Kawak is a pretty stunning new typeface created by Javier Viramontes during his studies at the Type@Cooper postgraduate program and “mastered” by Latinotype Foundry. It somehow manages to look vibrantly contemporary and pleasingly retrograde at the same time. Viramontes writes:
Kawak is a Mexican Grotesk inspired by Mayan glyphs from the Tzolk’in ritual cycle. It marries modernist typographic tradition with pre-Hispanic formalism, creating a ‘mestizaje’ between cleanliness, readability, objectivity, and the Mayan super-ellipse.
Sometimes I think the goal of describing the ideas behind new typefaces is to sound as esoteric as possible, and Viramontes takes it to a whole new level by referencing concepts from an entirely different civilization. Nevertheless, that doesn’t take away from the fact that Kawak is a gorgeous accomplishment—especially its Black weight. Even better the complete family—for desktop and web—is available for less than US$90 right now at youworkforthem.com.