MD System is a typeface for general practice: a workhorse grotesque, combining a rational family layout with an appearance that embraces the human hand.
Originally released in 2020, this 2022 update realises the typeface’s namesake idea: a system of weights and widths, intended to suit the broadest possible variety of applications.
Designed by Rutherford Craze for Mass-Driver.
Thanks to Luke Charsley (as always), Tim Donaldson, Frank Grießhammer, and everyone who licensed the original MD System family.
MD System’s standard width is designed for running text and punchy titles alike. Its proportions are geared towards readability and an overall natural balance, rather than the rigid uniformity of many similar grotesque typefaces.
The Narrow width of MD System is designed to balance legibility with information density, keeping text readable while enabling richer interfaces and more complex layouts alike. That versatility lets it stand alone just as easily as it forms part of a complex design system.
For both high-density interfaces and high-impact headlines, MD System’s Condensed styles are the narrowest expression of the typeface’s design — as condensed as it can become without needing to flatten curves or simplify forms.
Horizontal proportions vary in reference to classical models, rather than the strict uniformity of more ‘mechanical’ neo-grotesques.
MD System’s stroke weights are optically balanced across styles, so text doesn’t appear bolder or lighter as the width changes.
A slightly oblique contrast axis makes shapes feel warmer and (counter-intuitively) more balanced than a perfectly upright one.
Stroke endings are angled, opening up counters and improving legibility at small sizes by ensuring similar letters are more distinct.
Width
Weight
ss01
ss02
ss03
ss11
ss12
tnum
onum
zero
smcp
c2sc
case
locl
locl
frac
ordn