I’m a big believer in the power and potential of newsletters, but the truth is that few of them are done well. That probably explains why the only newsletter I recommend to other designers and avidly look forward to each month is MyFonts News. It’s an excellent newsletter built on a very simple premise: interview one rocking typographer, fill the newsletter with fontastic eyecandy, and provide download links for absolutely everything.

It’s basically free porn for font freaks. Yeah baby.

This month, however, I was doubly delighted as the featured type designer is Ray Larabie. It’s very hard to pin-point where design trends emerge from, but I’m pretty confident that back in the mid-90s, Larabie single-handedly gave birth to a web design fad simply by releasing a stream of vintage-inspired fonts for free download. Windows came with crappy fonts, Adobe still wanted about a million bucks per typeface weight, hardly anyone was designing downloadable type, and suddenly retro websites were all the rage.

And so, Ray Larabie’s fonts have accompanied me through a web design journey of almost 15 years.  Back then, Euphorigenic was my all time favourite font,  though Mufferaw was used heavily in my blog graphics. Several years later, Echelon made an appearance on our wedding invitations. Nueropol X and Teen have made more than one appearance in a logo under my hand, but these day, Blue Highway is one of my favourite identity typefaces and I’m just waiting for the right project for Sexsmith.

Leafing through the Larbaie fonts is a walk down memory lane for me, with different typefaces bringing back memories of people, projects, and places specific to the period when a particular typeface was in heavy rotation – much the same way, I guess, perfume or food or wine does those things for other people.

I have used many, may fonts through the years, from expensive classics out of major type founderies to quirky free fonts hand drawn by hobbyists. But of the 241 fonts that make up my primary library, Larabie’s appear more than any other single type designer – and quite often, they’re the fonts I hit first.

So thanks, Ray, for all the fonts through all the years – and for all the memories, too.