Vampire typefaces and teetotal nuns.
It's good to be back
Hello, fellow pilgrim.
If you missed my New Year’s Eve post, we’re back!
The big thing I shared on the eve of 2025 was that my focus for this newsletter is shifting.
From now on, I’m going to be reflecting on the intersection of Christianity and design.
Like I said before, that’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
If it’s not for you, there’s a link to unsubscribe at the very bottom of this email. I can’t seem to make it any more prominent: I promise that’s not me trying to trap you into perpetual subscriberhood!
OK, that’s the official business out of the way.
Let’s go. It’s good to be back.
A monastic Dry January campaign
It’s not every day that you step into a major London station to find yourself surrounded by overtly Christian imagery.
But that was my experience in Charing Cross earlier this month, as I got my first taste of Lucky Saint’s Dry January campaign. I’ve since seen it everywhere.
It’s effectively the same as what they’ve done in previous years and you can see why: it’s beautifully simple.
Take something (alcohol) that is associated with overindulgence and flip the script.
Drink religiously: not because it will lead to depravity, but because it will serve your January detox.
The nun, the white space and the alcohol-free beer’s very name all help this messaging.
Of course, the irony is that monasteries have a long history of producing alcohol.
But still, I’m fascinated that this campaign resonates every year.
Maybe it’s tied in with a yearning for a new monasticism.
Or maybe it’s just some humorous wordplay.
Either way, it looks great. Rankin’s photography works so well with those navy, all-caps slogans. And I think the negative space is key to all this, allowing room for the pure messaging to breathe.
Where have I seen that font?
Something interesting and slightly weird happened when, a while back, I shared a design project online.
The project?
A brand identity I created for a Christian podcast.
The weird thing?
This comment: “Whoa! That typeface is giving serious Dracula vibes.”
The commenter was picking up on my typeface choice: Sinistre, by Jules Durand.
Now, I chose Sinistre because it evokes medieval religious manuscripts, like the Book of Kells.
The comment highlighted how design cross-cuts between contexts.
And how a monastic visual choice can also evoke Dracula.
If you’re interested in how that’s possible, check out this excellent article about blackletter.
That’s the name for ‘vampire text’. It has its basis in sacred manuscripts but has since become synonymous with Gothic horror.
It’s been used in many editions, adaptations and reworkings of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, including (of course) the new Nosferatu.
So, that’s how we get from monks to vampires.
Isn’t design wonderful?
Something for the journey
This track, which I’ve got on repeat at the moment. Also, look at that artwork!
It’s great to be landing in your inbox again. I’m excited for what’s to come!
Big blessings.
— Sam Thorogood, Pilgrimage Design
(views expressed are all solely my own)