Slab Contrasted Elgi 9 is a very bold, very wide, medium contrast, upright, normal x-height font.
Keywords: posters, headlines, signage, logotypes, packaging, western, industrial, rugged, retro, assertive, impact, poster style, vintage cue, sign strength, decorative edge, beveled, octagonal, bracketed, blocky, compact.
A heavy, block-oriented slab design with broad proportions and clearly articulated, squared serifs. Strokes are mostly straight and planar, with corners frequently clipped into angled facets that give many forms an octagonal, beveled silhouette. Counters are small and tight, apertures tend to close quickly, and interior joins create chunky, high-ink intersections. The rhythm is punchy and unevenly textured across letters, with some glyphs feeling more condensed than others while maintaining consistent slab terminals and a sturdy baseline presence.
Best suited for display settings where strong presence is needed: posters, headlines, event graphics, and bold signage. It can also work for logotypes and packaging that want a vintage, rugged tone, especially when set with generous tracking or ample size to keep counters open.
The faceted slabs and dense black shapes evoke a frontier poster and woodtype sensibility, mixing a rugged, workmanlike attitude with a showbill-like boldness. The overall tone reads confident and emphatic, leaning toward vintage Americana and industrial signage rather than refined editorial typography.
The design appears intended to deliver maximum impact through dense weight, broad letterforms, and slab-like terminals, while the clipped corners add a distinctive decorative edge. It aims to reference historic poster and woodtype traditions with a sturdy, utilitarian feel.
At smaller sizes the tight counters and heavy joins can reduce differentiation between similar forms, while at display sizes the clipped corners and slab terminals become a defining decorative feature. Numerals follow the same chiseled, posterlike construction, reinforcing the font’s sign-paint and headline character.