Jul 24, 2023

Free Lunch

I think the first letter I drew for Free Lunch was the C. I wanted one that had a “tight bite” (clearly an actual typographic term). Like it’s really chomping down on itself. I love the attitude it projects. I guess I love chompy Cs.

From that initial C, the rest followed. That’s not how you’re supposed to design a typeface. You’re supposed to start with letters like H, N, and O. But this one started with C, and let’s just blame anything you don’t like about it on that fact.

Free Lunch is an all-caps display font that would look comfortable in a butcher shop window. Or a lunch counter menu in 1955. Or printed on the waxed paper that wraps a half-pound of Swiss cheese from your neighborhood deli. A little playful, great for headlines and logos.

Included are two styles: Regular and Rough. A–Z, numerals, basic punctuation, a few alternate glyphs, plus over 40 ligatures for easily adding maximum sign-painting vibes. I can’t wait to see how you use this one.

You can test out and purchase Free Lunch right here.

Apr 25, 2023

For Immediate Release

SALEM, MA—Today, SimpleBits® LLC announced the acquisition of Simple Type Co. in a blockbuster deal that brings two extremely connected and confusingly-similar brands (run by the same person) now under one roof.

“We’re really excited to bring the Simple Type Co. fonts and goods shop we made to SimpleBits, which, uh…we also made,” said Founder, Dan Cederholm, who has a habit of creating unnecessary brands for things he creates, only to stupidly realize those missteps later.

“They say Spring is a time of renewal and new growth,” added Cederholm, an admittedly fickle and restless designer who constantly second guesses everything he does at the expense of annoying anyone who follows his work.

“But we have a feeling it’s actually a time for fonts. And, um…brand consolidation.”

In an incredibly serendipitous coincidence, Cederholm also owns Simple Type Co.—the tiny type foundry and goods shop he launched in January—even though he already had an established brand in SimpleBits, a design company that’s been around for more than twenty years.

“What the hell was I thinking? I found out the hard way I’m too old to manage double the amount of social media accounts, newsletters, domains, etc. only to make things more confusing. I really messed up,” said Cederholm, who has a history of making things and then hoping they just market themselves.

“Sometimes trying to be simple is really @$%!ing complex,” the embarrassed, idiotic, self-employed imposter quipped, wiping away what looked to be a single tear.

You can now visit a single brand, SimpleBits®, for all the fonts, goods, and design shenanigans—as well as any of Cederholm’s future missteps. And you can be dang sure there will be more of those.

“Wasn’t that the way it was, like, even a few months ago?” Someone shouted at the press conference. Cederholm just seemed to recoil in horror, ignoring the question.

UPDATE: Details of the deal were not confirmed, but there are reports that Cederholm took himself out for a celebratory steak dinner.

“Gonna expense this one to one of my companies—Wait, there’s just one now…” he mumbled, trailing off with a touch of bewildered sadness in his eyes. Reports of Cederholm scribbling multiple new brand names and logos on a cocktail napkin during the meal could not be corroborated.

Jan 11, 2023

Grandsans

I have been a lifelong Red Sox fan, and Fenway Park has always been a special place for me and my family going back generations. We’re even season ticket holders as of last year.

The type around the historic park has always been inspirational. Thick, cream-colored, painted letters on green iron columns and tin signs throughout. All with an early-mid 20th century vibe. There is so much history at Fenway, which was built back in 1912.

Last year, I came across this old ticket stub and was immediately struck by the hand-drawn lettering. The curves in letters like E and H and the movement that letters like M and N in “1946 WORLD SERIES” create felt so unique and worthy of becoming a typeface.

So, I set out to create a new font based on those handful of letters from the ticket. And yesterday, we released Grandsans—an all-caps display font with those sign painting qualities and vintage vibes. It comes in two styles: Regular and Rough.

There are also some fun alternates (E, H, Y), discretionary ligatures for prices (.00, .50, .99, etc.) and also some vintage-y baseball-related icons thrown in (baseball, homeplate, diamond, bat, etc.).

Oh, and there’s an alternate backward “K” when you’re box-scoring those “struck out swinging” plays. We even made a limited edition baseball card to show the font in use. We gave away 50 of these yesterday and will probably do that again soon.

Fun fact: 1946 was the only time the legendary Ted Williams played in a World Series. Unfortunately it didn’t go very well for him (or the Red Sox). The Sox lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in 7 games. They wouldn’t win a World Series for another 58 years.

You can test out and purchase Grandsans right here.

Jan 10, 2023

Simple Type Co.

At the beginning of the pandemic, I decided to channel my existential anxiety into a long-standing goal of designing a typeface. It would actually be a second attempt, as back in 2007 I’d hacked together a pixel font based on little 16×16 icons. That one doesn’t really count though, and my frustration with the software available at the time discouraged me from making more type.

But in 2020 things were different. We were all locked down, and I’d remembered the lettering found on the side of a few banks in the area here in Massachusetts. I loved these “VAULT ALARM” boxes and I’d been walking past one every day for years here in downtown Salem.

“Someday I’ll make a font based on that”, I’d say, then remembering how difficult that was in my previous attempt. But now I had some time and motivation to make it happen.

With the help of some talented friends, the wonderful Glyphs app, and lots of trial-and-error, I managed to release Vault Alarm here on SimpleBits in 2020. More fonts followed as I was inspired to make them. Some based on other local signage or just letterforms I wanted to explore. I was hooked. I even wrote a little book about what I learned while making typefaces. But shoehorning a little type foundry into my existing shop on SimpleBits, while the easiest path, began to feel a little odd and forced.

Introducing Simple Type Co.

So, today, I’m pleased to announce a new venture: Simple Type Co. This will be my main focus going forward: A tiny type studio that makes display fonts and also goods with those display fonts on them.

Our motto is: Never perfect. Always a-okay. This new focus feels…really nice. I enjoy making things and figuring it out along the way, and STC will be a great vehicle to bring those things to life. My partner, Melissa Allegrini, will be Skipper of Operations here at our headquarters. It’s a family business, where we have our hands on everything coming out of our factory garage.

That means SimpleBits can return as our umbrella company and hypertext home. Heck, I’ve even ressurected the blog! We’ll see if that lasts. Simple Type Co. will be the shop now for my fonts, books, tees, stickers, etc. and I’m super excited about how it can evolve on its own as I continue to learn. After retiring from Dribbble, I’d been a little all over the place, creatively, so it feels really good to have a direction to settle on.

Be sure to follow @simpletypeco on Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to our newsletter for updates and releases.