Here you will find our most frequently asked questions and our most frequent answers.
If your question is not covered here, or you need more information or details, you can always reach us via our contact form or by telephone on +1 718 864 0244.
We just liked the idea that we could get together some talented friends under a kind of co-op, a strong group with strong individual voices. That despite being scattered around the world, we could band together for the benefit of the group, sharing knowledge and expertise.
Village includes: Blackletra, Constellation, Feliciano Type Foundry, Incubator, Klim, LuxTypo, MCKL, Schwartzco, Sharp Type, Type Supply and Urtd.
No. Our members and designers (originally) hail from…
Brazil: Daniel Sabino
Canada: Patrick Giasson & Chester Jenkins
China: Keith Chi-hang Tam
Denmark: Trine Rask
Finland: Saku Heinänen
Germany: Hanno Bennert
New Zealand: Kris Sowersby
Norway: Magnus Rakeng
Portugal: Hugo d’Alte & Mário Feliciano
Slovakia: Ondrej Jób
Switzerland: Edgar Walthert
United States: Josh Finklea, Tal Leming, Greg Lindy, Jeremy Mickel, Christian Schwartz & Lucas Sharp
No. We are a very small independent distributor, publisher and designer of typefaces. Village consists of two partners in Brooklyn, with member foundries around the world, ranging in size from 1 to 3 people. We are registered and based in New York City, with our studio in the creative hub of DUMBO.
Our core group was assembled by invitation, and new members are either invited, or have approached us to request membership. We have curated our group very carefully around the Village aesthetic and philosophy.
Please contact us to discuss potential membership. We have curated our group very carefully around the Village aesthetic and philosophy, and only add member foundries on rare and extraordinary occasions.
The individual foundries make decisions about releases in consultation with fellow Village members.
Your computer shipped with a large number of fonts already installed; these have all been licensed or commissioned specially, so their designers and publishers have already been compensated. You pay to license our types in order to have access to new and unique typographic tools for your communication. (Sounds grandiose, we know.)
We select Village members and Incubator designers solely on the quality and inventiveness of their work, and on no other basis. We welcome submissions from all, regardless of age, race, sex, or nationality. Our members and designers are men and at least a couple of women from North America, Northern and Southern Europe, China, and the South Pacific.
Most of our members and designers are based in countries which use the Latin alphabet. Some of our designs cover other scripts, and we hope to add more designs with more language support. Our members support certain languages and scripts based on their clients’ needs and personal interests. We do offer a couple of typefaces which support the Cyrillic script, and one which supports the Hebrew script. We aim to widen our customer base and language support in the coming years.
The Incubator is Village’s foundry for new work from under-represented designers. Incubator typefaces are almost always the first published typefaces from emerging designers who work with Village partners and members to hone their work for publication.
The Incubator publishes work by: Hugo d’Alte, Hanno Bennert, Saku Heinänen, Trine Rask, Lucas Sharp, Keith Chi-hang Tam & Edgar Walthert. Work is currently being prepared for release from several incredibly talented young designers.
Please contact us to discuss potential publication. Half of the designers of Incubator typefaces have approached us’ the other half we have approached. We are always on the lookout for interesting new work.
The types published through the Incubator are selected by the Village partners because we found something interesting and worth sharing with a larger audience. We ask ourselves, ‘Do I like this typeface? Would I want to use it?’ Besides the Village partners, Incubator typefaces are usually reviewed by two or three Village members.
Our site was created by Oak with art direction and design by Village.
We accept major credit cards — Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover — as well as PayPal and bank (wire) transfers. Customers can order using credit cards and PayPal on vllg.com using our secure e-commerce engine. Bank transfers can be arranged quickly via telephone and email. If you wish to pay by check, please contact us to discuss. ApplePay integration is coming soon.
Yes and no. Were we to give away our work, that would send the message that we do not value our typefaces. And if we don’t value them, why should you? That being said, we are going to be launching trial fonts very soon. You’ll be able to download 5 families of partial fonts to try in mock-ups. Stay tuned…
We only accept purchase orders from existing clients and in worst-case scenarios; from educational institutions which only use POs, for example.
No.
No. We do not charge VAT or any other taxes.
Yes. Very secure. Our e-commerce back-end is handled by Stripe, who are sticklers for security.
Only a few seconds. When you send your order to us through our e-commerce system, our e-commerce engine asks your credit card issuer to release the agreed funds. When your credit card issuer says “yes” to our engine, your files are perpared, and PDF and email receipts are created. This whole process usually takes only a few seconds. (If you are licensing several weights of a font, this can stretch a bit.)
Sorry, no. All fonts licensed through vllg.com are available as download only.
No. We do not provide fonts for trial except under extraordinary circumstances. If we give away our work, that sends the message that we do not value our typefaces. And if we don’t value them, why should you? That being said, we are going to be launching trial fonts very soon. You’ll be able to download 5 families of partial fonts to try in mock-ups. Stay tuned…
Yes! All of the fonts we offer can be licensed individually.
Sets are either large groups of several related fonts, or small groups from within a larger family. For example, the Flama Complete set contains all weights of all widths of Flama.
Because many of the typefaces we offer come with large comprehensive families, a font set is a way to offer a useful set of fonts at a lower cost than the complete family, or if the same fonts were to be ordered piece-by-piece.
No. Sorry.
Our member foundries all have their own license tables and End User License Agreements (EULAs), although there are large areas of overlap between them. Our members all dictate their own terms of use and pricing. As their distributor it is Village’s job to do as they request.
EULA is the acronym for End User License Agreement. This is the agreement between the type foundry and the customer which sets out the rights and responsibilities of each.
Some of the licenses are a little hard to parse, so we are always happy to help. It’s easiest to send us an email to discuss licensing issues, so that we can have a written record of any discussion for future reference.
We can work something out. Call us to discuss your needs.
Yes. We would be happy to take your order over the phone; we will then process your card and send you a receipt and your licensed types, all within a few minutes.
Sorry, but we unplugged our fax a few years ago.
Yes. We would be happy to receive your order via email; we will then process your card and send you a receipt and your licensed types. If sending credit card information via email we highly recommend splitting credit card numbers across 2 or more email messages.
Sorry, but we can’t refund money on font license purchases. There is no way for us to verify that you no longer hold copies of the font software, so we cannot provide a refund.
vllg.com supports all “modern” web browsers. Our focus is on forwards-compatibility.
Many of our OpenType format fonts have small caps programmed as features. Just use your software’s OpenType controls to apply the Small Caps feature to your selected text.
Many of our OpenType format fonts have several numeral sets programmed as features. Just use your software’s OpenType controls to apply different numeral styles to your selected text.
When you ordered, you were provided with a PDF receipt to download. If you have a user account with us, you can always download the file again. Our automated system also sent you a text receipt via email. If you didn’t receive it, please check your email spam filters. Many free email services filter our receipts into spam folders. Amongst the guilty parties: Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail.
Yes! Limited character-set versions are available for some of our families, for free, on a trial basis. Look for details on the left side of the family page, below the “Buy It!” button.
Yes. These fonts are for trial purposes only, and may not be used in any personal or commercial application. Please read the full license agreement for more details.
You can download trial fonts for up to five separate families. Once you have hit the five-family limit, you will not be able to download additional trials.
If you purchase any paid license for one of the families for which you have download trial fonts, that slot will be unlocked again. Every time you end up buying a font you had a trial for, you get to download trials for a new family you want to test out.
The Taste Test is our program which ensures that our customers never overpay for their type licensing. When customers license a single weight (or more) of any typeface we offer, then return later to buy a family set they are credited the amount of the original sale.
We know that you might want to try out one or two weights of a typeface to decide if it’s right for a project you’re working on. While the Typer and PDFs are very useful, there is nothing quite like trying out a typeface yourself. So, you visit vllg.com and license your “test” font (or fonts) and work with it/them for a while. A couple of hours, a couple of months, or a couple of years. If you decide you want to get a family set, just come back to vllg.com and purchase a license online. Send us a note on the checkout page or via email and we will deduct the original cost of your “trial” fonts from your family order.
Sure. Here are two:
(First create an account before licensing any types, then make sure you are logged in on future visits.)
Example 1. You license the AM weight of Radio for US$50. Two weeks later you license Radio all styles for US$100. Our system automatically adjusts the price on your order so you pay US$50. Your total cost is the all styles cost: US$100.
Example 2: You license the Book weight of Apex New for US$50. Four months later you license Apex New all styles for US$350. Our system automatically adjusts the price on your order so you pay US$300. Three years later you license the Apex New & Apex Rounded set for US$500. Our system automatically adjusts the price on your order so you pay US$150. Your total cumulative cost is the set cost: US$500.
All of them.
Yes. The Taste Test covers all possible licensing situations.
Yes. You can always extend your licensing to cover more computers. All of our licensing is cumulative; it is our policy never to over-charge our customers.
We accept major credit cards — Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover — as well as PayPal and bank (wire) transfers. Customers can order using credit cards and PayPal on vllg.com using our secure e-commerce engine. Bank transfers can be arranged quickly via telephone and email. If you wish to pay by check, please contact us to discuss. ApplePay integration is coming soon.
Not for products, sorry.
No.
No. We do not charge VAT or any other taxes.
Sorry, we are not currently selling wholesale to new merchants.
Yes and no. We do not have a store, just a small studio, so we only allow in-person pickup of products by special arrangement. Please do not drop by unannounced.
Yes, if you call us to place your order, and give us at least 4 hours to prepare your shipment. The extra cost for UPS or FedEx will be added to the product’s price.
No. Sorry.
Yes. We would be happy to take your order over the phone; we will then process your card and send you a receipt via email.
Sorry, what?
Yes. We would be happy to receive your order via email; we will then process your card and send you a receipt via email. If sending credit card information via email we highly recommend splitting credit card numbers across 2 or more email messages.
Sorry, but we can’t refund money on product purchases once they have been shipped. We are happy to provide a complete refund if your product has not yet been shipped.
Many of our types are available as web fonts at present. Within the coming months we will be adding more, and expect to be able to offer all of the types on our site as web fonts in the fullness of time.
No. We don’t work with any of the web font hosting services. At the moment, when you license web fonts from Village, you get the font files for self hosting in WOFF, WOFF2 & EOT formats.
WOFF, WOFF2, and EOT.
The web fonts on vllg.com are all licensed at a one-time cost; there are no renewal fees. Different foundries have different tables and terms; please read the “Licensing” page for each font for details.