Afterparty: Blackletter Chatter
Sharing resources discussed at our September meeting (Mark Simonson's Skin & Bones presentation). Feel free to add your favorite blackletter resources in the comments!
A fun part of our Type Tuesday meetings is the random typographic discussions before and after. At our last meeting, the topic turned to blackletter in various language systems. Sharing my favorite resources below. Feel free to add yours in the comments!
Video: Type@Cooper: A beautiful dark heritage: a historical overview of blackletter in Mexican letterform culture with Jesús Barrientos Mora
Date: July 31, 2023 as part of the Type@Cooper Lubalin Lecture series.
Video description from the T@C website:
There is a constant presence of blackletter in the Mexican landscape that can be spotted everywhere from Tijuana down to Cozumel. In the shape of cholo graffiti, sign painting for birria taco spots, tequila ice cream, tattoo parlours, gravestone carving and a myriad of unapologetic cross-breed lettering displaying creative new styles of blackletter, becoming an essential part of México’s letterform culture.
This presentation will explore the (most probable) reasons behind how and why a mediaeval calligraphy style became so deep-rooted in México as a legacy spreading over 500 years.
Jesús Barrientos Mora is Associate Professor at Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. Recipient of the Scaliger Fellowship (2014), author of the book Legado de los Elzevir (2017) and certified in Typeface Design (University of Reading, 2018), he has lectured in institutions like the Dublin Institute of Technology (2015), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (2017) and the Sheffield Hallam University (2019). His typefaces are currently distributed through the Monotype channels and have been awarded by the Bienal Tipos Latinos, Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño, and Premios Clap, participating in many exhibitions across the Americas and Europe.
Book: Mexican Blackletter, by Christina Paoli
This lovely and interesting book is chock full of thoughtful details like alphabet comparisons and overlay — not just pretty pictures but lots of type geekery. The book has full spreads of the alphabets shown on the cover, in several formats. Definitely a favorite. I find some new tidbit every time I pick it up.
Do you have a favorite blackletter resource? Add it in the comments!
It's out of print but if you can find it used or in a library, "Blackletter: Type and National Identity" ed. by Shaw and Bain is an excellent book.