Uxum 2.0 is a grotesk with a big personality

Deviating from the neutrality that many grotesk typefaces pride themselves on, Uxum – a “noisy” grotesk – has personality in abundance and a clear cultural voice.

The starting point, explains Designer & Coordinator Julien Fesquet, was a commissioned typeface based around Basque stone carving traditions. “Luc Chaissac (Producer), Vincent Lacombe (Type Designer), and I,” he tells us, “decided to refine it fully, rethinking the letterforms and considering how we can enrich the glyph set by making it more meaningful in relation to its origins.”

The trio aimed to develop a complete typeface that would include all the necessary glyphs and weights. They thoroughly investigated stone carvings in Roman heritage, and rather than simply copying traditional Basque letterforms or “reintroducing stereotype shapes like the A-bar”, they sought to understand the underlying principles and techniques that gave these characters their defining qualities.

Within the rich history of Bask (Basque) lettering, Fesquet explains that the unique forms of their letters stemmed from the fact that Basque engravers had limited carving skills; using only rough tools, they scraped the stone to create their designs.

While maintaining legibility, Uxum’s defining traits are its “breaking bubbly inktraps” and organic, curved shapes that resemble ‘Ductus’ (the flow or movement in handwriting) while still following grotesque typeface standards. Exaggerated overshoots appear in curved letters, which adds visual energy to words.

A unique “quirky R” serves as a statement piece for the typeface. Chaissac also highlights the atypical flicked spur of the ‘G’ and non-standard tail of the ‘Q,’ along with the playful double ‘g’ ligature that pushes the experimental nature of the typeface to its limits.

Instead of a uniform contrast, Uxum’s contrast varies with different font weights; as the weights increase in boldness, the characteristics of the letterforms become more pronounced. “The curves are more and more exaggerated, almost calligraphic instead of the strict, neutral diagonal,” Chaissac explains. “We do not prioritise absolute consistency across weights; the more the weight is, the more you can feel the contrast.”

Described by the trio as a “noisy” grotesque, Uxum brings a distinctive visual rhythm through its unique optical grey and full ligature set. The typeface’s curvy attitude and organic forms create what Lacombe describes as “black aberration” in text blocks, adding dynamic energy to typographic layouts.

“We envisioned Uxum as a playground where designers could create unique compositions and words, giving them the freedom to make their own decisions – whether bold or casual – while maintaining legibility and playfulness,” he notes. This is one reason why they believe it is a good fit for creating striking, memorable layouts in editorial contexts.

“We’d love to see designers using its extensive glyph set to create original layouts in magazines, books, and identity design – perhaps as creative wordmarks or in the fashion industry – with exaggerated typographic compositions,” Fesquet tells us. “Since we’ve also designed the Cyrillic alphabet, seeing compositions with those characters would be a real pleasure.”