Adrian Frutiger (born March 24, 1928) is the designer of some of the best known typefaces of the 20th century. Adrian is a type designer, a writer on the subject of symbols and forms, and a wood engraver. He has been involved in reworking both the type of designers past and his own work to accommodate new technology and to revamp his older typefaces. Although Frutiger is best known for his work on sans serif typefaces, he has done work on everything from Frutiger Stones to Westside, a decorative wild-west slab serif. Adrian often builds on the foundation he has laid with previous typefaces, like Univers. Frutiger’s career over the last 50 years has seen a number of technological advances that has changed the way type is made more than any other time in history. Frutiger began working with metal, as did Gutenberg, but now he is able to see his work in digital form. March 24 is the 83rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (84th in Leap years). ... 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... A sample of the Rockwell typeface, a slab serif font In typography, a slab serif (also called square serif or egyptian) typeface is a type of serif typeface characterized by thick, block-like serifs. ... Univers is a neo-grotesque, sans serif typeface designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1956 and released by the type foundry Deberny & Peignot in 1957. ...

Early life

Frutiger was born in the town of Interlaken, located in the Alps of Switzerland in a sheltered valley that fills with fog in the mornings. Adrian's father was an artisan weaver. (Carter, 157) As a child, Frutiger longed to achieve something great, to live in a massive city and make an impact on the world. Frutiger did not care for school. Not surprisingly in light of his future occupation, Adrian especially chafed at the way students were required to write - a script developed by an educator named Hullinger that required uncomfortable movement of the student's hand. At the age of 15, Adrian rebelled against this harsh style and tried to write in the flowing style of a novelist he idolized named Eberhart. (Traces) Frutiger was initially interested in sculpture and painting, but his teachers persuaded him to get involved with printing. (Carter, 157) Interlaken is a municipality in the Canton of Bern in Switzerland. ... The Swiss Alps are the central portion of the Alps mountain range that lies within Switzerland. ...

Formative years

At the age of 16, Frutiger was apprenticed as compositor to a printer in the nearby town of Interlaken for four years and attended classes at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts. (Rauri) Under the tutelage of Walter Kach from 1949 to 1951, students learned type design by rubbing forms from Roman inscriptions. The students then applied the knowledge learned from these ancient letterforms to their own type creations. The students came to realize that the way the inscriptions were made was an outline was applied with a pen, and then chiseled into the rock. When students were first learning to design typefaces, they used pens to create flowing letterforms. Then students moved on to work with pencil. No instruments, such as rulers were used- everything was done by eye, and corrections had to be made by scraping the markings off with a knife. Frutiger respected Kach, and felt he was a fine teacher that allowed many different views to be prevalent. However, the young student disagreed with his teacher on how technical and defined forms should be. Kach was a calligrapher, and thought because punch cutters used a grid their forms were too harsh and technical. (Traces) Movable metal type Typesetting involves the presentation of textual material in an aesthetic form on paper or some other media. ... Interlaken is a municipality in the Canton of Bern in Switzerland. ... Location within Switzerland   Zürich[?] (German pronunciation IPA: ; usually spelled Zurich in English) is the largest city in Switzerland (population: 366,145 in 2004; population of urban area: 1,091,732) and capital of the canton of Zürich. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) is a common year starting on Saturday. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Calligraphy in a Latin Bible of AD 1407 on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. ...

Career

Frutiger soon went to work for Charles Peignot at Deberny & Peignot in Paris in 1952, designing President, Phoebus and Ondine, (Carter, 159) and converting many classic typefaces over to a new technology, the Lumitype phototypesetting machine. (Traces) The Lumitype machine was the first European version of a phototypesetting machine. Phototypesetting machines replaced metal typesetting in the 1940s to the 1970s, and used a beam of light to expose film. The light passed through a transparent film with the characters printed on it, exposing only the area around the letters. The image was then developed and used to make plates for printing. Eventually phototypesetting became obsolete, replaced by image setters and laser printers. (Phototypesetting) Deberny & Peignot was a French type foundry, created by the 1923 merger of Peignot foundry and the Laurent & Deberny foundry. ... The Eiffel Tower, the international symbol of the city, with the skyscrapers of La Défense business district 3 miles behind. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... // Events and trends World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atomic bomb. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ...

Influences and philosophy

Frutiger's style was heavily impacted by the arts and crafts of the region he was born and grew up in. Even the lowliest farmer would make complex paper cutout and silhouettes. Frutiger believes that his appreciation for simple forms created by black and white was inherited from his people. Throughout all his career and writing, Frutiger emphasizes the duality of black and white. The form of the Yin and yang, perfectly balancing black and white impressed Frutiger, as did a French engineer who told him how computers work - 1 and 0, black and white, on and off. (Traces) Frutiger does not often use black ink and pens as most type designers do in the formation of letterforms. Frutiger prefers to cut, scratch or engrave the surface. He describes his process of creating letterforms like sculpture. “The white surface of the paper is taken to be ‘empty’, an inactive surface, despite the visible structures that are present. With the first appearance of a dot, a line, the empty surface is activated. A part, if only a small part, of the surface is thereby covered. With this procedure, the emptiness becomes white, or light, providing a contrast to the appearance of black. Light is recognizable only in comparison with shadow. The actual procedure in drawing or writing is basically not the addition of black but the removal of light. The sculptor's work also consists essentially of taking something away from the block of stone and in this manner forming it: the final sculpture is what remains of the material” (Rauri, ?) A professor of Frutiger's, Alfred Williman said: “Do not apply black but cover up white, so as to make the light of the white sheet active.” (Traces) Frutiger took this as his mantra. Frutiger normally uses very simple forms in his symbols, woodcuts and typefaces and believes that “the most important thing I have learned is that legibility and beauty stand close together and that type design, in its restraint, should be only felt but not perceived by the reader.” (Celebrating) Frutiger is certainly a renaissance man, and once said, “The great stroke of luck in my life is to have been blessed first with an artistic feeling for shapes and second with an easy grasp of technical processes and of mathematics.” (Carter, 163) Taoists Taijitu The concept of yin and yang (Traditional Chinese: 陰陽; Simplified Chinese: 阴阳; Pinyin: ; Korean hangul: 음양; hanja: 陰陽; revised: eumyang; McCune-Reischauer: Å­myang; Vietnamese: ) originates in ancient Chinese philosophy and metaphysics, which describes two primal opposing but complementary forces found in all things in the universe. ...

Work summary

Frutiger sample

Frutiger's first commercially released typeface was President, but the type designer considers Meridien his first “serious” type design, with his previous typefaces as only practice works. (Carter, 159) It is one of Frutiger's first Serif typefaces, designed in 1955. Meridien was based on the forms of 16th Century Jenson. Frutiger said of his design “As I designed Meridien, I wanted to avoid stiffness in the forms - I thought they should have a more natural line and flow. My main consideration was in creating a font which was both extremely legible and aesthetically pleasing.” (Meridien) Ondine, one of Frutiger's first typefaces for Deberny and Peignot, looks as though it was created with a calligraphy pen. Incredibly enough, it was made by cutting out black paper with scissors. To create the italic version, Frutiger obliques letterforms and trims off the distortion with scissors. (Traces) Although Ondine is certainly one of Adrian’s more “offbeat” Frutiger typefaces, it is used often. The name means “wavy” derived from the French word onde, for wave. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (404x900, 29 KB) Summary Sample of Adrian Frutigers typeface named after his name Licensing File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (404x900, 29 KB) Summary Sample of Adrian Frutigers typeface named after his name Licensing File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... In typography, serifs are the small features at the end of strokes within letters. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1957, one year before Helvetica was designed by Max Miedinger, Univers was designed by Adrian Frutiger. It is said that Univers is the most popular typeface ever designed. The basis for Univers was created while Frutiger was a student at Zurich. Charles Peignot’s foundry was working on converting their type library over to the new Lumitype machine. Originally, Peignot was going to transfer the house design to Futura, but Frutiger suggested designing an entirely new face, and Peignot consented. The result is a typeface that is boiled down to the basic essentials of form. Because of the new Lumitype technology, Adrian saw the potential to design a whole range of weights and styles, and pioneered a new way of referring to type styles. Instead of Universe Light Oblique, there is Univers 47. The first digit refers to the weight, the second to whether it is regular (5) oblique (6) or condensed (7), etc. Originally, the typeface was to be known as Monde, but since the design was to be promoted internationally, Univers was chosen. In 1995, a German bank decided to use Univers for its corporate identity. The company had a presence world wide, and the Univers family was not consistent across countries. Because of this, among other things, Linotype decided to rework the family, as had been done with Helvetica Neue. The designers in charge of the project contacted Frutiger to help them with the Ultra Light and Ultra Bold. Frutiger immensely enjoyed returning to the typeface that he created 40 years ago. Univers is also the basis for Serifa, and in turn, for Glypha. 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Helvetica is a typeface developed by Max Miedinger in 1957 for the Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei type foundry of Switzerland. ... Univers is a neo-grotesque, sans serif typeface designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1956 and released by the type foundry Deberny & Peignot in 1957. ... A sample of Futura Futura is a typeface, the prototype of the family of geometric sans-serif typefaces. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Frutiger is also well known for the typeface that bears his name. Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris needed signage that could be read easily from different angles. Frutiger was consulted for his input, and most expected he would use Univers. However, Frutiger considered the forms of Univers to be too round for legibility and instead used a typeface he designed for Orly Airport across town as the basis for Frutiger, released in 1976. (Carter, 161) The original typeface used for Charles de Gaulle airport was designed in a single weight only, and called Roissy. Frutiger, like Univers, has recently been revamped (especially the italics) and is called Frutiger NEXT. Pariss Charles de Gaulle International Airport (IATA: CDG, ICAO: LFPG) (French: Aéroport de Roissy-Charles de Gaulle), also known as Roissy Airport (or just Roissy in French), is one of Europes principal aviation centres, as well as Frances main international airport. ... Diagram of Orly airport Satellite view (in false colours) Orly Airport is an airport located in Orly and partially in Villeneuve-le-Roi, south of Paris, France (, ). It has flights to cities in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Caribbean. ... Frutiger, named after its Swiss designer Adrian Frutiger (born 1928), is a typeface, belonging to the sans-serif family. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1976 calendar). ...

In 1966, Frutiger was approached to come up with a more pleasing design for the optical character recognition typefaces in use for recognition by computers. Pioneered in America, OCR-A is very stylized and was not acceptable for the European market. Adrian successfully created a face that could be read by computer and look somewhat aesthetically pleasing. Frutiger is pleased to see current designers using this face in everything from its original intention to headlines. 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, involves computer software designed to translate images of typewritten text (usually captured by a scanner) into machine-editable text, or to translate pictures of characters into a standard encoding scheme representing them in (ASCII or Unicode). ...

Frutiger's most recent work on sans serif type includes Vectora and Avenir. In 1988, Frutiger completed Avenir. Avenir, meaning future, has a strong resemblance to Futura as both are highly geometric, but has the added benefit of having a full series of weights. In 1991, Frutiger finished work on Vectora. The design was based on Franklin Gothic and News Gothic, and as a result, the typeface has an extremely high x-height. Vectora is not often used, but it is distinctive and classy. 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In typography, the x-height or corpus size refers to the height of the lowercase letter x in any font, which is usually the same for a, c, e, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w, and z. ...

Versailles is a very geometric serif typeface designed for Linotype in 1984. The serifs are extremely triangular and sharp, and are based on late-nineteenth century French type designs. Because of the sharpness of the serifs, the typeface does not work well for body copy, but can be used for a very elegant and distinctive headline or logotype. Like Vectora, Versailles is not often used. 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Some of Frutiger's work that is more offbeat is seen in Herculanum. The typeface was designed as a part of a 1990 program called “Type before Gutenberg.” The typeface is named for the ancient Roman town Herculaneum buried by Mount Vesuvius. A striking similarity to his student work can be seen. Some other examples of his lesser known work include Frutiger Stones, Frutiger Symbols and Icone LT. Frutiger Stones is a particularly good look at how Frutiger believes black and white should be balanced. You would never guess this typeface came from the same mind that created Univers. This article is about the year. ... Herculaneum (in modern Italian formerly Resina, but since 1969 Ercolano) was an ancient Roman town of the Italian region of Campania. ... This article is about the volcano in Italy. ...

Frutiger now lives near Bern, Switzerland, and is primarily working with woodcuts. Location within Switzerland The city of Bern, English traditionally Berne (Bernese German Bärn , German Bern , French Berne , Italian Berna , Romansh Berna ), is the Bundesstadt (administrative capital) of Switzerland, and is the fourth most populous Swiss city (after Zürich, Geneva and Basel). ...

Frutiger's designs include:

• Meridien (1955)
• Egyptienne (1956)
• Univers (1957), a Grotesque or sans-serif type
• Serifa (1967)
• OCR-B (1968)
• Iridium (1975)
• Frutiger (designed 1975 for Charles de Gaulle Airport, issued by Linotype in 1976)
• Glypha (1979)
• Icone (1980)
• Breughel (1982)
• Versailles (1982)
• Avenir (1988)
• Vectora (1990)
• Linotype Didot (1991)

His career spans the eras of hot metal, phototypesetting, and digital typesetting. Univers is a neo-grotesque, sans serif typeface designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1956 and released by the type foundry Deberny & Peignot in 1957. ... When commonly used, grotesque means strange, fantastic, ugly or bizarre, and thus is often used to describe shapes and distorted forms such as Halloween masks or gargoyles on churches. ... In typography, serifs are the small features at the end of strokes within letters. ... Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, involves computer software designed to translate images of typewritten text (usually captured by a scanner) into machine-editable text, or to translate pictures of characters into a standard encoding scheme representing them in (ASCII or Unicode). ... Frutiger, named after its Swiss designer Adrian Frutiger (born 1928), is a typeface, belonging to the sans-serif family. ... Charles de Gaulle International Airport (French: A roport de Roissy-Charles de Gaulle), also known as Roissy Airport (or just Roissy in French), serving Paris, is one of Europes principal aviation centers, as well as Frances main international airport. ... Type metal is an alloy (usually lead, antimony, and tin) that is used in typesetting. ... Phototypesetting is a method of setting type with light (photo). ...

At 16, he started a four-year apprenticeship with a printing firm in Interlaken, Switzerland, while studying at the Zürich School of Arts. One of his projects was a design for a sans serif typeface—on which he subsequently based Univers. Interlaken is a municipality in the Canton of Bern in Switzerland. ... Location within Switzerland (help· info) (German pronunciation IPA: ; in English often Zurich, without the umlaut) is the largest city in Switzerland (population: 366,145 in 2004; population of urban area: 1,091,732) and capital of the canton of Zürich. ... In typography, a sans-serif or sans serif typeface is one that does not have the small features called serifs at the end of strokes. ...

In 1952, he joined the type foundry of Deberny and Peignot in Paris, France. There he oversaw the transfer of Roman types from hot metal to Lumitype phototypesetting. A type foundry is a company that produces and/or distributes typefaces. ... The Eiffel Tower, the international symbol of the city, with the skyscrapers of La Défense business district 3 miles behind. ...

In 1955, he designed his first major typeface, Meridien. In 1957, Univers, designed for phototypesetting and hot metal, established his reputation.