The League has been around a long time. We started it back in January of 2009, back when browsers were just getting the ability to use custom fonts on pages, but no font foundries were allowing their fonts to be used.
This was before Typekit. Before Google Fonts. Before WOFF, and before icon fonts or bulletproof @font-face syntax. There were a few open-source fonts sprinkled around the corners of the web, and we knew the web needed more.
The League has spent most of it’s life on the back burner — shadowed by the necessity of earning a living from freelance client projects & day jobs. As a self-funded, bootstrapped project, it’s been heavy on my shoulders for years how to afford to keep working on it.
My vision for where we can take The League hasn’t faltered one bit, and I see an ocean of potential. I firmly believe we can be a self-sustaining company; one that continues to give freely to the design community, empower new designers with both resources and education, builds a community around sharing & openness, and even someday gives jobs to designers who believe in the same ideals we do.
Now, besides a big site revamp, with some new features that’ll make our site easier & better to use, we have a whole lot planned. There is so much to improve, share, and build — and we can’t do it alone.
But it’s time to make it happen.
Over the next few posts, I’m going to outline the current state of all the pieces of the foundry, what plans are in the works, and how we can build it together.
- Our Font Catalogue Our vision for the catalogue, updating our existing open-source fonts & creating entirely new ones
- Building Real CommunityHow we’d like to get people together, learning from each other, and share stuff openly
- Staying AliveA necessary plan for what we can offer & how we hope to give work to our fellow designers
- Teaching TypographyEducation is our backbone, and we’re doubling down on helping people to leave a real legacy
