Darleneis a new effects pedal created byHeather Brown Electronicals. Brown describes its voicing as “intentionally neutral. No color, no smear. Just preserved dynamics with rich sustain, natural attack, and silent operation.” Designed byGraham McClanahan, this pedal goes all-in on typography. Nearly the entire face (!) of the pedal is occupied by the pedal’s name, typeset inFit. The letters are arranged in a 4×2 grid, with “DARLENE” set in Fit’s Normal width and “COMPRESSION” squeezed into the upper right cell, stretching the typeface to its narrowest, least-readable limit! The pedal’s dials have labels seton a circleinAvenir Next Condensed. Supplemental information on the side is Heather’s handwriting, digitized! I was actually scrolling Adobe fonts a while back and FIT stood out immediately, so I saved it and played around with it but didn’t really have an application. When I worked with Heather a few months later, we tried a lot of different artwork iterations and nothing really seemed right and then I stumbled upon FIT again. It was my first time using a variable typeface in print so it was a lot trial and error and fun. True to its name it just fits anywhere and has so many possibilities (I probably did over 50 different versions initially because it was so fun). Also this being a compression pedal FIT seemed natural here. Absolutely brilliantly crafted. Something that also worked so well is Heather was hoping to have someway to emphasize DAR on Darlene because of a family member’s nickname that inspired the theme/name of the pedal. This wasn’t really working with the other iterations we went through and we were ready to ditch it but with how flexible the layout possibilities are on FIT it was a huge win to incorporate that in the final. Most importantly David’s typeface carries the design so credit to his brilliance here and I’m excited to see more of what’s to come from him. As the font’s designer, I couldn’t be more thrilled with this application of Fit… this is the kind of thing it was born to do!
This typography communicates bold, unapologetic techno-craft authority — the confidence of a boutique maker who prioritizes function over convention. The massive, grid-locked type treatment suggests industrial precision meets artistic rebellion, perfectly matching a "neutral" compression pedal that lets the music speak for itself.
Fit's variable width capabilities are exploited masterfully here, with "DARLENE" in Normal width creating readable hierarchy while "COMPRESSION" pushed to extreme condensed limits mirrors the pedal's compression function. The typeface's geometric construction and consistent stroke weight maintain legibility even at maximum squeeze, while Avenir Next Condensed on the circular dials provides clean, technical contrast to Fit's more expressive personality.
The pairing creates perfect functional hierarchy — Fit dominates as the expressive brand voice while Avenir Next recedes into pure utility for interface elements. This isn't decorative typography competing for attention, but a purposeful system where the display font carries brand personality and the sans-serif handles wayfinding, mimicking the relationship between artistic vision and technical precision in audio equipment.