Perpleja

Perpleja is an expressive display typeface designed by Ramiro Espinoza and based on a striking and anonymous Dutch logo from 1930 discovered in Dutch Moderne, the book by Steven Heller and Louise Fili. With its sharp angles, and dramatic tension, the original lettering captured the restless energy and paroxysm of early 20th-century Expressionism—a mood that Perpleja channels and expands into a full, contemporary alphabet.
The name, meaning “perplexed” in Spanish, reflects the typeface’s emotional ambiguity and visual intensity. Neither purely geometric nor purely organic, Perpleja thrives in the in-between: awkward yet elegant, raw yet intentional. Its aggressive angles and radical letterforms make it ideal for logos, album and book covers, posters, and projects that demand a powerful and unconventional voice.
By transforming a single forgotten wordmark into a functional contemporary font, Ramiro reclaimed a fragment of Dutch graphic history and turned it into a useful asset for modern graphic design.