[Versión en castellano] [Euskaraz]
The visual landscape of the Basque country
There is something in the visual landscape of the Basque Country that rarely goes unnoticed, even by those with no background in typography: the distinctive lettering style found on street signs, plaques, posters and shop signs throughout the region. Closely linked to traditional Basque lettering and serving as a source of inspiration for the Harri typeface, this graphic language is characterized by extremely heavy forms, bold strokes and an exaggerated glyph design that results in concave stems, sharp vertices and unconventional letter structures. Its rough, almost stone-like appearance recalls both vernacular sign painting and lapidary inscriptions found in traditional architecture, helping to explain its association with ideas of tradition, authenticity and Basque identity, as well as its contemporary reinterpretation through digital type design tools.
The genesis of the Harri typeface
Harri, as a typographic project, began on the day a client asked me to design a logo that would clearly be recognised as Basque. There was one firm restriction: to avoid the ‘Basque typeface’ typically used for cider houses and butcher shops. This was an obvious reference to the aforementioned Basque lettering style.
They definitely needed a more polished image, and I realised there was nothing I could use to meet their expectations. So there was a need and there was room for innovation, and I decided something had to be done. Years later, I defined Harri as a Basque “low-fat” typeface because it started as a light and refined version that contrasted strongly with the black, almost fat, letter forms typical of this style. The final project includes those black variants because they inspired both the overall design and the details of most of the characters, which show its unmistakable “Basqueness”.
The roots of the Basque lettering style
The research for the project and the design of Harri was conducted in the Basque Country. A defining characteristic of Basque people is their strong opinions on nationalism, regardless of their political views. As a result, it is almost impossible to talk about any Basque cultural instance without getting trapped in the discourse of nationalism vs. no-nationalism, which, let’s be serious, needs to be rephrased as myNationalism vs. yourNationalism. The origin of the Basque lettering style is also a point of contention. Some believe it is a vernacular style from the Basque Country, while others see it as an invention of nationalist movements in the early 20th century, dismissing it as nothing original or traditionally Basque.
What’s interesting is that, in my view, both views are equally flawed (or at least incomplete), which makes them complementary. It’s clear that nationalist movements fostered a visual system to reinforce their distinctiveness and presence in Basque society during the early 20th century. Typography, or better said, lettering, played a significant role in this endeavour. However, it’s undeniable that it wasn’t solely the invention of a nationalist organisation’s propaganda manager. Scholars, regardless of their stance on Basque nationalism, have pointed out clear sources of inspiration. These sources include ancient inscriptions carved on gravestones found in the French part of the Basque Country (Behe Nafarroa, Lapurdi, and Zuberoa), as well as some areas of the North of Navarra. These inscriptions, some of which date back to the 17th century, show influences from both contemporary and Romanesque inscriptions found throughout Europe.
Therefore, it’s easy to agree that it’s neither a relatively recent invention nor a deeply rooted and exclusively Basque manifestation. What I find original and unique is the way it has evolved from those origins. And the most remarkable fact in my view is how its use has spread all over the Basque Country as an identity conveyor. The fact that Basque people seem to feel identified by this lettering style, and moreover, the fact that people from other places associate those forms with a Basque origin, makes them convincingly Basque.
From carved letters to the era of OpenType fonts
Harri takes part of its significant features from those ancient inscriptions, in which letters are not incised but carved in relief. The fact that the space between letters must be removed results in heavier and less contrasting shapes, and gives rise to a series of interesting composition devices for space-saving (some of which are emulated in Harri using OpenType programming). Of course, the current widely-used shapes derived from them are taken into account but keeping always in sight their predecessors: the Romanesque inscriptions and ultimately the Roman Capitals, which influence their proportions. The central guideline is to create a refined yet distinctly Basque typeface, —something that my client would have been willing to use— and also to echo the peculiar evolution of this style through its weights, ranging from the clean formal Roman-inspired light to the extreme expressive Basque-style extra bold. Besides that, some space-saving techniques that make each stone carving unique are available as contextual alternates. Additionally, a range of stylistic sets allows for the modification of the shapes of key letters to emphasise or completely neutralise their Basque character.
The name “Harri”, meaning stone in The Basque language, is an homage to its roots.” Harri Text” is the new version of Harri designed for running text. It includes uppercase, lowercase, small caps, italics and a larger character set.
