The Forum Thread That Changed Everything
A student asked for free fonts to learn typography. Professional designers told them they had no right. "This is our livelihood!" they screamed.
Sixteen years later, our fonts have been viewed 144 billion times. McDonald's uses them. Adele put them on her album covers. Barack Obama used them in his campaigns. The Hunger Games featured them in the movie graphics.
That forum thread changed everything.
Key Impact & Outcomes
- 144 billion font views on Google Fonts alone (2023)
- Used everywhere: McDonald's, Whole Foods, Subway, TRESemmé packaging, LAX airport exhibits
- Entertainment industry: The Hunger Games, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Barack Obama campaigns
- Music industry: Adele and Lady Gaga album covers and promotional campaigns
- Corporate clients: E! Network commissioned custom work, Progressive nearly did the same
- 20+ typography courses co-created with industry experts
- Complete book demystifying font licensing after 15 years of experience
- 16 years continuous operation proving sustainable open-source creative business
The Problem: Gatekeeping vs. Learning
I'd just taught myself to code using open-source libraries. Every problem I faced, someone had shared the solution. Every framework I studied, I could see how it worked. The community was collaborative. Knowledge was free.
Then I tried to learn typography.
$300 for a decent typeface. Cease-and-desist letters for studying font construction. The same designers who'd learned their craft by tracing Helvetica were pulling the ladder up behind them.
Here's what they missed: Open-source didn't kill programming—it made everyone better programmers. The rising tide lifted all boats. Typography was about to go through the same revolution with web fonts. The old guard was arguing about protecting their turf while the entire industry was shifting under their feet.
Building From Nothing
I started The League from scratch in 2009. It was my idea. I worked with type designers who believed in the vision, learned to make fonts myself, and built everything: the website, the distribution system, the legal framework.
The timing was perfect. Browsers were adding @font-face support. The web was hungry for custom typography. While established foundries debated whether web fonts would cannibalize their desktop sales, I was already building for the future.
The First Breakthrough
Whole Foods started using League Gothic in their stores. Then Instagram put a tiny hint of Chunk in their first illustrated logo. E! Network called—they wanted to commission a custom expansion of Ostrich Sans for their rebrand.
Suddenly, the same designers who'd called us idiots were downloading our fonts at 2 AM.
The Scale Nobody Expected
144 billion font views on Google Fonts alone last year. Raleway—just one of our fonts—accounts for 139 billion of those.
But the numbers only tell part of the story:
- Adele used Raleway on her album covers
- Lady Gaga featured it in promotional campaigns
- The Hunger Games used Orbitron in the movie graphics
- Wonder Woman and Green Arrow featured our fonts
- Barack Obama and The Discovery Channel used Ostrich Sans
- McDonald's Ronald McDonald House Charity uses Raleway throughout their site
- TRESemmé puts Raleway on their packaging in stores
- Will Smith recently used Blackout in his social media
Retail everywhere: Subway uses Raleway in their stores. 7-Eleven used Sniglet. Whole Foods is famous for using League Gothic, Junction, and Raleway throughout their brand.
LAX airport had an art exhibit featuring League Script. Casper Mattress used it in their NYC flagship store.
From Fonts to Education
The fonts got us famous. The education kept us alive.
I started transitioning The League into education around 2015. Typography for Beginners—a course designed in the spirit of Tailwind's early visual teachings, showing small typographic rules that enhance your typesetting skills. Making Sense of Font Licensing—a complete book demystifying 15 years of commercial and open-source font licensing knowledge.
The Weekly Typographic Podcast with my business partner Olivia expanded our weekly newsletter's reach. We'd meet every week to discuss typography, design trends, and industry insights. It became a huge success.
20+ courses and workshops co-designed and co-taught with industry experts, all hosted through The League's custom-built platforms.
The technical challenge wasn't really technical—it was learning about business. When to listen to your audience, when to ignore them completely. How to make a business that stays true to its integrity while actually making money.
The Technical Reality
I built everything myself. Custom storefronts when Stripe was still calling themselves "/dev/payments." Membership platforms before Patreon existed. Course systems with interactive components and custom email funnels written by hand.
Modern stack: Next.js and Tailwind for everything current. Custom-built components, marketing pages, email sequences—all designed and developed in the browser. No Photoshop, no handoffs, just designing while building.
The course platforms combined video lessons, assessments, and community features. The book required months of research, writing, editing, and design. The podcast needed custom hosting and distribution.
I even added "Add to Lettercase" buttons on League font pages—secretly building traction for my other passion project that solves the font selection problem.
What I Learned
Sixteen years taught me that sustainable creative businesses aren't built on scarcity—they're built on education.
We gave away the fonts. We sold the knowledge. The fonts brought the audience. The courses, books, and workshops paid the bills.
Staying true to open-source principles, even when everyone said we were destroying the industry, is exactly what made it work. We proved that designers could operate like programmers—collaborative, generous with knowledge, focused on lifting everyone up.
The old foundries were protecting their fonts. We were teaching typography. Guess which approach built the bigger, more sustainable business?
Connected Projects: The Typography Ecosystem
The League became the foundation for multiple related projects:
- Typography for Beginners: Intro course designed in the spirit of Tailwind's visual teaching approach
- Typography Courses & Workshops: 20+ courses co-designed with industry experts
- The Weekly Typographic Podcast: Weekly show expanding our newsletter's reach
- Making Sense of Font Licensing: Comprehensive book demystifying commercial and open-source licensing
- Lettercase: AI-powered font selection tool solving "the hardest problem designers face"
- The Confident Designer: Flagship course combining typography with design confidence
Each project reinforced the others, creating a comprehensive typography education ecosystem that served designers at every level.
The League of Moveable Type proved that open-source principles could transform creative industries, building a sustainable business while advancing the entire field of typography and design education.
