New Letters Help Swiss Post Stay Clear and Familiar

Swiss Post wanted new letters that people would hardly notice. Swiss Typefaces spent more than three years making Swiss Post Sans. A font is a set of letters in one design. This one needed to work across many parts of daily life. The aim was clear reading rather than making every letter look unusual. The team also wanted the letters to feel warmer and friendlier.

The new font had to fit into designs that already existed. Staff needed to replace the old files without moving words or pictures. This meant keeping the space taken by the letters much the same. The letters also had to work in four different languages. These were German, French, Italian, and Romansh, Switzerland's four official languages. Each language needed its own marks and less common letters to work properly.

Numbers were another important part of the work for Swiss Post. Prices and travel times often appear in columns beside each other. The numbers needed equal widths so that these columns stayed straight. Swiss Post received early files and tested them in real situations. Experts helped check how the letters worked before the project was finished. The team also changed square dots above some letters into round ones.

Another part of the design allowed the team more freedom. Italics are letters that lean to one side on the page. The team gave these letters some shapes found in handwriting. They became a special part of Swiss Post's look in their own right. The letters now appear on signs, vehicles, websites, apps, and printed materials. The design shows how useful rules and a clear character can work together.