Chris Nuelle is a designer, lecturer and co-founder of the studio Nueker. Based in London he predominantly works on commercial projects, however Whiteletter, his new typeface was born from the desire to learn calligraphy a couple of years ago.
So, how did Whiteletter begin?
Whiteletter was born when I started learning Blackletter calligraphy a couple of years ago. A sort of therapy by stepping away from the drudgery of pixels but still creating something based in visuals and language. It’s something I would encourage anyone to try; students/designers/anything with opposable thumbs to do. Occasionally if there’s downtime during teaching at AUB, I’ll try and pass on the basic techniques of it to the 3rd year students. Anyway, I hadn’t seen a digital Blackletter typeface that I liked in the world. They never really seemed to work on screen. So that’s how Whiteletter began.
Why did you make it?
Initially, it was made for a branding project for a Metal recording studio in Ipswich called Grindstone studios; famed for the work they’ve done for Cradle of Filth, Gama Bomb, Behemoth etc. I thought it fit perfectly. However, the owner hated it and said it looked too ‘medieval’ so I succumbed, and we went with something different.
What do you like about black letter as a style?
I like it’s permanence as a lettering style, it works wonderfully in the places I’ve seen in Germany, almost unforgettable, because we don’t see it so often over in the U.K. It’s stood the test of time, since the 12th century if I remember rightly (I could easily be wrong, so please correct me). Though now there does seem to be a resurgence of it, I keep seeing it more and more, I guess out of some kind of visual Irony.
Currently, It’s not ready as a useable font. There are still some spacing issues on the render that we’ve been using in the studio as I’m admittedly an amateur when it comes to this stuff (Bruno Maag would murder me). But, where’s the time to finish this stuff in-between the dirge of corporate works? Give us some money, and I’ll do it for you right now, go on.
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