Condensed

Bold, narrow and aggressively stylised, Condensed Grotesk is the first member of the Condensed family – an ongoing exploration of display typography delineated by spatial constraints rather than formal resemblance. Condensed Grotesk is a compact sans serif in three variants, reinvigorating a mainstay tool of blue collar worker-printers.

A 19th century printing house would be remiss without a narrow sans serif in its arsenal. These types, cut from wood in large sizes, were developed to meet the growing advertising needs of industrial production. In their quest to fill the page with the maximum amount of ink, the poster grotesk sets dark and narrow with minimal spacing, forcing letters into uniform lockstep. Their flat terminals and wide vertices succumb to the rectangular grid – characteristics that were only much later formalised under the Swiss International Style.

Condensed Grotesk navigates its limitations with determination, confidently distributing vestige and mannerisms across a broad character set. The sharp interior corners dissolve in context, softening the digital precision, and open shapes combine to form strong areas of white space, countered by the black crowding of diagonals.

Condensed Grotesk is available in three postures: the left-leaning Grotesk Reclined, the upright Grotesk and the slanted roman Grotesk Italic.