Camden Market: Just Our Type

Font geeks, read on – here are five interesting facts about our revitalised typeface cut by Ragged Edge that references the history of Camden Market. 

It was never about a logo. We’ve got two typefaces, original to us: Camden Slab and Camden Sans. Both have a range of weights which feel distinctively Camden – strong, bold and distinctive – removing the need to plaster our logo everywhere.

It’s black and white. We don’t have a colour palette because we don’t need one. Our traders, street chefs, bar tenders, buskers and the thousands of people that pile onto our cobbles everyday are the colourful cacophony: they’re what gives us our character.

It’s an evolution, not a revolution. Camden has a long and rich history that we don’t want to forget. Our logo takes its inspiration from one of Camden’s most iconic landmarks: the lettering on Camden Lock rail bridge, hand-painted by street artist John Bulley in 1989. Its simplicity is, in part, practical. Bulley adapted a generic slab serif font, popularised in the mid-century, with 45 degree angles and perfect circles because they’re easier to paint when dangling from a rope.      

It’s punk. We didn’t invent our typefaces, we found them on the bridge, channelling the punk spirit. Because slab serif isn’t unique, we sometimes combine the two fonts to make them new, substituting the characters that make up the letters in the word ‘Camden’ for the equivalent weight in slab. Because, after all, Camden is about contrast.

And in true punk fashion, nothing goes to waste. If you scroll down, you can play with the shapes in the camdenmarket.com footer. They’re made up of the negative space from our logotype. Chuck them around, throw them at the ceiling, have some fun.