Design:
Jean-Baptiste Levée.
Team:
Laurent Bourcellier.
Stemming from a commission for retail distribution group Carrefour, Origin Super Condensed fulfilled France’s legal requirement that a food’s geographical origin must be the same point size as its price. Jean-Baptiste Levée addressed this need with an extra narrow design, later expanding the design with a lowercase influenced by mid-20th-century gothics by foundries such as Stephenson Blake and Stempel. Despite the extreme dimensions, Origin conserves space without sacrificing legibility. With five weights, (each with an unusual Backslant variant), and extensive figure and language support, Origin is a rare compressed family that offers utility beyond display typography. It can be employed in sizes and settings where other ultra-condensed type cannot.
