Peter Bil'ak

2002

Fedra Bitmap Nine
Fedra Bitmap Nine Bold
Fedra Bitmap Eleven
Fedra Bitmap Eleven Bold
Fedra Bitmap Twelve
Fedra Bitmap Twelve Bold

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sales@typotheque.com

Fedra was originally commiss
ioned by Paris-based Ruedi Ba
ur Integral Design and develo
ped as a corporate font for
Bayerische Rück, a German in
surance company, as part of
their new visual identity. Ac
cording to the commissioner,
the objective was to "de-pro
testantize Univers', the typ
eface which Bayerische Rück

complete the typeface, a
dding extra weights and
expert fonts. Shortly bef
ore the planned release d
ate of the typeface, my s
tudio was broken into, an
d my computers and back¬
up system containing all t
he font data were stolen.
What initially seemed like
the ultimate designer's d

had been using since Otl ftiche
r designed their first uisual id
entity in the 1970s. The typef
ace reflects the original brief;
it humanises the communicat
ed message and adds simple, i
nformal elegance. The most ¡m
portant criterion was to crea
te a typeface which works eq
ually well on paper and on the
computer screen, and is consi

gner's disaster was actuall
y beneficial for Fedra. The i
ncident delayed its release
, allowing me to re-examin
e the early design decision
s, made under the assumpt¬
ion that the font would be
exclusive to the company
and never publicly available
. The new version is more
versatile, offering a wider

stent across all computer pia
tforms. After first versions of
the typeface were completed
and digitised, the project was
cancelled as Bayerische Rück
was acquired by another eve
n larger multinational corpora
tion. This put an early end to
the story of the custom fon
t. Since a lot of work had be
en done already, I decided to

range of fonts, a number о
f special typographic feat
ures (see opposite page), т
he spacing of the font was
altered, as well as the slop
e of the italics. Many chara
cters were redrawn creati
ng a more flexible type fam
ily. Fedra was originally co
mmissioned by Paris-based
Ruedi Baur integral Design

Peter BUM
2002

Fedra Bitmap contains corresponding
outlines tor printing in vector-based
applications.

Fedra Bitmap Etc

Peter Bil'ak
2002

Peter Bil'ak
2002

Bitmap i
outlines

www.typotheque.com

367