VCFA student Laura Rossi Garcia has been hard at work on a number of type designs in her third semester at VCFA, notably a text face inspired by the lettering of Puerto Rican artist and calligrapher Irene Delano.

Drawings for Laura Rossi Garcia’s Irene Typeface

Through her research and writing, Laura, a native Puerto Rican, has been exploring the intrinsic and extrinsic meanings, nuances and of what it means to be Puerto Rican as a designer and artist.

Drawings for Laura’s typeface Irene

In Laura’s words on the work of Irene Delano and her husband, Jack Delano:

An aspect I find interesting, specifically regarding the Delanos’ work, is their use of the island’s iconography and visual culture in their work, both thematically and aesthetically. They chose to use a pre-established decorative language, creating new meanings from existing meanings. I am realizing a lot of my interests are present in their work: propaganda, art, craft, and the decorative and how these relate to culture and design.

Working drawings for Irene Italic

Laura’s typeface designs are filled with details from hand lettering that we see sucked dry from much contemporary type design — a bit of the romantic baroque, spectacular ornaments, and detailed attention to ligatures and odd characters.

Laura’s typeface Irene in digital format.

Laura will be displaying her work in TypeCon‘s type gallery in Denver from August 12—16.latest Nike release | Shop: Nike