Around the time I began wrapping up the illustrations and map for the Panther Creek Map project, I began to look at display typefaces. I needed something that spoke to Texas, the old west, and likened to the mid 20th-century cowboy imagery.
When nothing I had access to felt quite right, I decided to consult a resource I’ve used in the past, Dr. Dan Reynolds’ database of 19th-century German Typefaces. There I found Verzierte Grotesque mit Ziffern and a nearly complete uppercase alphabet. The rest I would have to draw and fill in myself.I came to the revival of this typeface as a complete amateur. I had learned the structure of letters, their different components, and how they relate to one another, but designing new figures from scratch was a challenge. The entire process took around a week and required me to learn a new program, Glyphs.
The name, Gouldbusk, came from the name of the small west Texas town where the Panther Creek Land and Cattle Ranch is located.