I was scrolling Marvel’s YouTube page and saw a series of videos promoting the new Deadpool And Wolverine movie. Being the design nerd that I am, the first thing I noticed, before the stars or even the movie logo, was the typeface used for the actor’s names.
It’s TT Supermolot. It’s a typeface now ubiquitous with superheroes and adjacent genres. The font is a heavy, futuristic display face with personality and an impactful presence. It’s practically built for comics and video game media. So much so that the new TT Supermolot Neue by Marina Khodak and the TypeType Team claim the typeface was “…designed specifically for video game interfaces.“
TT Supermolot quirks
TT Supermolot and Molot are defined by their angled notches at the end of its thick letterforms. Creative Director Tom Muller, designer of the Johnathan Hickman X-Men logo, put it best in this Instagram post:
That’s pretty straightforward. Now you will never not see this quirk in sci-fi design. There is nothing more sci-fi than a well-placed notch at the end of a square or rectangle. It gives it that extra “oomph” into cyberpunk territory.
Supermolot and Molot take that design philosophy and apply it to an entire typeface, applying future notches to as many letters as possible without being a jerk about it. Here’s a look at the alphabet set in TT Supermolot Neue. Peep the sci-fi rectangles:
How sci-fi is that! This typeface adorns comic convention ads, comic book covers, pop culture logos, and a ton more. It’s incredibly distinct and now that I have pointed it out, you will start to see it everywhere. Like when you buy a car and all of a sudden every car on the road is the one you have.
It’s even made its way to the WWE. The new World Heavyweight Champion GUNTHER uses it as his Titantron video nameplate:
I am guilty of using it too…
When I started Super. Black. over 10 years ago, I used Supermolot for the SB logo. For over three years, it was the face of Super. Black. until I started seeing it everywhere and I felt the brand became a little generic because of it.
Why is it everywhere?
I believe the original Molot typeface was a single-weight freebee that every young designer had on their machines. It was a wide, sci-fi alternative to Impact back in the day. Since then the type expanded into a couple of other variations, with the Neue version being the most robust to date. It is quickly becoming the Helvetica of the comic book design genre. It could also be all in my head. So I ask you, have you seen Supermolot around? Maybe more than you expected? It’s certainly a nice typeface and always a joy to use.
In the meantime, I am going to scour the net for more concrete examples and just plaster them all over this article. Excuse me a moment.