About Us

OldFonts.com is owned by Three Islands Press (“3IP”), a small independent type foundry in Salt Lake City, Utah. Its owner, Brian Willson, is also the resident type designer.

Brian Willson grew up in Austin, Texas, in the 1950s and ’60s. He bounced around the Austin music scene a while before snagging a Radio/TV/Film degree from The University of Texas in 1979. The next year he became a father and promptly high-tailed it with his little family to coastal Maine, where he worked as a broadcast and print journalist for many years.

Willson founded 3IP in 1989 to self-publish a book of pretentious nature essays. Soon after, he found himself tinkering with type design, and 3IP has since become known for its library of authentic-looking handwritten fonts—most of them modeled after historical penmanship—and antique text-type simulations.

In 2019, after nearly 40 years on the coast of Maine, Willson decided to shake things up a bit and moved to Utah, where he’s been diggin’ daily high desert hikes with Jack, his dog. He also enjoys birding, cycling, nature photography—and for the past few years has been fiddling around with long fiction.

Age of Discovery Bundle

Handwritten History Bundle