PVC is a rambunctious font family that plays at the edges of width and weight. Just like PolyVinyl Chloride, it is extremely durable and incredibly versatile.
Versatilty is indeed of the essence for that type family, which includes six super-varied styles: Menu, Promo, Banner, Banner Ultra, Dynasty, and Express. All of them share a hearty backbone rooted in lettering and shop sign design, but differ in regards to the tools used to draw the typeface. The resulting shapes showcase radically disparate design personalities and ways to fill in design briefs. Here’s a walkthrough:
PVC Menu is Marian’s personal take on typical French brush lettering styles (such as the ones that lead to the design of the notorious Antique Olive decades ago). Menu is conceived as the family’s go-to style, its sturdiness being efficient in most design cases, from loud yet elegant uppercases to the je-ne-sais-quoi of the lowercases.
PVC Dynasty is the family’s serif with a deliberately strong personality. While the font’s other styles are steering towards extreme width (Banner) or density (Promo), PVC Dynasty and its italics pursue explorations around space-filling typesetting by focusing on the inner space of words, having no shame in some letter shape being intertwined. Remember, there is “Nasty” in “Dynasty”. It is nervous, spiky, unbalanced. PVC Dynasty can display anything as long as it needs to show how original it is.
PVC Banner is obsessed with filling the horizontal space: store signs, rolls of adhesive tapes, truck tarps, drumsticks… You name it. Of course, PVC Banner can also be stacked vertically and deliver a different rhythm. If this is not enough, the thicker PVC Banner Ultra is even more intense and should do the work.
PVC Promo is here to… promote your message, making sure that it will never be discounted! Compact yet bulky, Promo strives to be visible, even in tricky situations. The heavier, the better.
PVC Express shares a strong point of view with its siblings: speed and space matter. The quick gesture drawn from Marian’s ultra-fast practice is paramount in the way Express goes full throttle. Also based on her own sign-painting practice, PVC Express proposes a translation of this “work of speed” into a readymade digital typeface. Swift loopy gestures — a typical feat of the trade — are preserved in this aptly named style.
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Awards & distinctions
Contemporary Type - Best Fonts 2023
Hiii Typography Finalist 优异奖 2023
Hiii Typography Nominee 优异奖 2018
