A Beautiful Dark Heritage: Blackletter in Mexican Letterform Culture

07/31/2023

Type@Cooper - A beautiful dark heritage: a historical overview of blackletter in Mexican letterform culture A beautiful dark heritage: a historical overview of blackletter in Mexican letterform culture

There is a constant presence of blackletter in the Mexican landscape that can be spotted everywhere from Tijuana down to Cozumel. In the shape of cholo graffiti, sign painting for birria taco spots, tequila ice cream, tattoo parlors, gravestone carving, and a myriad of unapologetic cross-breed lettering displaying creative new styles of blackletter, becoming an essential part of México’s letterform culture.

Jesús Barrientos Mora's presentation will explore the (most probable) reasons behind how and why a mediaeval calligraphy style became so deep-rooted in México as a legacy spreading over 500 years.

Register for the free online talk here.

Jesús Barrientos Mora is associate professor at Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. Recipient of the Scaliger Fellowship (2014), author of the book Legado de los Elzevir (2017) and certified in Typeface Design (University of Reading, 2018), he has lectured at institutions such as the Dublin Institute of Technology (2015), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (2017), and the Sheffield Hallam University (2019). His typefaces are currently distributed through the Monotype channels and have been awarded by the Bienal Tipos Latinos, Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño, and Premios Clap, participating in many exhibitions across the Americas and Europe.

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