A while back in these pages I
raved about Cyrus Highsmith's serif font
Zocalo, developed for a Mexico city newspaper
El Universal.
I knew Iiked it a lot then . . . but I've recently begun using it on projects and I have absolutely fallen in love.
I weighed my choices carefully to start with --- there is a fine Zocalo Banner family, and a crushing, solid wonderful display (that gets spookily calligraphic in its heaviest italics) . . . but I have stuck to Zocalo Text Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold Italic in my initial play, and have found it absolutely charming and pleasurable to work with.
The text weights come with a fine Text L, which has a bit lacier and thinner thins, and I'm sometimes tempted to choose it . . . but in the pinch I've always settled on the Text Regular, which has a solidity and joy in sizes big to small.
I'm sure I'll use the other families at some point as well . . . but right now I don't need to I'm blissed out with the jus' plain Text.
How do I love it? Let me count the ways (or at least start to . . . I could go on all night!
Let's start with the most workaday of all letters the text lower case e. Look at that cheerful tilt of the counter. Is the counter itself even symmetrical or is the center slightly of gravity slightly pushing to the right, pushing ahead? My eye is pretty good, but not that good. If it's not, the delight I'm feeling comes from the off-of-vertical thick and thin of the top form. I also love the perfect muscle of the lower-left sweep of the character and its great parallel, chunky ending at the lower right. Sure, I get it: the human brain is only too eager to read two dots and a line as a face, and if this isn't a face in profile I'll eat my tie. But there's more to this than that that parlor trick. It's a plumb beautiful form.
The Bold and and Bold Italic little "e"s continue the cheerful slant and comely proportions. This time you can't tell me the Bold counter isn't leaning forward a little in excitement. But then look at the how the straight lines and hard corners liquify in the Bold Italic, while retaining the same spirit! It's such smart and sensitive design!
Then there's the wave-like negative space under the awning of the little "a" and its swoopy, liquid counter, so lovely!
Then there is the wedge opening up through the heart of the little "f", like everything in the font, pushing toward the right, accelerating, opening up . . . the gently triangle at the top of the "t" . . . and I'm always a sucker for the long "f" in italics . . . in fact I'm a partisan of the long little "s" of the 18th century and earlier. Gotta run and check of Highsmith's thought of that.
I literally could keep going . . . but I can't end even a short post with a look at the big and little "w"s from the Bold Italic, each of which is sculptural and solid and pleasing in its own right, but they are so witty together . . . and the little "w" is basically a one line joke, comically leaning and evaporating stage left, reader's right, like a cartoon character.
Anyway, thanks Cyrus!
