Blacker Pro: An Interview
Blacker Pro is the revised and extended version of the original wedge serif type family designed by Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini and Andrea Tartarelli in 2017. Blacker was developed as a take on the style that Jeremiah Shoaf has defined as the “evil serif” genre: typefaces with high contrast, oldstyle or modern serif proportions and sharp, blade-like triangular serifs. Cosimo and Andrea tell us more below!
What inspired you to design this typeface? Were you designing for a specific use case or customer? Or were you more focused on a particular artistic vision? Or some combination of both?
The redesign and extension of Blacker that led to Blacker Pro was influenced by many, as I was fascinated by “wedge serif” typography, where serifs are rendered with a simple triangular shape. Jeremiah Shoaf ‘s “evil serif” visual style stimulated my creative juices. Modern serifs (typefaces like those designed by Bodoni, where there’s a strong interplay between straight edges and soft curves, and a tension between mechanical, rigid shapes and calligraphic, elegant solutions) were also a source of inspiration.
Walk us through the process of designing this typeface. Was there anything different about it, compared to your usual process? Did it come along more easily than others, or were there unique challenges?
The weight system was developed keeping in mind the hybrid nature of the project. The lighter and heavier weights were designed mixing different historical influences. For example, the transitional wedge serif shape is more recognizable in the bolder styles, while the thin variants are more similar to modern Didones. The process included deriving from traditional punch-cutting to allow for the co-existence of display and text version, while maintaining the readability at small point size. Blacker Pro now includes more widths, decorative titling versions and an extended charset.
Looking ahead, are there new projects you’re excited about? Anything you haven’t tried yet but are eager to explore?
Blacker Pro typeface is still open to future developments. We would like to extend the titling variants to include more decorative styles and extend the glyph set to include Arabic scripts.
