Bastard
Barnbrook · Jonathan Barnbrook · 1990
A modular blackletter drawn on a personal computer in 1988, referencing sources from the Gutenberg Bible to Dürer while embedding deliberate political and consumerist commentary into individual letterforms.
About
Originally drawn in 1988 using primitive font design software and published around 1990, Bastard applies William Morris's dictum that the tool should be acknowledged in the form of the design. Its letterforms were assembled digitally using a modular system, producing a blackletter that sits between historical tradition and contemporary production methods. Specific glyphs carry pointed references: the uppercase R alludes to the fascist boot, the uppercase Y to the Yen symbol, and the lowercase of the Spindly weight echoes a barcode.
Classification
Explicitly a blackletter typeface, digitally assembled using a modular system that acknowledges historical blackletter rhythm and drama while transforming it through computer-aided production methods.