Five Typefaces
Muirmcneil · 2017
A stencil type system built from geometric segments and internal void spaces, referencing Josef Albers, Compacta and Walter Haettenschweiler's compressed grotesques.
About
First published in 2017 and extensively revised in 2021, Five comes in three contours, two widths, two optical weights and positive and negative versions. Rather than assembling glyphs from minimal strokes, the system inverts convention by constructing alphabets around a grid of internal white-line spaces, producing dense, imposing letterforms. The lower case division into two or three horizontal sections follows principles similar to Walter Ballmer's 1971 Olivetti lettering, allowing stroke proportions to modulate more naturally than most constructed types permit.
Classification
A stencil type system built from basic geometric segments with internal void spaces reduced to thin white lines; references compressed rectilinear sans serifs and constructed alphabets, placing it firmly in the display/geometric stencil category.