Perhaps you’re DIN’ed out, FF Unit is a bit too humanist for you or you can’t stand helvetica rounded. Want to use Gotham Rounded, but don’t want to look like a poser? Enter Gravur Condensed released in 2004 by LineTo and designed by Cornell Windlin and Gilles Gavillet. The font has the appearance of a modest monoline engraved from a pantograph with a router into a plastic name badge.
A nice surprise of Gravur is that it gets more condensed as you increase the weight, perhaps this is common and i’m a rube, but it felt almost magic the first time i noticed it. LineTo’s website describes the aesthetic as born from rampant swiss standardization, so you can feel haute generic. I mean, only If that’s your thing.
Imagine for a moment walking into at a small boutique shop smiling at a smart looking retail associate and seeing engraved white on precious sapphire tinted polyethylene: Hello, My name is Gravur Condensed. Can i help you today? Yes Gravur, yes you can, i’ll take that limited edition Devo ep over there, you know, the one they only released in Japan…
—marcos
