After graduating from the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, designer Greg Thompson began developing typefaces in Fontographer, working for a variety of design firms in Chicago. When Roger Black and David Berlow began recruiting designers for the new retail library at FontBureau, they turned to Thompson first.

He created Bodega in the first half of 1990, establishing his reputation as a retail/commercial designer.

Thompson went on to a prominent commercial career with such top-tier clients as Agfa, Conde-Nast, Crate and Barrel, and Playboy Magazine.

A serif companion to Bodega Sans, the Bodega Serif® font family, was introduced a few years later. Together, these font families offer a variety of applications and design choices. With its balance between modernism and art deco, Bodega is a flexible typeface that works in many mediums to evoke a slight period feel while still exuding a modern ethos.

Bodega Sans serves well in display usages including Newspaper, Magazine, Book, Web and Corporate work. It is appropriate for headlines and (with small caps Bodega Sans) can be effective in short copy work. It is used in the masthead for the New Internationalist’s magazine. Bodega Sans has been used CD covers, cereal boxes (including Kellogg’s Corn Flakes) , movie posters, movie credits, ads, and more. While used in conjunction with small caps Bodega Sans works well for short pieces of copy. It is also used extensively by the Disney Corporation at various parks around the world.

Media coverage

Described at times as “quirky” and even “aggressive”, Bodega Sans has nonetheless built a name for itself as a design element thanks to its careful modernization of a retro Art Deco look. Due to its period look, negative press it gets usually applies to its misuse as a period element in movies and does not apply to the design itself.