I am not a typeface nerd or good at design. But I love pretty things, adore pretty things that are useful, and damn near worship at the altar of pretty and useful things with a sense of history.

The Draplin Design Co.'s DDC Hardware typeface is man oh man.

I banged out the above graphic on that demo link, and I'm sure it's too rough to be page-header-worthy (I don't even know what I don't know about design), but damn if it wasn't a ball to make. Damn if that typeface doesn't summarize a good chunk of this place's heart.

I am something of an admirer of Draplin's. I like his stuff and have given him a fair bit of business. He once drunk-ebayed a hotel sign from the small town where I was born. He's got a great eye and a fondness for an underappreciated historical style that I grew up around. He eschews precious hipster irony. And he makes good things.