Building on decades of experience as a designer of fonts for comic books, video games, TV shows and movies, John Roshell’s Swell Type takes inspiration from the real-world signs and scenery of California to build fun, friendly, functional fonts for your graphic design and branding projects.
Commercial Font Releases
Obtain Swell Type commercial fonts at
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Custom Font Projects
I help companies tell the story of their brands and products with custom font designs.
In the Works
Follow along from A to Z as I explore the typefaces that rise up out of a place and come to define it. Then watch as I create a new font family inspired by each place.
JETLAB is leaving the launch pad in 3…2…1…
This font started out exactly a year ago as a “proof of concept” — a font I built just to see if it could be done. The initial test told me yes! But since then, it’s proven nearly impossible to finish. Every time I hit a wall, I’d put it aside and work on something […]
A new year in the Goodland
Lately I’ve been on an epic fontsploration of the signs, letters & historic type of Goleta, the community just north of Santa Barbara, for a font I’ve been wanting to make since long before I started Swell Type. Way back in 2008, I snapped these pictures of some wonderful painted block lettering on the side […]
Catching up with Silver Streak
As my latest font, Silver Streak, nears release, I wanted to catch you up on my progress, and share some of the process that went into making it. This one started with a single bit of inspiration — this nifty lettering on the side of the “Silver Platter” diner & gift shop at Disneyland’s California […]
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