Guess what I discovered: Galicia has its own font! You might recognise the typeface. You see it often in Galicia. I immediately thought it was typical Galician when I saw the font. I stumbled upon the font by chance while researching for my article about the Galician language. And even more coincidentally, the designer turned out to be an old acquaintance of mine.
The Galician font looks like this, and it’s called Uralita.
The font can be downloaded here for free.
I talked to the designer, Rubén Prol, about the font. His font is frequently used in Galicia, especially for promotional materials like posters and brochures, but also for signage of cafes and shops.
Rubén tells me that the font is based on old Romance scripts, like the ones you sometimes encounter in churches in Europe. At the beginning of the last century, this type of writing became popular in Galicia. The instigator of this was Alfonso Castelao, an illustrator and also a political figure; he was one of the founders of the Galician Nationalist Party.
Below is a drawing of Casteloa with the characteristic lettering.
At first glance, it seems strange, Casteloa as both an illustrator and a political figure. However, it turns out not to be so strange that characteristic letters are used in local expressions. Research by the Swedish scientist Johan Jarlehed from the University of Gothenburg shows that in Galicia (and the Basque Country), a characteristic typeface is often used in expressions related to the local culture (Read his paper here).
Examples of this are political propaganda, local venues like cafes, and local public institutions. The characteristic lettering is also widely used in commercial expressions where local authenticity is desired, see the examples below, including Estrella Galicia.
Examples of typical Galician typography
When I saw the Uralita font, I immediately thought of Galicia. The old Roman and Celtic feeling is often encountered in Galicia. Here are a few examples of that. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, all these expressions are related to emphasizing the local Galician culture.
(source: Johan Jarlehed)
What do you think of this font?
And do you also immediately associate it with Galicia?
