While envisioning the Lab department of Production Type, the team was seeking innovative and audacious designs to set the tone for the new collection. As soon as we stumbled upon Hélène Marian’s body of work, it was a no-brainer: with a diverse mixture of editorial design, bespoke type design, and painted letterings Marian dug into her prolific archives to select some of her signature forms and gestures — extracting the DNA for the PVC family.
Bred from these numerous vernacular letterforms, PVC now consists in four super-varied styles, all of which share a hearty backbone while flaunting very different shapes :
• Banner is obsessed by filling the — horizontal — space: a store sign, rolling papers packaging, a truck tarp, drumsticks… You name it. Of course, Banner can also be stacked vertically and deliver a different rhythm. If this is not enough, the thicker Banner Ultra is even more radical and should do the work.
• 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.
• Menu is Marian’s personal take on a typical French brush lettering style (which, decades ago, lead to the design of the notorious Antique Olive). Menu is conceived as the go-to style from the family, its sturdiness being efficient in most design cases.
· Dynasty is a serif with a strong personality. It is nervous, spiky, unbalanced. Dynasty can display anything as long as it needs to show how original it is.
PVC is not for the uninspired. Hélène Marian’s first retail release is venturesome, paving a path of possibilities for hierarchy, juxtaposition, and easy-to-mix styles, achieving the best from the family. Alternate letterforms and arrows bundled in each style make logos and headlines even more unique and lively. With such diverse styles, the possibilities are almost endless.
→ Buy PVC from €90. Family of 6 styles from €350.
→ Download the PDF specimen.
Design: Hélène Marian.
Team: Hugues Gentile.
Pictures & AD by Avant Post.
