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.

Look at this motherfucker. I ask you.

I believe it's my new favorite. I got it a couple of days ago from the Put This On Gentlemen's Association, an ingenious business idea from Put This On, one of the cogs in Jesse Thorn's budding online media empire machine.

Yes, Jesse. Empire. You're a man now. Start lighting those cigars with that public radio money you're raking in.

Anyway, it's the Pocket Square of the (Every Other) Month (Plus an Extra One in the First Shipment) Club. Vintage fabrics, hand-rolled edges. Unlimited man-pretty.

This was the first shipment I got from them:

The white one's very nice linen. The striped one has stripes, which makes it go faster.

I finally got serious about dressing like a grownup a couple of years ago. I was 35 and had two kids and figured it was time. Out went the cargo shorts and ironic T's (mostly, anyway, as I've still got one or two), in came sport coats and neckties and selvedge denim and, yes, pocket squares. Put This On taught me a great deal as I navigated that change.

I quickly discovered that people tend to take dressing well as a sign of respect. People interpret the simple act of throwing on a jacket and cramming something in the breast pocket as saying "my time with with you is important enough that I dressed for the occasion". Mostly that means appreciative nods, sometimes that means perks. Whee!

Plus I've been called dapper, which is new. They don't call you dapper when you're in a baggy Reverend Horton Heat T-shirt and flip-flops. I have data on this.

Funny thing is that I've even learned a thing or two about myself in the process. One of those things may be that within me dwells a dandy little fop yearning to break free. I'm not prepared to say at this time.

Anyway, thanks, Jesse. You make the Internet better.