ORA funky
ORA is a new generation electric car and a brand of the Chinese GWM automotive enterprise. As part of the ORA brand redesign headed by brand agency Jung von Matt/Brand Identity we designed the versatile »ORA funky« typeface family. The family consists of two optical sizes: One for text and one for headlines. The latter contains three styles, all in one font: Sans, Serif and Italic. While typing, clever OpenType technology automatically mixes these styles according to preset rules making live easy for designers using the typefaces.
Creative Direction: Anke Schmidt
Client design director: Moritz Thauer
One font, three styles
ORA uses a multi style typeface for headlines to create a lifestyle look. To make the typeface use as easy as possible we included the three styles (Sans, Serif and Italic) within one font. A smart OpenType algorithm varies the styles making it effortless for any designer to set the type according to the brand guidelines.
An extensive piece of OpenType code was written to facilitate a seamless type setting process of the three styles in coherence with the brand rules. Thanks to Ulrike Rausch from LiebeFonts for her masterful support.
The uppercase sans is loosely based on the very wide Antique Maigre 182 from Fonderie Haas (image credit: Dan Reynolds). The ORA typefaces turned out to be a bit narrower and much heavier and yet the forms drew inspiration from this beauty from 1864.
Wide or extended serif typefaces are rather uncommon. Most use the classic width proportions model with a combination of very narrow and wide letter forms. A more evenly distributed width can be found in classical typefaces such as Rosart or Baskerville (here: Rosart as showcased in Enschede Type Foundry specimen). The serif style of the ORA typefaces match their uppercase width with the sans so they can be combined.
The lowercase sans letters use elements with heightened stroke contrast referencing the serif typefaces. The diacritics use the same contrast adding a lively element to the design.
