The Fred family is based on the casual hand lettering of Fred G. Cooper: cover artist, cartoonist, and letterer for Life magazine in the 1920s and '30s.

His relaxed style captures the flavor of the Roaring Twenties, and the digital font was developed for use in the credits and title cards for a 1920s-style silent movie, The Call of Cthulhu.

In an effort to keep the hand-lettered look, the OpenType font has numerous discretionary ligatures and contextual alternates, along with fleurons and ornaments.