Vanity
Vanity is an octic unicase typeface that captures the printed effect of letterforms on New Jersey license plates from the 1930s to the 1990s. The two-width family draws inspiration from the visual remnants of how embossed and painted plates were produced.
Engineer-constructed letterforms and rounded corners form the foundation of the typeface. By embracing material ‘flaws’ in individual characters — such as paint bleeding over the edges of specific letters — the family finds rhythm in its irregularity.
Concept and direction by Jesse Reed. Designed by Emily Klaebe at Order.
Sections:
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Vanity Condensed
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Vanity Expanded
Condensed
Enzo Ferrari ‘98
Expanded
Dino→246
Condensed
№317 Grand Prix
Expanded
INDYCAR↕
Condensed
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Enzo Ferrari is a pivotal figure in the history of motorsport and automotive engineering, known for founding the iconic Ferrari brand. Born in 1898, he transformed his passion for racing into a legacy that revolutionized the automotive world. Enzo’s vision was not just to build cars but to create a culture of performance, innovation, and excellence. Under his leadership, Ferrari became synonymous with speed and success, dominating Formula 1 and establishing a rich racing heritage that continues to thrive today. His commitment to engineering precision and aesthetic beauty produced legendary models that are celebrated by enthusiasts and collectors worldwide.
Expanded
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This period in the 1920s marked a pivotal moment in automotive history, as Enzo Ferrari began to fully grasp the complexities of race car design and engineering, laying the essential groundwork for what would later evolve into the legendary Ferrari brand. It was during these formative years that Ferrari honed his understanding of both the technical and strategic aspects.
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THE 1950 British Grand Prix was the inaugural race of the “Formula 1” World Championship, held at Silverstone. It marked the beginning of F1 as a formal championship and motorsport.
Expanded
Formula 1 is the ultimate motorsport, where advanced technology/engineering and driver skill combine in a fierce battle for victory.
Uppercase
Uppercase Diacritics
Punctuation & Symbols
Numerals
Subscript
Superscript
Denominators
Numerator
Arrows
Round Alternates
Road Sign Set
Round alternates
U+004F
AUTO → AUTO
Round alternates
U+0030, U+0025
100% → 100%
Arrows
U+2192
A--> → A→
Math symbols
U+00D7
8x7 → 8×7
Math symbols
U+00BE
3/4 → ¾
Localized forms
U+015F, U+0219
ŞI → ȘI
Manually-selected emojis and symbols
U+0219
“ROLL” → →
Manually-selected emojis and symbols
U+0219
“windy” → →
Manually-selected emojis and symbols
U+0219
“25” → →
Manually-selected emojis and symbols
U+0219
“turn” → →
Purchase
We sell typefaces by individual weights or in a reduced price family package. Please ensure you understand the terms of our EULA Agreement and select the correct license before completing your purchase.
Research & Process
Vanity
Written by
Vanity is an octic unicase typeface that captures the printed effect of letterforms on New Jersey license plates from the 1930s to the 1990s. The two-width family draws inspiration from the visual remnants of how embossed and painted plates were produced.
Engineer-constructed letterforms and rounded corners form the foundation of the typeface. By embracing material ‘flaws’ in individual characters — such as paint bleeding over the edges of specific letters — the family finds rhythm in its irregularity.
Origins
The Vanity family originated as a typographic revival for a client’s branding project in the summer of 2024. At the heart of the brand’s operations was a vehicle with a New Jersey license plate. By extracting two typographic styles from the plate — a condensed and an extended width — the client was able to convey their core visual language through the written word, while also establishing multiple levels of hierarchy.
To begin the process of translating the New Jersey plate type styles, we first identified the year of the source material. The specific plate reference from the client’s vehicle dated back to the mid-1930s. New Jersey license plates, like most U.S. plates, can be distinguished by their dimensions, color, and the unique typography used for registration identification. U.S. plates generally feature more condensed letterforms due to the narrower width standards, in contrast to European plates, which tend to have wider dimensions overall.
N.J. Plate History
To better understand the unique attributes of New Jersey license plates, we conducted a broader investigation into how the typographic styles evolved over time. On New Jersey plates, a common typographic hierarchy featured a condensed style in the center for the primary identification, with an extended style on the left or right side for supporting information. While plates from the early 1900s used metal panels for the typography, steel plates became standard starting in 1916. In the 1910s, the painting process was often imprecise, leading to cases where plates—partially covered after the first embossing—required additional brush strokes to fill in gaps. By the 1930s—the specific reference year for our revival—the embossing and painting processes had become more fluid and consistent.
Most typefaces used on plates over the years were drawn by draftsmen, engineers, or others trained in mechanical drawing. Rulers and compasses took precedence over more nuanced approaches to harmonizing letterforms. As a result, geometry played a dominant role in the relationship between letters, often to the point of feeling rigid. Occasionally, a circular shape would emerge where traditional typographic rules would have favored a more consistent octagonal form. In a typeface revival, it’s common to harmonize these inconsistencies into a more unified visual system in an effort to “improve” upon historical designs. However, one of the key characteristics that make license plate typography so recognizable is its deliberately “rigid” and sometimes unharmonized execution — which we sought to preserve.
Unique Factors of N.J. Plate Typography
One notable aspect of the typography involves the translation from the original mechanical drawings to the printed impact on the plates. The source drawing would be embossed into the plate, followed by a painted fill. Often, the paint would blur the less-than-sharp edges of the embossing, rounding the letterforms and creating a softer resolution. This effect was something we wanted to lean into in the digital translation of the letter’s drawings.
In specific diagonal letterforms — such as the “M” and “W” — we observed a distinctive variation in the weight applied to the center of the forms. This wasn’t a consequence of the printed material but rather an intentional design choice for execution. This approach was particularly common in New Jersey plates from the 1920s and 1930s.
Unique Factors of N.J. Plate Typography (Cont’d)
Viewing these “quirks” as defining features of the typography, we chose to embrace the selective “overfill” in the diagonal letterforms. We extended these idiosyncrasies to the rounded joins as well, often exaggerating the way interior corners of the letters meet.
Vanity is a typographic translation of 1930s–1990s license plates that preserves the unique elements of the plate-making process: mechanical geometric drawings, “overprinted” paint that spills to create pooled joins in the letters, and a blend of octagonal and rounded forms.
