[Graffiti Fonts 4.0 Codename Burn 20
Amancio Mccrae
The Graffiti Fonts Collection is updated regularly to include the latest fonts & other assets. For the most up to date info please vist the official Graffiti Fonts homepage at www.graffitifonts.com . Graffwriter.com allows you to use some of these fonts online for free.
This collection was created and is maintained by Highground Industries / Full Time Artists. Multiple versions of the collection are available on CDROM for any mac, pc or linux computer. You can purchase these collections direct from the source on graffitifonts.com.
The graffiti alphabets used by graffwriter.com are all included on the CDROMs shown on the right you can also download many of them for free to use on your mac or PC by visiting the Free Graffiti Fonts page. Full copies of the stock images used by Graffwriter.com are also included on the CDROMs & homepage.
This timeline outlines the emergence of the worlds first graffiti style typefaces as well as the font collections, websites & software applications critical to the beginings of this entirely new category of typography. Nearly a quarter century passed between the time graffiti lettering entered popular culture & the time it entered the world of type.
While graffiti art & lettering itself had long-since reached a point of tremendous sophistication, the first typefaces to emerge in this genre were fairly primative, both stylistically & technically. Mirroring the early development of graffiti itself, there is a period in the emergence of graffiti style typeface, sort of a prehistory, in which this new presence was entering the scene but had yet to find it's legs. During this period, the first handful of graffiti style fonts seem to unconciously replay the days of the late 60's & early 70's before modern tags, throws & wildstyles. With visual characteristics of street graffiti & an intent to emulate this modern art form these prehistoric graffiti typefaces begin to emerge in the mid to late 1990's, recognizable as graffiti but crude by the sophisticated stylistic graffiti standards of the time. Before more authentic or advanced graffiti type styles were developed, these graffiti-ish fonts were commonly used to emulate the basic feel of modern graffiti lettering. There were many fonts like these but those featured here are particularly notable due to the specific intent of the designers to represent the modern phenomenon of graffiti as opposed to a coincidental , purely visual resemblance. It wouldn't be long before digital artists with more extensive backgrounds in graffiti would begin to produce more robust efforts to encapsulate some portion of these untamed lettering styles into digital type.
1996 - Turntable Media
Released on May 3rd 1996 and built for the underground Hip-Hop community, Fat Tip is arguably the very first font ever created in the tradition of modern Graffiti lettering.
1998 - Andy Krahling, Sunwalk
Released 04/16/1998, this homage to the WW2 era graffiti phenomenon is not a tag style at all but represents what is often cited as one of the earliest examples of modern graffiti.
In 1999 we begin to see the development of more authentic, more sophisticated graffiti typefaces & fonts created by actual writers. Here practicality begins taking a backseat to authenticity. Many of these early faces are more graffiti than font. Like the tags, throws & pieces on the streets legibility to untrained eyes is not a primary concern. While many of these early faces are still very limited by digital type standards we start to see very clean vector paths more robust character sets & the emergence of true innovations in type design.
1999 - Matthew (RaseOne) Napolitano- FTA - Full Time Artists Crew - U.S.A.
Released 04/08/1999, the 1st official typeface from the Graffiti Fonts foundry, the 1st wildstyle graffiti font & only the second graffiti style typeface ever designed by a writer.
1999 - Matthew (RaseOne) Napolitano - FTA - Full Time Artists Crew - U.S.A.
Released on 06/09/1999. The second official release from the Graffiti Fonts foundry. Designed by a writer with a full compliment of 256 characters.
2000 - Matthew (RaseOne) Napolitano - FTA - Full Time Artists Crew
Released on 02/21/2000 by the Graffiti Fonts type foundry. With 4 interacting styles, this font holds the distinction of being the first layered type system in the graffiti genre. This set was an expansion of the original RaseOne font.
2000 - Chuck Davis (Siner), Letterhead Fonts - Def Artists Crew
Released 08/14/2000, A layered type system, designed by the inventor of the layered type system who was also an actual graffiti writer. One of the most obscure graffiti fonts.
2002 - Johan WaldenstromReleased on 04/08/2002, Despite offering only 26 letters, this font added to the still very small array of fonts undeniably built to emulate graffiti handstyles & to this artists sizable contribution to the early genre.
On June 3rd 2002, with the debut of graffitifonts.com the first website dedicated entirely to graffiti style typefaces emerges. With less than a dozen real graffiti styles in existence & only a handful of those fonts included, the site is largely populated by graffiti-ish fonts that could be used to loosely emulate graff styles. Several of the early graffiti style tytpefaces listed in this timeline were included. Seemingly, permantently stuck as the #1 search result, this site would survive & evolve for about a decade. It was taken over by the Graffiti Fonts type foundry in 2007 but left largely unchanged until 2012, when it was merged with the foundry's home site, formerly found at graffitifonts.net.
Preparing to launch the first official CDROM collection the Graffiti Fonts foundry launches a dedicated site. Beginning 09/13/2003, With the .com taken, the collection is previewed on the .net domain before the release. While the foundry had started up in 1999 & their first several fonts were first published on fulltimeartists.com, the launch of this site marked the first wide-scale release of the collection.
This small, preview version of the website would stay in place for about a year, untill the release of the Graffiti Fonts 2.0 CDROM collection in 2004. The Flash site would give way to a graphics-heavy html design that could better accomodate the larger volume of more rapidly changing content the foundry was creating & gathering.
Early versions of a CDROM collection from the Graffiti Fonts foundry were created dating back to the year 2000 which included the foundries early fonts along with design templates & website assets & other digital items but in 2003 a more focused product was developed that included 3 of the foundries first fonts along with a selection of graffiti fonts from other pioneering developers. The first versions of this collection contained only 13 fonts & sold for the same $40 retail price as the stand-alone RaseOne font. Many fonts were at first omitted to keep the price low & test the market for a CDROM collection. At this point The foundry filed for the first trademark on the brand name "Graffiti Fonts". This CDROM was the first collection of graffiti fonts in the form of a physical product.
Over the years since the initial release, fonts were updated to the most recent version but new fonts were never added. Instead, new versions of the collection with larger & larger selections of fonts & other assets were created. The Graffiti Fonts ver. 1 collection is still available here in our Collections section, in both CDROM and digitial download formats.
2003 Matthew (RaseOne) Napolitano - Graffiti Fonts
First completed in late 2003 by Matthew (RaseOne) Napolitano for the Graffiti Fonts type foundry, the WildStlye font family replaced the RaseOne family as the most advanced wildstyle font available. Glyphs from this layered system of 5 fonts connected & interlocked more like an actual wildstyle. End pieces, flourishes, alternate glyphs, spray can & cap digngbats, a repeating cloud background & OpenType features helped set a new baseline for the translation of the graffiti wildstyle into type. Nearly a decade later, this font will be chosen to represent the impact of graffiti style typefaces on modern graphic design in the Yale University textbook "Graphic Design A New History".
2004 - Johan Waldenstrom
First released on 02/06/2004, Homeboy is arguably the first true graffiti throwie style typeface ever designed. The font had a limited glyph set but stayed very true to the stylistic form of traditional throwies. Being a writer himself, Johan brought a number of authentic styles to the table early in the game.
2004 - Johan Waldenstrom
Released on 02/06/2004 - B-Boy is another throw or stamp style faithfully emulating styles often found in association with B-Boy or breakdance culture, a definitive subset of the overarching Hip-Hop culture that encompassed much of graffiti art throughout the decades.
2004 - Johan Waldenstrom
Released on - 02/06/2004, these and other additions to the "Writers" set would bring the family up to a total of 5 styles, making it one of only a few graffiti fonts to offer a multi-part set & one of only two to reach 5 styles.
2004 - Chuck Davis (Siner), Letterhead Fonts, Def Artists Crew
Released on 10/15/2004, Somewhat a reborn iteration of Def Artist / Def Writer. Could emulate either a simple piece or a written form, includes full base fill layer & a bevel overlay. This font omitted the outline & 3D styles that were included in the earlier Def Artist / Def Writer set & was built partially in response to an offer From the Graffiti Fonts foundry to include Def Artists & Def Writer the foundry's CDROM collections. Despite the historic nature of the earlier sets Mr. Davis had discontinued them & instead issued Menace as a replacement.
In late 2004 the 2nd edition of the Graffiti Fonts collection was released. This expanded version of the collection included more of the fourndy's exclusive fonts, including the full RaseOne layered family & a larger selectiuon of fonts from other artists. Like it's predecessor, this collection came very close to offering every graffiti style typeface on earth but, to keep the cost down, some of the more recent fonts from the foundry were omitted and some 3rd party fonts were not included. This 2nd collection sold for $100 in DVD style packaging, with a printed instruction booklet.
795a8134c1