Katie Blaker

I delight in forms that are often overlooked.  My greatest obsession, however, involves a form that is not only overlooked, but is instrumental in the written expression of people throughout history: type.  Whether hand written or printed, type represents cultures and the ideals they hold dear.  Type reflects not only the nature of its representative spoken language, but also the guiding historical and political pressures that helped to shape it.  All of these aspects are richly expressed by blackletter.  The font of medieval illuminated manuscripts, it was the first type to be used by the mechanical printing process and was strongly associated with Germany. It was used in Gutenberg’s Bible and also by Martin Luther, as this was his type of choice for his translation of the Bible into German.  Blackletter was adopted by the Nazis because of these strong national ties, and even though it was abandoned in 1941, the type has continued to have dark connotations to the present day.  There are a few exceptions, however, namely its use in Mexico and modern pop culture.