Franglais

Franglais was designed by John Downer in sporadic bursts of inspiration dating back to 2000. It was originally conceived as a standalone italic, and expanded to include two upright companions, Roman and Informal, developed in collaboration with Zuzana Licko.

Reflecting on the origins of Franglais, Downer describes it as lettering devised for imaginary signage inspired by a hybrid of postwar metal type and vernacular chalk-written menu boards. Elements of "ruler writing"—in which a ruler is used to keep the baseline straight across repeated lines—are evident throughout.

Integral to Franglais is a deliberate constructional idea: an italic whose slant suggests rotation rather than mechanical skewing. This approach gives the letterforms a sense of physical motion and handmade vitality. The concept draws on a rich tradition of brush lettering and sign painting—territory in which John Downer, a master lettering artist, is entirely at home.

While Franglais firmly inhabits a post–World War II visual landscape, it resists being purely French in character. Instead, it embraces a knowingly impure blend of French and Anglo-American signage conventions, complete with their cultural contradictions and visual humor.

Downer has likened Franglais to the lettering one might have encountered in Paris shortly after the city's liberation in 1944, when American influence began subtly—and not always delicately—to seep into French visual and linguistic culture.

Whether admired for its historical resonance or its playful irreverence, Franglais occupies a space that is both referential and refreshingly out of step with contemporary typographic trends. Its lineage aligns more closely with the expressive, idea-driven sensibility of the Ludlow Typograph Company under R. Hunter Middleton than with the prevailing aesthetics of recent digital type design.

For more information about Franglais, download the free type specimen.