PampaType was founded in 2001 by Alejandro Lo Celso with the idea of developing fine typefaces with a singular Latin flavor. Alejandro has worked as an art director in Buenos Aires, a professor in Mexico, and has studied type design in Europe. “Naturally your education and your beliefs all travel with you and are present in everything you do,” he said in his Creative Characters interview. “I think my experiences have made me more aware of the cultural context of things. Typography is a universe of subtle differences. So you need sharp intellectual tools in order to deal with its huge variety.”

His letterforms are striking and adventurous; simultaneously useable and great fun. “A feature of our typefaces is that they usually include fonts for text, titling, ornamental use and other uses, all under the same umbrella family. I find this challenging — building a system that must remain consistent while adapting to different applications or constraints, and expressing a given spirit in all these situations. I think this is one of the most exciting aspects of the craft: reaching an equilibrium between the systematic and the organic, between uniformity and diversity.”

Several of his typefaces refer of extraordinary men of letters or literature such as Borges, which was inspired by the Argentinian poet Jorge Luis Borges; Arlt, named for Roberto Arlt; and Perec, inspired by french poet Georges Perec. “ There is a slight literary flavor to the designs as well as a very personal viewpoint in respect to the meaning of thoughts and words. Our dream is that these types will be used for significant texts, conveying significant meanings.”

PampaType aims at the excellence of texts which are meaningful and that convey perennial ideas. “It seems crucial to me to relate letterforms to their context of creation and use. Typography cannot escape the thoughts and aspirations of the practitioners of its time.”