Altar’s typeface emerges from the need of a space to acquire a personality of its own.

The initial task was to create a corporate identity for an emblematic space of a Catalan city, which opens up to a new life and activity.

It is an ancient building (built around 1920) which, for over 60 years and having survived a civil war, has experienced multiple interventions, both inside and outside. As a result, the modernist airs it worn while it was the residence of a well-to-do family have been mostly wiped out.

When we visited space, we realized that there were no longer any great architectural elements that defined it, nor any particular style. This led us to look at other, more subtle details, such as the floral elements of the forge or the inscriptions of an old altar, which without anticipation would end up as part of a new type; the altar.

This discovery provided a whole new sense to the project.

In the process of investigating the new identity, we realized that the project required a personalized type that could transmit its character in a singular and representative way.

Inspired by the sculpted letters on a marble altar in the main room of the building, Altar Typeface has been designed to be the primary type of identity.

Altar is a hybrid typeface with two styles. Capitals and small caps in a single weight, with subtle and delicate serifs that refer to the incisions of the letters engraved on stone. A classical Roman with a more elegant touch.

Its stylized appearance with condensed proportions offers a set of forms that is characterized by its high contrast, the source also opens up a wide range of alternatives, ligatures and punctuation signs that reinforce its elegance.

These particularities serve as a typeface with sufficient elements for use in applications that go far beyond a simple identity. Thus generating an easily identifiable visual system regardless of the support in which it is applied.