The GAUDI fonts are named for the great Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926). His visionary buildings in Barcelona are strangely biomorphic, all curves and intricate surfaces, often covered with broken-plate and -tile mosaics. Gaudí didn't invent that folk-art form (called "trencadís" in Catalan and "pique assiette" or "picassiette" in French) but his use of it on walls, benches, sculpture, even rooftops makes a simple craft sublime. Another wonderful example of this artform is the Maison Picassiette in Chartres by Raymond Isidore (1900-1964), though unknown to me when I made the fonts.

For my font, I've made rough-shaped letters composed of irregular-shaped tesserae (the pieces of a mosaic). I've also made a separate font representing the grouted space between the bits, and three other component fonts (colored red, yellow and blue in the illustration above, which can be layered and colored to create custom mosaic lettering. Or make the grout layer dark for a stained-glass effect.

	Each font includes capitals, punctuation, numbers, and international characters.
	The GAUDI fonts are available for $5. Try out the demo; if you like it, you can buy the complete set of 5 full fonts for $5 in TrueType or Type 1 for Mac or for Windows. Download demo for Mac | Download demo for Windows

More information:

• The dragon (above left) is in Gaudí's Parc Güell, which also features an amazing serpentine bench and other features that make it the original theme park of the 20th century.
• The cathedral (above right) is a detail of an exterior wall of Isidore's Maison Picassiette.
• My tile pattern was inspired in part by an electric shaver design.