Zócalo Text
Occupant Fonts · Cyrus Highsmith · 2006
A sturdy text serif by Cyrus Highsmith, rooted in Ionic newsface tradition and originally commissioned for the 2002 redesign of Mexico City's El Universal.
About
Designed in 2006 as the text-setting member of the Zócalo series, this face derives its compact, high-legibility proportions from Chauncey Griffith's Ionic No.5 while drawing character from Nicholas Kis's oldstyle and Highsmith's own impressions of México. The family runs to four styles — Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold Italic — with small caps, oldstyle figures, tabular figures and standard ligatures included. Part of a series that also extends to display and banner optical sizes.
Classification
Zócalo Text draws explicitly from Chauncey Griffith's Ionic No.5, a classic newspaper-optimised serif, giving it the sturdy low-contrast proportions characteristic of ionic newsfaces. The oldstyle influences of Nicholas Kis also inform its character.