How traditional Mexican tilework found its voice in typography.

Talavera is a calligraphic type inspired by talavera tiles, most notably found in Mexican kitchens. The typeface is preferably used as a drop cap, used with another calligraphic font. I created each letter by hand, focusing on the letter anatomy and the structure of the tile designs. A challenge for this project was to create something structurally cohesive while not being too simple or too flashy. This project really taught me how to create a structured type, focusing on a balanced design for each part of the letter anatomy for the alphabet.

The ideation for this project started on paper, slowly making its way up to being made in Procreate once a design system for the letters was determined. The sketches were taken to Adobe Illustrator to be vectorized and formatted for a respective poster and zine. All documentation and the digital zine were made in InDesign.