Morire is a font design inspired by a love song by 16th-century Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi called "Si ch'io vorrei morire" ("I wish to die"). Morire is my attempt to distill the emotions of passion into the form of a typeface. The Morire font family (Morire Open and Solid) was sold by the [t-26] type foundry from 1994-2004.
In 2012, Sharan Shetty interviewed me for a wonderful article in The Awl about Grunge typography, of which Morire has been called (to my eternal surprise) a “signature font”. This piece, and others about that era in graphic design, really capture the excitement of discovering new tools that made it possible to break classic visual rules (rip apart the structure of a font? horrors!) and create something interesting in the process. The experience of designing Morire was kind of like swimming: an exhilarating sense of motion much more important than the actual destination. It was a lot of fun.
Song text:
"Sì, ch'io vorrei morire, ora ch'io bacio, amore, la bella bocca del mio amato core. Ahi, car' e dolce lingua, datemi tanto umore, che di dolcezza in questo sen' m'estingua! Ahi, vita mia, a questo bianco seno, deh, stringetemi fin ch'io venga meno! Ahi, bocca! Ahi, baci! Ahi, lingua! Torn' a dire: Sì, ch'io vorei morire!"
•
"Yes, I would like to die, now that I'm kissing, sweetheart, the luscious lips of my darling beloved. Ah! dear, dainty tongue, give me so much of your liquid that I die of delight on your breast! Ah, my love, to this white breast, ah, crush me until I faint! Ah mouth! Ah kisses! Ah tongue! I say again: Yes, I would like to die!"
"Sì, ch'io vorrei morire, ora ch'io bacio, amore, la bella bocca del mio amato core. Ahi, car' e dolce lingua, datemi tanto umore, che di dolcezza in questo sen' m'estingua! Ahi, vita mia, a questo bianco seno, deh, stringetemi fin ch'io venga meno! Ahi, bocca! Ahi, baci! Ahi, lingua! Torn' a dire: Sì, ch'io vorei morire!"
•
"Yes, I would like to die, now that I'm kissing, sweetheart, the luscious lips of my darling beloved. Ah! dear, dainty tongue, give me so much of your liquid that I die of delight on your breast! Ah, my love, to this white breast, ah, crush me until I faint! Ah mouth! Ah kisses! Ah tongue! I say again: Yes, I would like to die!"
Morire was the display font used on the Wax Trax Records "Blackbox" CD boxed set, designed by Segura, Inc. and featuring a distressed, embossed aluminum cover.
Artwork by Harriet R. Goren featuring the Morire font family.