By Shabana Adam

If you’re a vintage stockist then chances are that your mind is in creative overdrive most of the time and it can be easy to forget about the small details when it comes to your business. It’s worth making time for things like business cards, personalised tags and personalised shopping bags, as they can really make a difference to your enterprise. Consumers warm to the little things such as the logo printed on their shopping bags or the writing on your shop name board and it’s these little things that will make them remember your vintage store in future.

There is something magical about old typography and choosing the right font is crucial to your vintage business, as a simple thing such as the lettering on your business card can help entice people. A great deal of what people read and see inside and outside your shop may be printed and thus have a typeface of one kind or another. Many modern fonts are fairly mundane. They’re beautiful and handy, but they’re not exactly the typographic equivalent of Marilyn Monroe’s diamonds.

Infuse old school fonts with your vintage business and be memorablePhoto: etharooni on Flckr

It may seem like a tedious task, but picking the right font for your business name can work wonders. Numerous websites provide lists of free vintage-style fonts. To save you time and after much hunting, VV has found you a treasure trove of vintage fonts with an old school twist to them. Many of these fonts truly resemble a decade gone by, from the rip-roaring 20s, art deco 30s, fast paced 40s, or chic, elegant 50s – and most are free to download.

You’ll likely be sent into a typographical haze, but the good news is that it will make you forget entirely that such commonplace fonts as Times New Roman or Arial even exist. The best thing about using fonts like these is that graphic designers can really help bring the vintage vision you’re searching for into today’s modern world – making these fonts ready for businesses on the high street and for those who are online.

Now, swing by the websites below and harness the power of these free vintage inspired fonts to make your business stand out. 

Top 5 websites for vintage-style fonts

1) Addictive Fonts - 44 Splendid Free Fonts for Vintage and Retro Designing - Don’t be put off by the word retro, as VV gives this site 10 out of 10. Fonts are displayed in all letters of the alphabet and numbers 0-9, however it’s the use of colour and backgrounds that really give this website the edge over all others. It truly helps to visualise and inspire people looking to create that special vintage feel for their work. We love Avante Return, Forty Second Street and Vagabond.

2) Bluefaqs - 40 Free Fonts Ideal For Retro And Vintage Designs - This website has an excellent range of vintage fonts and displays the fonts on vintage themed backgrounds. This really shows off the font and lets you see exactly what you can achieve using a particular font for your business. We love Ballpark, Deftone Stylus, Minotaur and Seaside Resort.

3) Font Space – Free Vintage Fonts – Who doesn’t enjoy looking at pretty things? Well, this directory of fonts has pages and pages of the most glorious fonts. You may have to spend a while to choose which is right for your business but it will definitely be time well spent. Candy Inc, Old Printing Press and Drive-Thru are VV’s favourites.

4) Vandelay Design - 25 Free Vintage And Retro Fonts - This website is a great resource for vintage fonts. Again, it also shows each letter of the alphabet and numbers 0-9 in every font, so you can really imagine, for example, how a certain typeface will look for whole words – this is a good visual tool before making your decision on a font. We’re in love with HamburgerHeaven, Bellerose and Matchbook.

5) Noupe - 45 Outstanding Free Vintage Fonts - Outstanding they really are. VV gives this site a thumbs up for showing you the different fonts in a good size as well as including some history or interesting detail about the font too. We adore Showboat, JF Ringmaster and Parisian.

Remember: The license and terms vary from one font to the next, so be sure to check those details before using.

Here’s one of VV’s videos of the week showing some vintage-styled fonts used for making business cards.

Video by: bizcardgems