American Horror Story

4 Comments on “American Horror Story”

1. Florian Hardwig says:

   Oct 15th, 2013 9:10 pm

   This Rennie Mackintosh was created in 1993 by George R. Grant for the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Font Company (CRMFontCo) and has nothing to do with the more popular ITC typeface of the same name, which was drawn by Phill Grimshaw under the art direction of Colin Brignall in 1996 – except that both reference letterforms as found in the works by the Scottish architect and designer, of course.

   CRMFontCo claims to be “the home of the original and best”. I can’t judge which is more faithful in regard to Mackintosh’s lettering, but as a typeface, the ITC version clearly scores better. CRMFontCo’s version is unbalanced and misuses several lowercase slots for ligatures and dingbats.

   Grant later added numerous spin-offs including an inauthentic “Renaissance” style (2006) that adopts the dreaded look of Papyrus. There is also an “American Horror” variation (2011), a “slightly tweaked version of the classic original [that] mirrors how the show’s producers have used it” (CRMFontCo). I wonder if this is a first – a retail font that incorporates modifications made by a user of a precursor.

   In the use shown here, CRMFontCo’s Rennie Mackintosh has indeed been customized: the ‘A’ lost its fine second crossbar, the ‘O’ got a larger circle with only one dot below, and the bars of the ‘E’ have been made all the same width. Further, the top-heavy ‘C’, which is so typical for this Arts and Crafts style, has been turned upside down and now looks out of place. Of these edits, only the first two have been included in CRM American Horror.

2. Stephen Coles says:

   Oct 15th, 2013 9:21 pm

   Thanks for the reality check, Flo!

3. Bill Tracy says:

   Nov 19th, 2015 4:33 pm

   The letter “O” is different tho. Not exactly the same font.

4. Florian Hardwig says:

   Nov 19th, 2015 7:33 pm

   Bill, please see my previous comment. It is a modified Rennie Mackintosh.