Poster Black revives the vivacity and freedom of the lettering artists of the thirties and forties. Their cheerful irreverence survives in photos from the period, the occasional surviving poster, and in manuals like the Speedball Text Books, guides for the letterer published by the Hunt Pen Company.

Jim Parkinson, charmed by their force and lively spirit, developed this typeface, with over a dozen alternate letterforms, for Font Bureau.