Condensed Type

These graphics started with an idea for minimal marks that use very condensed text to create tall vertical bars to form a shape that is also a single word or phrase. I started with a typeface called Unique, and in most cases, exaggerated its base form by extending the characters’ stems. I also fine-tuned the kerning in each case, as you do, and messed around with some skewing. The unplanned theme that came out of this exercise was a message of acceptance: we’re all fallible and it’s no big deal and nothing really matters anyway. But because it can come across pretty dark to say something like “nothing matters”, and also I don’t entirely believe that, and also because humor is good, I stole the phrase “nothing really mattress” from some graffiti that was in the background of something I saw on TV. I really wish I would’ve written down where I saw that. But it made me laugh out loud when I did, because the word mattress is so unexpected. Dumb funny word play.

The face that appears in some of these is Arthur Balfour (1848-1930) who was quoted as saying “Nothing matters very much, and few things matter at all”.