Commercial Type | Introducing Marian

12 January 2012
commercialtype.com

Introducing Marian
Marian is a series of faithful revivals of some of the greats from the typographic canon: Austin, Baskerville, Bodoni, Fournier, Fleischman, Garamont, Granjon, Kis and van den Keere. The twist is that they have all been rendered as a hairline of near uniform weight, revealing the basic structure at the heart of the letterforms. Together they represent a concept: to recreate the past both for and in the present.

Stretching over a period of nearly two and a half centuries from the mid sixteenth century to the early nineteenth century, they represent a period when the serif typeface as used in book typography was the dominant style. From the high Renaissance of Granjon and Garamont through to the Scotch roman; all the styles are represented: old style, transitional, and finally the modern. Meretriciously researched from original sources, together they represent a concept album of cover versions of the standards of type design.

Marian overview

Reduced to almost a whisper, Marian is a typeface that requires care in use; it can only be in larger sizes, at 60 point and above. It is not a workhorse typeface, more a thoroughbred that can only perform under very specific conditions. Its distinctiveness and elegance, and its mixture of the modern and the classical make it an irresistible choice when used with care.

Marian specimen PDF

Faithful to the originals, Marian comes with small capitals in all nine roman styles, with lining and non-lining figures, with swash capitals (1554, 1740, 1800 & 1820), alternate and terminal characters (1554 & 1571). And like the hidden track so beloved of the concept album, Marian is completed by a Blackletter based on the work of Henrik van den Keere.

Opentype features PDF

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