As a keen designer, I am mildly obsessed with fonts. I love finding a new one to play with and compliment my designs, and sometimes the instant I see one I can picture what kind of design it will go into. The great thing about the internet and the amount of talented designers around is that there is a never ending supply of great inspiration. Every year more and more fonts are released, and amongst the hundreds of mediocre or derivative ones on offer there are some real gems. 2011 has seen a continuation of the ‘modern retro’ theme of designs, echoing styles of the last century, from the early 1900s to the unmistakable styles of the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s.

As we approach the end of the year, I thought I would begin to round up some of my favorite free fonts that I have found this year.

Creampuff

As the name suggests, Creampuff is a big, fat, heavy script font created by Nick Curtis. With over 550 fonts in his portfolio on MyFonts, Nick Curtis must be one of the most prolific designers around. It is supposedly a redrawing of the Eclat typeface by Donal Young, but provenance aside, the numbers are just fantastic.
Available here

Chunk 5

Inspired by the old ‘wild’ west of America, this ultra bold slab serif typeface is great for posters. It’s not exactly subtle, but for headlines it’s a real eye catcher. It is a great typeface that is reminiscent of vintage woodcut prints, signs and newspapers, but is not overdone at the same time. Produced by the excellent League of Movable Type, who have some cracking other fonts, well worth a look.
Available here

Bebas Neue

Originally designed by Dharma Type (who have a whole load of retro loveliness), this industrial sans serif is a reworking of the original Bebas released in 2005. Again, reminiscent of woodcut movable types of the past, this font works well for both headers and bodies.
Available here

Diner

David Rakowski is well known in the font design world, and is creator of several fonts I really admire, including Upper East Side and Rothman. Diner is another one of his offerings, and is a beautifully simple, narrow modern font, and one that is great for sleek looking titles.
Available here

Code (Light/Bold)

Within any designer’s arsenal should be a super lightweight font. I find these work well with minimal use, and are also very flexible. Code is a great example of this, and a good alternative to the stock Helvetica 35. A mention should be made here for FontFabric, who also designed the lovely Weston, free on their site.
Available here

Pirmokas

As far as I can find, this is a font designed by a Italian designer, Roci. Stylish handwritten texts are hard to find, and this is a really imaginative font for creating poster and artwork. Legible, yet scrawled to express an unique style.
Available here

Jenna Sue

Jenna Sue is created by Florida based designer Jenna Diermann. It is a lovely casual handwritten script. It is really well designed and fits together perfectly. Jenna Sue is one of the best handwriting font I have used. Perfect for posters, albums and many other things.
Available here

Amperzand

AJ Paglia is a freelance designer based in the USA, and it is more than likely you have seen some of his work, having done everything from merchandise for Blink 182 to yoghurts for Danone. He also produces a lot of creative, which you can download from his website. Ampersand is italic font with some lovely flourishes and can be used for different type of designs such flyers, brochure and more.
Available here

If there is a new font you use often share it with everyone in the comment.

Rob is a infographic designer working for Nexus DMS. He is a keen sportsman, and as well as keeping up with all the latest design news he loves to cycle and run.