An independent archive of typography.
Topics
Formats
Typefaces

“¡Fiat Lux!” flyer

Contributed by Matthijs Sluiter on Sep 24th, 2023. Artwork published in
circa 1900
.
“¡Fiat Lux!” flyer
Source: lapatria.uy License: All Rights Reserved.

Fiat Lux!
The economic problem has been solved for the new year.

Do you want to know how? It won’t be a secret, because the reputable newspaper La Aurora will let you know. It will be enough for you to ask for samples of the cards, etc., which you will receive next Friday.

Crayon in use on a flyer from around 1900 found on the website La Patria, where designer Amijai Benderski collects early samples of Urugay’s presswork.

Apart from Crayon, the flyer uses three typefaces that are yet to be identified: most text is set in a striking Lombardic typeface, and some form of Modern/Scotch is used for the smaller type in the third line. The words “Fiat Lux!” (Latin for “Let there be light!”) are set in a script that is similar to the Inglesas Nuevas script typeface as offered by the Spanish foundry Gans.

“La Aurora” was a no unusual name for newspapers and periodicals in the 1800s and 1900s in Uruguay, see for example this newspaper and this literary review. Since Crayon was issued in 1886, the Anarchist periodical La Aurora (1889–1900) could be a candidate for the Aurora in which interested Uruguayans could find out more about how to solve next year’s financial problems.

Typefaces

  • unidentified typeface
  • Crayon
  • Modern/Scotch

Formats

Topics

Designers/Agencies

Artwork location

1 Comment on ““¡Fiat Lux!” flyer”

  1. The formal script and the Modern will be tough to track down – there are so many of those. But I’m curious to see whether we can find the Lombardic! Period typefaces in the same ballpark include Künstler-Gotisch and Faust Text.

Post a comment