Buurthuis II

This was probably one of my most fun projects in 2023. Artist and filmmaker Josefin Arnell approached me for the credits for her new zombie/vampire movie BUURTHUIS II. The story revolves around the infamous community center in Amsterdam Wittenburg that was the crime scene of a mistargeted deadly shooting in 2018.

Director Arnell worked with the community in script writing workshops and included them as actors in her submission for the Prix de Rome 2023. The result is an absurdist political horror movie that deals with gentrification and blood sucking capitalism.

After she approached me, I researched classic horror typefaces that are used in John Carpenter’s movies or other 1980s classics. Typefaces like ITC Quorum, Albertus, Flange or Romic. (ITC Benguiat had to stay home, due to overuse after being prominently featured in Stranger Things). But I included some fresh Future Fonts typefaces by three female type designers I admire. Messer by Inga Plönnigs, Silverspoon by Diana Ovezea and Zangezi by Daria Cohen (f.k.a. Daria Petrova). These fonts were also used by Josefin Arnell in her design for the movie posters, and paired with Zombie Monster by Rayvaldo Rizki Pratama Augusta.

For the subtitles, editor Lukas Heistinger contacted me, asking for a recommendation that is well readable on screen yet able to compete with the exciting typeface in the credits. From several recommendations the freely available closed source typeface Author, designed by Satya Rajpurohit and published at his Fontshare, was the the final choice.

The movie was presented at Prix de Rome 2023 at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. More context on the show and BUURTHUIS II can be read at Tangents.art