Diabolique
Paulo Goode · Paulo Goode · 2025
A 12-font Old Style display family in six weights across two widths, designed to evoke macabre and unsettling themes through razor-sharp corners disrupting otherwise elegant curves.
About
Influenced by Ed Benguiat's ITC Tiffany (1973) and the designer's own Eschaton (2024), Diabolique pairs ball terminals and classical Old Style curves with sudden angular breaks to build a sense of visual unease. Over 60 OpenType alternates, small caps with matching diacritics and all-cap discretionary ligatures make it well-suited to titling, branding and logotype work. The character set covers Latin European languages across both the Standard and Condensed subfamilies.
Classification
Classified as a display serif drawing on Old Style conventions – incisive serifs, ball terminals and elegant curves – but with sharp, abrupt corners that deliberately distort the warmth of classical Old Style models for a macabre effect.