Supermarché

Supermarché owes an inspirational debt to that outlier of the Gill Sans family, Gill Kayo. Added in 1936, many of its letterforms depart considerably from the original Gill Sans in order to accommodate the extra weight. Gill himself, it is said, thought of the design as something of a joke, and Robert Harling in an article in the 1937 Penrose Annual opines that “Kayo is a dismal type . . . typographical historians of 2000AD will find this odd outburst in Mr Gill’s career, and will spend much time attempting to track down his sad psychological state during 1936.” Despite these initial misgivings, Gill Kayo became very popular during the 1970s and 1980s when its quirks chimed with the times.

Supermarché revels in the eccentricities of the super-bold sans, while trying to apply the modicum of logic and consistency a modern font requires. The upright strokes come in two widths, seen to best effect in the H and n; the curved bottom strokes of the S, g and y are emboldened, and the oversized dots on the i and j push the top of the supporting strokes down to accommodate them. The Alternates feature circular counters and punctuation, and a cursive style lower-case g. 

Its robust shapes are particularly suited to shadows and distortions. Fun, unpretentious and impactful.