I feel like I’ve seen this elsewhere, but I can’t pin it down. It’s a little similar to fonts that are called Lombardic, but it much less flowing. Can anyone identify it?
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Typophile
On a building built in 1868
Thanks for the reply Don. I should have realised it wouldn’t be a font as such. I wonder though if they did work from some kind of examples.
I knew there was something incongruous about it all, but as frankenfonts go I don’t find it too appalling. I don’t need to reproduce it. I was just doing some research on the history of the building—some of the descriptions of early picture shows there are quite amusing.
I agree that the letters say Victorian neo-gothic whimsy more than appalling.
In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with a Frankenfont if the mash-up creates a coherent mood.
They would work quite well for a dragons/steampunk/Harry Potter milieu.
Perhaps the letters will inspire a lettering artist or fontmaker to venture a full alphabet.
Don
Captured from web.archive.org on 24 Apr 2015. view this capture
Lettering on buildings of the era was custom designed by the architect or builder rather than being copied direct from a font. As you note it's similar to Lombardic. The medial spurs and Tuscan terminals make it a true Victorian Frankenfont.
For digital fonts with some similarity to the Lombardic design you could also check for fonts tagged uncial, medieval, illuminated, Irish, medieval and Celtic.
I posted a fairly comprehensive set of links to this genre of fonts in http://typophile.com/node/123144
Don