Noire
Nouvelle Noire · Clovis Vallois · 2018
A single-weight ultra-black display typeface drawn with ink and brush, designed to push letterforms to the very limit of legibility.
About
Drawn by Clovis Vallois with ink and brush on paper, NN Noire is a deliberate rejection of legibility and function in favour of raw graphic intensity. The forms are pushed to such extremes that the typeface reads more as texture or mark-making than conventional type. Released in 2018 alongside a limited letterpress poster by Swiss printer Dafi Kühne, it occupies a niche between experimental typography and fine-art printmaking.
Classification
Though not strictly a historical blackletter revival, NN Noire pushes letterforms to the extreme edge of legibility using dense, brush-drawn strokes that place it firmly in the blackletter/ultra-black expressive category.