Wonder Brush is a display typographer’s guilty pleasure. It’s one of very few fonts ever made that can take intense abuse and still look natural. Partly based on a 1969 Friedrich Poppl design called Poppl Stretto, but considerably fused with ideas found in interwar magazine ad lettering and signage, Wonder Brush caters to the idea that most graphic designers would rather use design elements they can enjoy. When you spend your days being “challenged” and “creatively tested” and “communicating the message,” you can definitely use a little bit of playtime. And this font gives you just that, playtime on the job. Wonder Brush appears to be a straightforward narrow upright brush script. But it really is made of malleable rubber.
Take it into a program like Adobe Illustrator, set something, stretch or squeeze, shear or warp, slant or transform… just play with it like they used to do in the 70s and 80s. You will soon discover that this font really is a big old top hat, and it’s up to you and your mischief to pull rabbits or geese out of it. A single font that allows you to emphasize content or manage space mechanically without affecting the integrity of the type setting. And if your playtime includes fiddling with OpenType features, you’re in for a bonus treat: Wonder Brush comes with over 800 characters, including a lot of alternates and extended language support. So tweak away until your eyes cry with joy. The only rules are the ones you set, and even those are meant to be broken.
