tipomap.lat

Combining aesthetic needs for identities, international wayfinding research,
and the extreme details needed for small text, Rubén Fontana’s Chaco font
family is an outrageously contemporary offering from classic roots. His solution
is a pitch-perfect typeface for identity and branding work, wayfinding, and
composing immersive reading texts.
Chaco began as a research project to solve specific wayfinding and roadway
signage problems in Argentina, expanding to become a signage system
based on the international standards of seven additional countries. Since
differentiating between easily-confused signs at a long distance or in small
sizes is such a major concern, many of its solutions account for this issue.
Chaco was designed with the rare ability to maintain internal space in word
composition, offer better performance, and avoid word shortenings that are
naturally illegible on a sign, without using the crutch of faux condensation.
After solving for large-scale use, great consideration was given to headings
and paragraph text to ensure Chaco met a bevy of common scenarios. These
refinements include narrower proportions overall, spacious internal angles,
and inktraps that are both functional and aesthetic to improve readability.
Particular attention was paid to the shape and proportions of the numerals to
differentiate them from small caps and capital letters, making alphanumeric
strings foolproof.
In addition to the traditional ligatures, the ‘ch’ digraph was specially
designed since it is a prominent sound in native South American languages.
Furthermore, with the intention of optimizing Chaco’s identity and distinction
in the font world, some vertical strokes have their weight reversed, which
reinforces its memorability.
The Chaco family features TypeTogether’s standard Latin character set, with
support for over 150 Latin-based languages, including Vietnamese. It has
a repertoire of seven weights plus matching italics that increase its ability
to compose headlines and texts for mass media, particularly newspapers
and periodicals. For those perfectionistic designers and editors who sweat
the details, we have included stylistic sets for regular caps and small caps
numerals that add serifs to create classic Roman numeral forms. And all the
arrows, symbols, icons, and geometric shapes match each of the typographic
weights for flawless integration across all media types.
Chaco is a full-fledged, multipurpose font created to optimise legibility even
in extremely poor reading conditions: distant road signage on foggy days,
increased word length in small spaces, memorable branding and identity
packages in crowded markets, and reversed-out color printing on imperfect
substrates. The bold and contemporary Chaco family has been designed to
convincingly succeed where so many other sans serifs flounder.