The visual identity for La Vida Era Más Corta emerged from a close reading of the album’s emotional landscape — its reflections on time, memory, and the fragile awareness of the present. Throughout the record, intimacy and rawness exist side by side, creating a quiet tension that called for a typographic voice capable of holding both restraint and exposure at once.
For the album by Milo J, type designer Javier Unknos developed a custom typeface built upon the structural foundation of his earlier design, Academic. From there, he expanded the system with an intricate network of ligatures, vertically shifting small caps, and expressive swashes activated through contextual alternates. The result is a custom typographic voice that subtly echoes the musical rhythms it accompanies.
Created in dialogue with Adrián Romero of Talleres la Visión, who led the album’s visual identity, the typeface functions as an active narrative layer within the project. In this conversation, Unknos reflects on shaping the type that doesn’t merely brand the album, but deepens its atmosphere — suggesting how custom type can become an essential part of an artist’s visual and emotional language.
Amber Weaver: Hi Javier, great to talk you again. Could you tell us more about the core concept of the album and how this informed the typeface’s customisations?
Javier Unknos: “La Vida Era Más Corta” is built around very personal ideas such as time, memory and the awareness of the present, with a clear intention to give value to roots and origin. These themes are deeply present in the work of Milo J and shape the emotional framework of the project. There’s a constant tension between something fragile and something very direct, almost raw. That contrast was important when thinking about the typeface. The customisations came from trying to translate that emotional balance into the letterforms, allowing the type to feel intimate and restrained in some moments, and more exposed or straightforward in others.
The idea was for the typography to sit naturally within the universe of the album and support its concept in a subtle way, not only visually but emotionally.
AW: What were some of the customisations?
JU: The typeface was developed as an expanded vision of my typeface “Academic”, which served as a solid structural foundation and a natural starting point for the project. From there, the work focused on developing an extensive ligature system and a full set of small caps positioned across different vertical alignments, upper, middle and lower. Alongside this, a series of dramatic swashes were introduced to emphasise the gestural quality present throughout the album’s visual and musical identity.
All of this is articulated through a complex system of contextual alternates that allows the typography to constantly shift, helping it move away from a rigid structure and preventing it from ever feeling monotonous, even when used repeatedly across different contexts. In that sense, the type behaves much like the music itself, where repetition exists, but nothing ever feels exactly the same.
AW: What sort of opportunities did you see to bring such a unique typographic voice to this album?
JU: The opportunity arose from understanding typography as part of the narrative rather than as a neutral or purely aesthetic element. From the beginning, there was a shared sensitivity around the tone and emotional weight of the project, which made it possible to approach type as a carrier of mood, rhythm and intention, working as another layer of storytelling alongside the visual identity. Working closely with my friend Adrián Romero from Talleres la Visión, who designed the album, this approach allowed the typeface to develop a clear and coherent voice within the album’s universe, while keeping the process organic and natural throughout.
AW: Should more artists look into developing custom type for their albums? If yes, what do you see as the benefits?
JU: I think it makes a lot of sense. The music industry, especially at an international level, is very demanding in terms of communication and consistency. A custom typeface works as a strong unifying element across all graphic outputs, even when different teams are involved. Beyond that, it helps build a coherent world around an album and gives it a visual voice that feels specific and intentional. When typography is developed alongside the music, it becomes part of the project’s language, something that can stay with it long after the release.
Discover Javier’s work on socials.
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