Peel Typeface

Peel was inspired by the decaying sanserif vinyl letters found on vehicles, signs, and storefronts of New York City. Due to the humid coastal climate, vinyl letters displayed outdoors have a tendency to peel over time, in what tends to be a  predictable way.

To reproduce this phenomenon in a digital typeface I produced two elements that together make up the font, an outline and a fill. The fill corresponds to the actual letterform, while the outline relates to the original form of the letter. When combined and overlaid with transparency, it is possible to reproduce the effect of peeling typography, including the adhesive ghost image left behind. Rather than draw a lowercase version I’ve included alternate uppercase characters to increase the authenticity of the typeface, as no two letters peel exactly the same.