Sheaff

I released Sheaff on July 16, 2007. The idea was to merge two eras of typography that normally wouldn’t meet: the interlocking display styles of the early 1970s and the soft, rounded look that was common in the Y2K period. I looked to Pricedown, which itself was based on a 1970s typeface used in The Price is Right logo, for the interlocking concept. At the same time, I added smoother curves and plastic-like forms that were already starting to fall out of fashion by 2007. The result was a typeface intended for intricate interlocking effects, with six weights and an optional counterless version to broaden its applications.

On June 18, 2021, I updated Sheaff by removing deprecated characters, correcting quotation marks, and improving OpenType fractions. The font has always been sold commercially and was never freeware or public domain. The name came from an odd request: a woman asked me to name my next typeface after her boyfriend. They broke up soon after, leaving the name as an ill-fitting label for the design. In hindsight, I think that mismatch contributed to its limited reception.

Although Sheaff never gained traction, I see it as an experiment in combining two different typographic languages. It may not have succeeded in finding wide use, but it documents my willingness to test unusual combinations, even if the results were more curious than practical.