I released Steelfish on March 4, 2001. The first version drew loosely from early 20th-century newspaper headline styles, but in hindsight it was not a strong release. The family at that point included Regular and Bold, and I later added Italic, Bold Italic, Extra Bold, Extra Bold Italic, and Outline. All of those styles were free; the Outline appeared on March 25, 2002, and for a short time I also offered an effect version called Steelfish Dots.

The major turning point came in the 2010s when I completely rebuilt Steelfish. I kept the basic proportions but redrew almost every other aspect: stem widths, curves, joints, spacing, kerning, and punctuation. Out of all my upgrades, it was the most extensive transformation. It was only after that redesign that Steelfish became widely used.

Since then, Steelfish has been adopted in a number of visible projects. It appears in the books “New York Doughnut Map” and “New York Burger Map”, on Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit materials in 2016, and on the posters for the film “In a Valley of Violence” in 2016. It was also used in Maria Cutia 10 Anos. Later additions to the family, such as various variants and expanded weights, were released as paid products while the original set of free styles has remained available.

In November 2024, I reorganized the weight system for clarity. Book was renamed Light, Light became Extra Light, Extra Light was changed to Thin, and Ultra Light was redubbed Hairline. That update also corrected overlapping Vietnamese accents. Steelfish remains one of my most recognized typefaces, though its current form bears little resemblance to the 2001 release.