F37 Lemon

The starting point for F37 Lemon was the M-Formula concept, dreamed up by early 20th century type designer William Addison Dwiggins based on his experience of marionette carving. At F37, we take our inspiration wherever we can find it, like F37 Lemon, which owes it all to a puppet. Or, more accurately, a marionette, the ones operated by strings. US type designer, calligrapher and pipe-smoker William Addison Dwiggins also carved marionettes. He noticed that the ones with more flattened, angular faces were more expressive and suggested that this quality might apply to typographic letterforms too. So F37 Lemon tests this theory out, using an underlying humanist sans construction, along with open apertures, vertically cut terminals, interrupted strokes and moderate stroke contrast. Its counter forms are built around hard edges, which create curious, striking shapes at larger sizes and a really different, but very legible texture at smaller sizes. F37 Lemon is available in four weights with several alternate characters, such as a lowercase a, which is more legible at smaller sizes. It’s our font, but Dwiggins certainly had a hand in it. [f37foundry.com]

Italic style added in 2024.