Blackletter Revival
From Saltburn to Juicy Couture, pop albums to podcast logos, blackletter type is everywhere – and it’s shaking off its outdated associations
- Words Angelica Frey
- Artwork Cabinet Milano
If you were pressed to find commonalities between Taylor Swift’s Reputation (2017), the title card of the Harry Potter films (2001–2011), Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (2023), a Juicy Couture tracksuit, Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu (2024), and Teenage Engineering’s EP-1320 synthesiser, you wouldn’t have to look too closely: all these recent or semi-recent cultural artefacts display blackletter typeface in their logos, wordmarks or title cards. Far from being the sole purview of old-timey Alpine brewhouses, inns and metal bands, blackletter has an almost 1,000-year-long history marked by practicality and self-assertion. It’s also graced the pages of newspapers like The New York Times, The Washington
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