Mexica Roman

Mexica is a typographic tribute to Nahuatl, the tongue of the Aztecs, but also the lingua franca of ancient Mexico. ‘Mexica’ is not only the feminized, latinized form of the word ‘Mexico’, but also the name of the inhabitants of this place: the Me-xic-cah.

Nahuatl, when composed in the Latin alphabet, abounds in diagonal letter shapes: XYZ are ubiquitous in its classic orthography, just as KW are in its modern one. This visual feature is further enhanced by the absence of some rounded letters such as BDG that depict inexistent sounds in this millenarian tongue. Besides, Nahuatl is language with a tendency to form very long words that give the text quite a distinct appearance, unlike English, for instance, with its abundance of short words.

Mexica was designed to look well in all these contexts, and to perform as well as a contemporary, daring, stylish serif type family, with several weights for text and display composition. Further, its terminals and general structure —devoid almost completely of straight lines—are inspired by the angled architecture and ornamentation of the ancient city of Mexico- Tenochtitlan.

Mexica received an Award of Excellence at the Type Directors Club of New York annual competition.