Marr Sans Condensed

Commercial Type’s second release of 2016 is Marr Sans Condensed, an expansion of Marr Sans. Designed by young Croatian designer Hrvoje Živčić, its a welcome addition to the original developed by Paul Barnes and Dave Foster in 2014. Starting from a few fragmentry lines from a specimen of James Marr of Edinburgh from the nineteenth century, Barnes and Foster developed a  characterful grotesque design, maintaining the spirit of the original, while making it a useful addition to the modern typographic landscape. Živčić has shown great skill and invetiveness in expanding the family with six condensed weights with matching italics.

Condensed typefaces tend to come in two basic styles: flat-sided or rounded in style. Druk shows how the typical nineteenth century form developed with flat sides allowing tight setting, Marr Sans Condensed shows the other style, maintaining the roundness of the original width. Like the regular Marr Sans, the condensed variants can be seen as the quirky cousins to the American gothic designs of Morris Fuller Benton. The characterful nature of Marr Sans Condensed makes it an excellent companion not just to Marr Sans, but many of the other designs in the Commercial Type library, such as Austin, Lyon, Portrait and Dala Floda.

The details that define Marr Sans and the grotesque forms of the nineteenth century have been captured in Marr Sans Condensed. Unlike the homogenity of later sans serifs, Marr Sans Condensed has a quirky flavour exemplified by the unusual open bowl of the double storey g, the assertive form of the a, and the distinctly 19th century R. Marr Sans Condensed features oldstyle figures, which come directly from what we believe to be the first ever non lining numerals found in a sans serif, in James Marr’s specimen of the 1870s. The standard form of the italic is a typical slanted roman style, but the alternative single storey a and g give it a more cursive feeling. 

From a fine and delicate thin through to a bold, Marr Sans Condensed adds an extra dimension to the Marr Sans family, making it an excellent choice when a sans with a greater flavor is needed for graphic, corporate and editorial design. It is available for desktop use, self hosted web use, and mobile apps.