New Font: BigBlok
A great many years ago when working in game publishing I had a real fascination with doing titles in a strong, super-bold font called Bolt Bold. The truth is I rather overused it. In doing some research I find it on more than a dozen different game books I wrote in the early 80s, all quite collectable and out of print today.
Folkard Font featured in Bard’s Tale
Bard’s Tale is a venerable computer game which has gone through many versions and updates. In its latest incarnation as a multiplayer roleplaying game App for tablets and smartphones it has gone through a look and feel upgrade, and part of that upgrade is new title graphics which (like so many other fantasy themed games) feature our Folkard Font prominently.
You can see Folkard featured here in the main title and it is also featured on splash screens and titles within the game. To make it look a little different from how it is used in World of Warcraft and Disney’s Faeries games they have added an outline and some texturing, but those embellishments aside, it’s just another reminder that when you want something to have a fantasy look the font to go for is Folkard.
Folkard Appearing in The Woman in Black
My daughters persuaded me to join them for a trip to see Daniel Radcliffe in the new version of The Woman in Black and although I certainly enjoyed seeing a new film which was very much in the Hammer Films tradition, a pleasant bonus surprise was discovering that our Folkard font makes an uncredited appearance in the film.
The movie is a classic ghost story set in the early 20th century, with a complex plot and a substantial supernatural element, stylishly directed and well acted. One nice directorial touch is the use of a bit of foreshadowing, and one example of that comes in about the third scene in the film when Daniel Radcliffe is riding on a train to the coastal village where the main events of the story take place. He’s reading a newspaper and an advertisement for a spiritualist catches his eye, reading something like “Contact the Departed” (hard to get the exact wording and they don’t let me rewind movies in the theatre).
Of course, the font in the advertisement is Folkard, which presents an interesting anachronism, because the font did not exist at the time the movie is set and the original lettering it is based on would not even be executed by Charles Folkard until several years after the movie takes place. Perhaps the font was revealed to the advertiser by spirits who had seen the future.
