Taverne Tour 2019
Taverne Tour is a hybrid between a music festival and a one-off event, showing local and international artists and groups in unusual places, specifically in the taverns of Mount Royal Avenue in Montreal, Canada.
It seems there isn’t a studio behind the designs of the posters, programs, VIP passes, and other materials of Taverne Tour 2019, but instead four independent designers. Perhaps because of that, we see quite a diverse and unexpected combination of typefaces being used throughout the materials.
Three typefaces were used for the materials, ranging widely in styles and years of creation. But despite the typefaces coming from different times, the combination of typefaces is surprisingly coherent and powerful—offering excellent contrast on the one hand, but also visual harmony. But even individually, each typeface used is exciting in their own right.
For display texts and some of the headings, Digestive by Jérémy Landes (Studio Triple) was used. Specifically, Digestive One, which is the second-most condensed width of the family. The typeface has been available since an early stage of development through FutureFonts, and has been surprisingly popular even before it recently was finalized and released through OH no Type Co. Okay, maybe not too surprising given that it’s an amazingly novel typeface, which is arguably Lovecraftian in style. The undulating shapes seem to cause discomfort and nausea to some, making it reminiscent of intoxication-based vertigo. Quite an excellent fit for a tavern festival, then!
The secondary typeface is Antique Olive by Roger Excoffon, released in 1962. It’s used mainly for the dates and a few other display texts (Antique Olive Black), but also functions as a text face (Antique Olive Roman) in some of the materials. Deemed to be too characterful by some at the time, that character is exactly why it’s still used today, and why it shines in the Taverne Tour materials. Despite being almost 60 years old Antique Olive Black used in all-caps looks anything but old and dusty.
The third and final typeface is Harbour by Gareth Hague (Alias), released in 1998. Specifically, Harbour Bold is used for headings and titles. The typeface is a mix of medieval and modern elements, but it seems to me that the references to medieval typography can mostly be found in the lowercase, which is used very sparingly in the Taverne Tour 2019 materials.
In fact, the prominent use of all caps with all three typefaces is probably what helps tie these three very disparate styles together into a coherent visual expression. Splendid work!
