Maax

Four typographic traditions, one typeface

Designed by Damien Gautier with assistance from Roxane Gataud and Corentin Moyer, Maax is a sans-serif family built around a single question: how much variety can one typeface deliver? Four OpenType stylistic sets—Standard, Geometric, Modern, and Grotesk—each reference distinct typographic traditions within a unified structure. The family has since expanded to twelve sub-families covering mono, rounded, display, raw, micro, stencil, unicase, IPA, and multiple script extensions.

Set in Maax

Insights

Three of the four stylistic sets map to distinct historical references: Bauhaus experimentation (Geometric), Futura and Nobel rationalism (Modern), and the Helvetica/Akzidenz-Grotesk grotesque tradition (Grotesk); Standard is explicitly all-purpose with no stated historical reference.
The family launched with 4 weights and 7 styles; a Light weight was added post-release, and a Display version introduced alternate letterforms described as 'sometimes surprising.'
Won First Prize, Award for Type Design (Custom Typeface category), Le Club des directeurs artistiques CDA45, 2014.