Roger started as a redesign of a never digitalized “Large” style of Antique Olive, a famous family of typefaces made in the 1950s by French type designer Roger Excoffon. This style was designed as an extended, display companion for a classic Antique Olive, adding horizontal motion to its soft, organic aesthetics. It was drawn in one (medium weight) cut only. I began with redrawing the original shapes which I found in a Berthold Phototypesetting specimen from the 1970s – trying to smooth out some of its idiosyncrasies, to make it a contemporary display typeface. I got rid of a subtle reversed contrast on some of the letters as well as small organic details which I found unnecessary along the way. As the original had only basic 26 letters character set (in lower and uppercase with figures), I had to design all the rest by myself. Then I began adding extreme weights – an almost hairline “thin” and hefty “extra bold”. Through interpolation of those, 6 weights of the final typeface were created. Then I decided to add italics for each of the weights. Original Antique Olive never had true italics. They were always just a slanted version of an upright style, so there was nothing to build upon. I went for inspiration to humanist sans-serif italics, trying to accentuate the softness of the typeface with lively, almost calligraphic strokes. The resulting italics has only 6 degree angle, making it more of a stylistic version of the upright style. The final typeface with 12 styles was named Roger as an homage to Mr. Excoffon. It looks best when used as large as possible, catching attention on posters and in magazine headlines.