Paint Factory

For years, I’ve slipped into Gloucester Harbor aboard my trusty Boston Whaler, greeted by the old “MANUFACTORY” building. It sits there on your starboard side as you enter the famed fishing port. Around 1863, Tarr & Wonson built a facility to house their marine bottom paint factory—the first in the country. Its giant, worn, white-washed lettering always inspired me, the angular bends and the imperfectness of it all. It needed to become a typeface.

Paint Factory is a vintage-inspired, all-caps display typeface with its New England, weather-worn, roughness preserved. It makes a good stand-in for ironic, athletic or collegiate sweatshirt lettering—or any treatment calling for blue-collar, sturdy signage with layers of hand-painted character.

Included are two styles: Regular and Bold. A–Z, numerals, basic punctuation, plus a few alternate glyphs. We can’t wait to see how you use this one.