Typeface Design for North American Vernacular Signage

Four widths, one drawing logic—built from a New Orleans letterpress encounter

Mars is a type family by Alaric Garnier rooted in North American vernacular sign lettering. The project began in 2016 as a two-width minifamily—Condensed and Extended—before a Standard width was added in 2021; the family now spans four widths including SemiCondensed. Garnier's design grew from a chance encounter with a metal typeface called Venus at a New Orleans letterpress studio, which led him to research American Gothic alphabets and develop his own interpretation. Key distinguishing features include beveled uppercase strokes, flared terminals, elliptical rather than flat-sided O's, and trapezoidal i and j dots.

Set in Mars