Mark Andresen, the designer of NotCaslon, works as an illustrator in New Orleans, Louisiana. His typeface was originally used for experimental posters for a punk music club called 688 in Atlanta, Georgia. This typeface remained unfinished until 1995 when Emigre showed interest in it as a digital font. It was treated as a found artifact with an eye for its irregular details.

The main influence for NotCaslon is the city of New Orleans itself with its 18th and 19th century French Quarter balconies, old cemetery crosses and Voudou veve designs. The city where Mardi Gras is living, breathing Surrealism. Much like NotCaslon.

The peculiar swashes and inconsistent italic letter forms are all pieces of Caslon Swash Italic broken press type, rearranged and spontaneously formed. "It was meant as a joke, really, but I became serious about finishing it as I started to enjoy the odd gracefulness of it." says Andresen. "It reels like drunken sailors on shore leave - the Black Sheep of the Caslon Family."

This font has been exhibited at The Cooper-Hewitt Contemporary Museum's "Mixed Messages" retrospective graphic design show, and has been noticed on CD covers from Madonna to Lou Reed.

NotCaslon