TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Wed Nov 20 12:04:51 EST 2024

FONT RECOGNITION VIA FONT MOOSE

LUC DEVROYE

ABOUT

Mark Heliger

Mark Heliger (San Diego, CA) had a 46-year career in the publishing industry including pre-print production, typography and graphic design. From 2013 until his death in 2019, he directed Gallery Yosemite in Oakhurst, CA. He inked and digitized the handwriting of Matt Groening for The Simpsons at Skillset/Alpha Graphics in mid 1990. In 2019, his friend Paul Feldman explained the genesis of that font: I worked on the project with him and was at Matt Groening's home in Venice California when he inked the samples of his handwriting for us. We designed the font with alternate letters so it would look little less like a typeface. In the end we handed the finished font Groening and Groening Bold to his art director Millie Smythe. This all happened because it was the first year of the Simpsons and Matt became too busy to chalk every text balloon for his other print projects. Millie went on to direct Futurama. We had NDAs and contracts to keep that font from the public for many years.

There were many digital versions based on the font used by the Simpsons:

• First, there was Gene Cowan's Groening (1991).
• That font was modified and extended by Jon Bernhardt as Akbar (1996-2000).

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INTERNAL LINKS
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