Infidel
Barnbrook · Jonathan Barnbrook
A typeface drawn from the letterforms of the Lindisfarne Gospels, designed in direct response to post-9/11 religious intolerance.
About
Derived from insular manuscript hands of the early medieval period, the letterforms sit at a deliberate distance from contemporary legibility conventions. The confrontational name is set in pointed tension with the serene, devotional source material, making the design as much a political statement as a typographic one. Barnbrook conceived the pairing of historically religious forms with an inflammatory label to expose the contradictions embedded in religious intolerance.
Classification
Based directly on letterforms from the Lindisfarne Gospels and comparable medieval manuscripts, placing it firmly in the insular/blackletter tradition of early medieval Latin scripts rather than later Gothic textura.