On October 12th 1976 a new basilica was inaugurated in honor and in gratitude to the Patron Saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe, loved by the Mexican people. This basilica was designed by the Mexican architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez (died on April 16th 2012). It stands out by its hug spacious interior, generously decorated with bronze elements. The aesthetic value of these items even includes many signs and text inscriptions in a particular typeface and style, of which this font is a reinterpretation. The purpose of this project is to revival this eclesiastical written letter forms in bronze and taking them to digital format. I was inspired to this on my last trip to Mexico in September of 2012.

A 1970s Photolettering catalog indentified the pattern for this typeface as "Exotique" ...from France, no less. Named for a French expression meaning “pun,” this face is, indeed, witty and playful, with nary a groan in sight. Both versions of this font include the complete Unicode 1252 Latin and Unicode 1250 Central European character sets.

A set of astronomical signs  (symbolic representation of the Sun, the Moon, planets and other celestial bodies as well as zodiacal constellations, phases of the Moon, etc), signs of Chinese Zodiac and several ornamental symbols. Designed by Andrey Belonogov. The typeface (under the name Astra) was awarded a Diploma of TypeArt’05 Design Contest.