Patriotic

Visual anatomy & craft review

Letterform structure
of Patriotic.

The word fills the width of the page and the face is a condensed sans taken to an extreme: the stems are heavy, the letters are three times taller than they are wide, the terminals are flat, the counters are short slots, and the A comes to a flat apex with a low crossbar. Because the letters are so narrow, a nine-letter word fits a single line at a size that would otherwise need two, which is the practical reason a face like this exists. The fitting is tight, so the word reads as a wall of vertical bars with notches, and the weight is even, with no contrast at all. A thin rule frames the composition, two small tracked capital lines sit inside it, and the palette is white on a deep navy. Patriotic is a display face for posters, apparel, signage and editorial banners, and it needs capitals at a large size and a dark or plain ground.

Condensed, tall, bold