Initial revisits Genzsch & Heyse’s Fränkisch-Iinitialen, a modern typographic interpretation of the illuminated initials that grace the pages of historical manuscripts, starting from late-antiquity. Some intials were adorned with ornamentation, painted in bright colors, or illuminated with gold leaf to contrast against the uniform black text. In the Insular tradition, topical illustrations often intertwine the characters, foreshadowing the story that follows.

As far as initials go, the uncredited designFränkisch-Iinitialen is uncredited, but accompanied by a number of interchangeable frames and illustrations credited to the German type designer Lorenz Reinhard Spitzenpfeil. is quite unusual. The letterforms are modifications of the linear capitals, adapted to fill a circular area and forced into awkward contortions. This balancing act is aided by the rigid hairline scaffolding that intersect the letterforms like wires on a circuit board. In effect, the typeface is a monospaced blackletter in two dimensions.

In Initial, a number of forms are revised, and the bare necessities for display application included. It is the recontexualization, however, that sets it apart from other revivals. All caps setting is frowned upon in blackletter, where capitals almost exclusively initiate lowercase sentences and nouns. Unlike traditional initials, which always operate alone, these insist on forming words and sentences. Somehow, though, two wrongs seems to make a right under Helland’s direction. Dislocated from their rigid frames, the strange and wonderful letterforms come to life.