Fedra, a new sans serif font
Fedra Sans was originally commissioned by Paris-based Ruedi Baur Integral Design and developed as a corporate font for Bayerische Rück, a large German insurance company, as part of their new visual identity. According to the commissioner, the objective was to ‘de-protestantise Univers’, typeface which Bayerische Ruck has been using since Otl Aicher designed their first visual identity in the 1960s. The typeface reflects the original brief: it humanises the communicated message and adds simple, informal elegance. Another important criterion was to create a typeface that works equally well on paper as on the computer screen, which would allow smooth circulation of information in all available media, consistent across diverse computer platforms.
[sketch 01]
After first versions of the typeface were completed and digitised the project was cancelled as Bayerische Rück was acquired by yet another, bigger, more aggressive multinational corporation. This put an early end to the story of custom font.
[sketch 02]
Since a lot of work has been done already, I decided to complete the typeface, adding extra weights and expert fonts, optimise it for the computer screen, creating a truly contemporary font.

Shortly before planned release of the typeface, I had a studio break-in, and my computers and back-up system containing all the font data were stolen. This incident significantly delayed the publication, and allowed me to look more closely at some early design decisions made under an assumption that the font will never be publicly available. Spacing of the font was changed, as well as the angle of the italics. Many characters were redrawn creating a more flexible type family.

Fedra is taking into account vast possibilities of type usage today and has been designed accordingly. Because of its increased x-height, it functions well under severe circumstances such faxing and low-resolution printing. It remains also very legible on the computer screen, yet, it is the most beautiful in print.