Volume Dealer Pro Font

The Volume Dealer journey started about 10 years ago, as an investigation and type design exercise based around the longtime classic "Black Sabbath Vol. 4" album cover lettering. Trying to design an accurate yet literal revival was a bittersweet process, so many inconsistencies appeared from getting a complete digital set together as a proper font. 
 

That frustration led to a new approach: starting from scratch based on a larger array of references from the same era – the glorious years of photo typesetting around the 1960s and 1970s. From that the first version of Volume Dealer was released in 2020 – one of my first commercial fonts.
 

As time went by, I have expanded the Volume concept into rounded and psychedelic display versions, bringing more of the vintage inspiration as well as a more comprehensive character set. The work of Peter Steiner (Black Body and Black Pepper typefaces) and the Ginger Snap typeface were key influences in that transition to a more authentic look. 
 

That made me look back to the first version of Volume Dealer for a lot of refinements. Back then (2018/2020) I didn't know the Sabbath lettering was actually based on a obscure typeface from that era named Gadget, a revelation that brought light to a long research, now registered through the work of @Fontastique and recently by a very comprehensive post on Fonts In Use. Well, Gadget didn't look so good as I suspected, which reinforced my original approach – I didn't want a facsimile of revival, specially with new fonts popping up with the same references.
 

In the wake of Ozzy Osbourne's passing last month, I reviewed and refined this project once again, looking to improve the character set and bring a few extra touches to release Volume Dealer Pro – the definitive version and tribute to some of my all-time favorite artists. 
 

This release brings refined vectors and metrics, a whole new set of alternate characters in line with Volume Rounded and a gift in the form of easter eggs characters and a set of Black Sabbath Dingbats. 

A typeface meant for large and maybe music-inspired graphics and titles. Crank up the Volume!