Yes, of course, sorry. Some of these quotes come from your book, Dutch Type, unfortunately out of print. Other quotes come from a couple of Typophile threads and the rest were from Evert’s website, which seems to be down.

It’s interesting that he was disappointed with Balance. But I must say that almost everyone hates their early or ‘first’ work—all you see is the mistakes. I feel like this at times, I’m sure others do as well.

designing Legato, which is in some aspects a kind of Balance 2.0, had a lot to do with that dissatisfaction.

Of course what brings a master like Bloemsma personal dissatisfaction could still be considered a success for almost any other designer.

I used FF Balance as text and headline typeface for a book I wrote on a theatre pedagogy project aimed at young actors from Eastern Europe (Evert specially made a few CE-glyphs for the Czech and Croatian names). I found it an appropriate face to use because the book’s underlying themes were wilfulness and resourcefulness, themes that also apply to Evert’s practice.
Legibility, in something like 8,5pt Balance, was excellent but even at those small sizes the text looked idiosyncratic. I can confirm Rolf’s comment: Seeing these and other examples of the font in use, Evert grew increasingly unhappy about Balance. With hindsight, he found his first typeface ‘exaggerated’ and at times even considered withdrawing it. I felt that designing Legato, which is in some aspects a kind of Balance 2.0, had a lot to do with that dissatisfaction.

Jan