Bates's typefaces. Dafont link. Yet another URL. Fontspace link. Fontsy link. Behance link.

EXTERNAL LINKS
K-Type
 [Buy fonts]
Fontspring link [Buy fonts]
Monotype link
Monotype foundry link
Dafont page
Fontspace page
Behance page
Klingspor Museum page
MyFonts search
Monotype search
Fontspring search
Google search

INTERNAL LINKS
Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Handwriting fonts ⦿ Commercial fonts (small outfits) ⦿ Pixel/bitmap fonts ⦿ Oriental simulation fonts ⦿ Sites with only a few free fonts ⦿ Map/Travel dingbats ⦿ Stone age fonts ⦿ Experimental type ⦿ Octagonal typefaces ⦿ Type scene in New York ⦿ Western fonts ⦿ Celtic/Gaelic fonts ⦿ Stencil fonts ⦿ Art Nouveau typefaces ⦿ Psychedelic types ⦿ Comic/cartoon fonts ⦿ Art deco typefaces ⦿ Type design in the United Kingdom ⦿ Typefaces related to radio ⦿ Blackletter fonts ⦿ Corporate typefaces ⦿ Rune fonts ⦿ Greek simulation fonts ⦿ Lombardic types ⦿ Textured typefaces ⦿ Cubist typefaces ⦿ Wood Type ⦿ Copperplate ⦿ Brush script typefaces ⦿ Wood Type ⦿ Victorian typefaces ⦿ Typefaces for dyslexics ⦿ Eric Gill and his typefaces ⦿ Athletic lettering faces ⦿ Uncial typefaces ⦿ Typefaces related to Paul Klee ⦿ Lapidary typefaces ⦿ Typefaces inspired by the Trajan column in Rome ⦿ Brutalist typefaces ⦿ Chiseled fonts ⦿ Skyline Typefaces ⦿ Blackboard type ⦿ Popart typefaces ⦿ Chancery hand, cancellaresca ⦿