One of the most amazing books on typography that I have come across in a long, long time…

In Fraktur Mon Amour, Judith Schalansky has made a love letter to the (sometimes outcast) Blackletter or Gothic script. Judith’s collection of fonts is stunning – CD included.

All 150 fonts included in Fraktur Mon Amour are accompanied by elaborate and beautiful patterns or graphics developed with individual letters from the font. I find the black and white illustrations – mixed with magenta – inspiring for developing stencils, as a reference for implementing scale in textile pattern development, and simply to understand at how something as simple as a letter can be used to create something so extraordinary.

Originally published in 2006 by Verlag Herman Schidt Mainz and Judith Schalansky, the book was republished by Princeton Architectural Press in 2008.

The product description asks: “When was the last time a book on typography made you swoon?”

And I have to admit that it does…

Fraktur Mon Amour by Judith Schalansky

Pattern at the top of this post made with the uppercase “K” from FF Koberger Font – Anton Koberger circa 1490/ Manfred Klein 1991, from page 216