Dom Casual
Dom Casual
Year: 1951
Designer: Peter Dom
Foundry: American Type Founders
The creation of beautiful letterforms is not solely the provenance of metal type design. Many beautiful letters have their genesis in the hands of stonecutters, calligraphers, and, more recently, signpainters.
Dom Casual was originally created by the master lettering artist Peter Dom. In the interwar years, craftsmen like Dom were in high demand. Much valued for their pen- and brushwork, they were frequently called upon to create beautiful hand lettering for advertising headlines. Dom was especially skilled at creating letters that evoked the loose brushstrokes of a veteran sign painter. His style proved to be so popular that in the late 1940s, he created a series of typefaces (Twixt, Husky and Darky) for Photo-Lettering Inc., a display typesetting company that serviced the ad agencies of New York. In 1951, Twixt was reworked and cut as a metal type by American Type Founders in 1951 and rechristened Dom Casual.
Since its mid-century release, Dom Casual has become one of the most popular faces on the American typescape. (Though there is also a Cyrillic version.) Its lively rhythm and casual flair lends itself well to all manner of print and electronic usages. Dom’s loose, carefree look was well-suited to the credits and titles of comedic TV fare like Bewitched and Barney Miller. Because of its friendly familiarity and perky personality, Dom’s popularity continues today.