Magmatic
Details:
A Sans-serif family of 30 Fonts
5 Widths and 6 Weights
From the Foundry:
“Magmatic is a massive sans serif series from Cyrus Highsmith and June Shin. Magmatic is an exploration in width. The assignment was to see how far a design could expand and contract without changing its essential style. Its nuts-and-bolts character remains steady through an extensive range of widths and weights. The design was loosely inspired by Japanese Showa-era typefaces found on shipping labels, machinery, and buildings.”
Magmatic works as a counterpart to Morisawa’s classic sans serif MB101 Gothic.
SPECIMENS:
Highlights:
Opinion:
There’s so much to love about Magmatic, and so much that goes overlooked at first glance.
Imbued with the unmistakable hand of Cyrus Highsmith, Magmatic is able to capture a warmth and a relaxed casualness that a lot of other variable-width sans families fail to express, despite their best efforts. By expertly handling the drawing of those pipe corners, and honoring the source inspiration the personality came from, Highsmith and Shin have bottled an attitude and air of intrigue and humble power.
Most young type designers feel the only way to stand out and create a unique type design is to pile on big changes, outlandish features, and oversized attitude to make something original. The resident wisdom and experience at Occupant proves that to be entirely the wrong approach with Magmatic by gaining originality through the most subtle of design touches; the high waisted Ks, Rs, Hs, and Gs, the proudly proportioned g, and embracing the moments where texture breaks in the narrower widths.
Magmatic doesn’t try to shine brighter or yell louder or stand taller than the other sans families out there, it simply finds what makes each character truly special, and confidently highlights it with a deft hand and a bright spirit. It’s for this reason that I can see brands wanting to establish a new sense of familiarity, of friendliness, of colloquialism, of honesty truly embracing Magmatic. It’s a versatile type family that bears the mark of its creators… unadulterated human charm.
Competitive Set:
Druk — Commercial Type ☞
Nitti Grotesk — Bold Monday ☞
Grotzec Condensed — Feliciano Type Foundry ☞
FB Titling Gothic — Font Bureau ☞
Champion Gothic — H&Co. ☞
Galaxie Polaris — Constellation ☞
Additional Links:
Fonts in Use Page ☞
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