Mariah Carey has a favorite font
YouTuber MrBeast made a brief cameo in the new music video for Mariah Carey's song ' Type Dangerous,' but it was a font that got more screen time.
The video is divided into seven acts named after different would-be paramours, like 'Mr. Player,' 'Mr. Danger,' and 'Mr. Beast,' and each act is introduced with red, all-caps text set in Aviano Serif Black, a squat, geometric typeface with short, sharp serifs that was vertically lengthened by 130% for the video.
If it seems familiar, that's because it looks a lot like the typography Carey has used throughout her career, starting with her 1990 self-titled debut album cover. But look closely at the serifs, and you'll notice it's not the exact same font.
Many artists switch up the typefaces they use to reflect an album's theme. Carey, though, has stuck to similar typefaces throughout her discography, which dates back 35 years.
Carey's primary typeface of choice is Friz Quadrata, an award-winning serif by type designer Ernst Friz released in 1966 that's also used in the logos for Law & Order and Dr Pepper. Used consistently throughout her career and on best-selling albums like Daydream, Music Box, and The Emancipation of Mimi, Carey's name written in all-caps has over time become as much a part of her brand as her high heels, dresses, and wind machines. Carey also has a monogrammed version of just an M and C. The logo mark is to divas what the Rolling Stones's tongue and lips logo is to rock bands.
Though eagle-eyed viewers will notice differences in the letterform for letters like M and R, the customized, heightened Aviano Serif Black looks like a spitting image of Friz Quadrata in the 'Type Dangerous' video, which was directed by Joseph Kahn (the director behind hit videos like Britney Spears's 'Toxic' and Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood'). Like a brand refresh you don't even notice happened, the font choice gives Carey's video a new bespoke typeface that still looks familiar and classic.
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