Dear Typefamily,
I just wanted to let you know that those of you who can come to my Junior Type class tomorrow 12-3 (Room-304) are invited. You can also bring your brochures and posters just in case we have some space to exhibit them and for a possible participation in the type competition.
Olga
Monday, December 15, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Congratulations!
Dear Typefamily,
I want to thank you for a wonderful day full of fantastic performances, enthusiastic applauds, incredible inventions, exquisite executions, and all your passionate efforts to go to the very end with your ideas, no matter how long they had to take you to express, how many nights you had to sacrifice, how many frustrations you had to go through in order for your creations to shine today so brightly. It was overwhelmingly rich! I am so impressed by you and I am so priviledged to be included in your typefamily.
Stay warm and enjoy your Winter break,
Olga
I want to thank you for a wonderful day full of fantastic performances, enthusiastic applauds, incredible inventions, exquisite executions, and all your passionate efforts to go to the very end with your ideas, no matter how long they had to take you to express, how many nights you had to sacrifice, how many frustrations you had to go through in order for your creations to shine today so brightly. It was overwhelmingly rich! I am so impressed by you and I am so priviledged to be included in your typefamily.
Stay warm and enjoy your Winter break,
Olga
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
LoF Posters With Hair
Hey Typefam:
So I definitely deserve a spanking for taking my sweet time with things.. but it's coming along.
Here are 2 versions of my lord of the flies poster.. I did one conservative and the other more freehand.
Let me know any thoughts.
I also am planning on using my printer to print it on rough edged, tannish paper with hairy texture in it, and mounting it on board.
good luck to all!
jared
erik spiekermann banner
Here is the inside of the banner. I still am working on the cover of it. The banner will open like a window with the two flaps opening from the middle.-Seiji H.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Brochure design for Tobias Frere-jones
Hi guys..
This is YJ..
These are my brochure design for Tobias Frere-Jones..
I treated first pages (Bottom left) as a newspaper on purpose.
So, people are less interest on the first pages and get surprised when they open the pages.
Please give me a feedback..
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Claude Garamond (Caractere de l’Universite!)
Claude Garamond, French type founder who was born in 1480 and dead in 1561, living during the period called as “Gold age of French typography”. Garamond was disciple of Simon de Colines, later he was assistant of Geoffroy Tory, who was concerned with human proportions and those of the ancient majuscules, as well as their mutual relation. He was an independent punch cutter whose fonts appearing in books from Paris in the 1530 achieved a high standard excellence. Garamond came to prominence in1540 when he was commissioned to create a typeface for the French King Francis I, to be used in a series of books by Robert Estiene. Claude Garamond created for that a typeface based on Aldus Manutius’ works and Angelo Vergecio’s handwriting.
The French curt adopted Garamond’s Roman types for their printing and the typeface influenced type across France and Western Europe. When Claude Garamond died in 1561, his punches and matrices were sold to Christopher Plantin in Antwerp, which enabled the Garamond fonts be used on many printers. The typefaces called Garamond, Granjon and Sabon show his influence.
In 1621, sixty years after Garamond’s death, the French printer Kean Jannon issued a specimen of typefaces that had some characteristics similar to the Garamond designs, though his letters were more asymmetrical and irregular in some of the letter parts. After the French government had raided Jannon’s printing office, Cardinal Richelieu named Jannon’s type as “Caractere de l’Universite” (Typeface of the texts), and it became the house style of Royal Printing Office.
In 1825 the French National Printing Office adapted the type used by Royal Printing Office in the past, and claimed the type as the work of Claude Garamond.
In 1919, Thomas Maitland Cleland and Morris Fuller Benton produced the first 20th Century commercial Garamond based on the Janno’s design, called Garamond#3.
These are some of the characteristics of the Garamond typeface:
Serifs: In the upper case they are long but they appearance is shorter because thei blend softly into the main stem, clear example of this is the letter “M”. Otherwise, in the lower case, the top of upright stems and ascenders are slanted wedges, and the bottoms serifs are square with the bate line.
Stress: In the rounded cap letters, the stress is in the horizontal middle, while in certain letters (“c”, “d” or “e”) the stress is in the diagonal.
It has another single characteristics: Pointed apex of the “A”, and it also has a high crossbar; elongated swash of the “J” which terminates in an ovular ball; slightly splayed “M; cat’s tail of the “Q” and cross over the “W”; large counters in the “a” and the “e”, which also has a horizontal crossbar; ascenders and descenders are long; the letter “f” has a srong hook; most top serifs slope downward toward the left and the influence of calligraphy is evident.
Claude Garamond created only one typeface, but after his, and Jean Janonn’s jobs, several typefaces were created. These are:
- Garamond #3 (Adobe Garamond)
- Garamond #3 Italic
- Garamond #3 Bold
- Garamond #3 Bold Italic
- Garamond Light
- Garamond Light Italic
- Garamond Book
- Garamond Book Italic
- Garamond Bold
- Garamond Bold Italic
- Garamond Ultra
- Garamond Ultra Italic
- Garamond Light Condensed
- Garamond Light Condensed Italic
- Garamond Book Condensed
- Garamond Book Condensed Italic
- Garamond Bold Condensed
- Garamond Bold Condensed Italic
- Garamond Ultra Condensed
- Garamond Ultra Condensed Italic
The Garamond typeface is known because of its high legibility and it has been used in all the American J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter books.
My raven and I say goodnight!
x
The French curt adopted Garamond’s Roman types for their printing and the typeface influenced type across France and Western Europe. When Claude Garamond died in 1561, his punches and matrices were sold to Christopher Plantin in Antwerp, which enabled the Garamond fonts be used on many printers. The typefaces called Garamond, Granjon and Sabon show his influence.
In 1621, sixty years after Garamond’s death, the French printer Kean Jannon issued a specimen of typefaces that had some characteristics similar to the Garamond designs, though his letters were more asymmetrical and irregular in some of the letter parts. After the French government had raided Jannon’s printing office, Cardinal Richelieu named Jannon’s type as “Caractere de l’Universite” (Typeface of the texts), and it became the house style of Royal Printing Office.
In 1825 the French National Printing Office adapted the type used by Royal Printing Office in the past, and claimed the type as the work of Claude Garamond.
In 1919, Thomas Maitland Cleland and Morris Fuller Benton produced the first 20th Century commercial Garamond based on the Janno’s design, called Garamond#3.
These are some of the characteristics of the Garamond typeface:
Serifs: In the upper case they are long but they appearance is shorter because thei blend softly into the main stem, clear example of this is the letter “M”. Otherwise, in the lower case, the top of upright stems and ascenders are slanted wedges, and the bottoms serifs are square with the bate line.
Stress: In the rounded cap letters, the stress is in the horizontal middle, while in certain letters (“c”, “d” or “e”) the stress is in the diagonal.
It has another single characteristics: Pointed apex of the “A”, and it also has a high crossbar; elongated swash of the “J” which terminates in an ovular ball; slightly splayed “M; cat’s tail of the “Q” and cross over the “W”; large counters in the “a” and the “e”, which also has a horizontal crossbar; ascenders and descenders are long; the letter “f” has a srong hook; most top serifs slope downward toward the left and the influence of calligraphy is evident.
Claude Garamond created only one typeface, but after his, and Jean Janonn’s jobs, several typefaces were created. These are:
- Garamond #3 (Adobe Garamond)
- Garamond #3 Italic
- Garamond #3 Bold
- Garamond #3 Bold Italic
- Garamond Light
- Garamond Light Italic
- Garamond Book
- Garamond Book Italic
- Garamond Bold
- Garamond Bold Italic
- Garamond Ultra
- Garamond Ultra Italic
- Garamond Light Condensed
- Garamond Light Condensed Italic
- Garamond Book Condensed
- Garamond Book Condensed Italic
- Garamond Bold Condensed
- Garamond Bold Condensed Italic
- Garamond Ultra Condensed
- Garamond Ultra Condensed Italic
The Garamond typeface is known because of its high legibility and it has been used in all the American J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter books.
My raven and I say goodnight!
x
Tobias Frere Jones
Tobias Frere-Jones was born in New York City in 1970. After receiving his BFA in 1992 from Rhode Island School of Design, Frere-Jones joined Font Bureau, Inc. in Boston. During his seven years as Senior Designer, he created a number of the typefaces that are Font Bureau’s best known, including Interstate and Poynter Oldstyle & Gothic. He joined the faculty of the Yale School of Art in 1996, where he continues to teach typeface design on the graduate level. In 1999, he left Font Bureau to return to New York, where he began work with Jonathan Hoefler. Since working together, the two have collaborated on projects for The Wall Street Journal, Martha Stewart Living, Nike, Pentagram, GQ, Esquire, The New Times, Business 2.0, and The New York Times Magazine.
He has designed over five hundred typefaces for retail publication, custom clients, and experimental research. His clients have included The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Cooper-Hewitt Museum, The Whitney Museum, The American Institute of Graphic Arts Journal, and Neville Brody. He has lectured at Rhode Island School of Design, Yale School of Art, Pratt Institute, Royal College of Art, and Universidad de las Americas. His work has been featured in How, ID, Page, and Print, and is included in the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. In 2006, Frere-Jones became the first American to receive the Gerrit Noordzij Award, presented by the Royal Academy of The Hague in honor of his unique contributions to type design, typography, and type education.
He is perhaps best known as the designer of Interstate, another sans serif typeface with industrial roots. First released in 1994, Interstate was based loosely on the font family Highway Gothic, used by the United States Federal Highway Administration for road signs. Despite the specificity of its origins, Interstate was embraced universally by graphic designers and has been used on most everything, including the 2000 U.S. Census. It is the most prominent result of the designer’s continuing interest in what he calls working class lettering. This interest began while he was a student at the Rhode Island School of Design where he designed the typeface Garage Gothic based on the typography of parking garage tickets. After graduating, Frere-Jones joined the digital type-foundry Font Bureau who had already released Garage Gothic. There he designed typefaces in every style, but continued his exploration of vernacular lettering with Interstate and another typeface, Pilsner, based on a French beer label. With these typefaces Frere-Jones preserves the humble letters that inspire them and creates type that resonates with life outside of typography and graphic design.
A native New Yorker, Frere-Jones’s work is as connected to his hometown as the name of his latest design. In fact, he has undertaken the task of ‘documenting anything extant and noteworthy’ in Manhattan. Gotham was inspired by a variety of unassuming, often derelict signs originally carved, painted, rendered in neon, and cast in steel or bronze on the facades of buildings throughout New York. It took an intimate knowledge of the city to see the formal and historical connections between these varied letterforms, but also a humble respect for metropolitan history to focus on such an unglamorous aspect of New York. By focusing on the mundane – even decrepit – corners of his environment with Gotham, Frere-Jones has created a typeface that carries with it the disorienting bustle of a walk in the city – the sense of being engulfed by a history that remains just out of reach.
At what point in the process did the inspiration for Gotham assert itself? Do you study the source material only initially or is it a constant resource?
It was always close by, and required a lot of (literal) legwork as we moved through the character set. We were pretty well informed about the caps, needed to search around to understand the figures, and went searching (in vain, ultimately) for lowercase sources. This was the start of the photo excursions that I make almost every weekend now.
When asked if the world really needs any more typefaces, he replied, “The day we stop needing new type will be the same day that we stop needing new stories and new songs.”
Why did you choose to focus on such a blue-collar form of New York lettering?
I suppose there’s a hidden personal agenda in the design, to preserve those pieces of New York that could be wiped out before they’re appreciated. Having grown up here, I was always fond of the ‘old’ (or just older) New York and its lettering. After watching one of the most distinctive features of the city being destroyed last fall, it seemed more urgent to protect the original ‘character’ of the city, both in the sense of letters and personality. After collecting material for Gotham, I set myself the task of walking every last block of Manhattan with a camera, and recording anything extant and noteworthy.
How did the process of designing Gotham relate to some of the other projects HTF has done related to New York City?
The projects for Grand Central and Lever House had what we sometimes call a ‘forensic’ aspect, in that they called for the reconstruction of something lost, or the completion of something partial. In these cases, we used historical photos and records to suss out the original motives we’d need to follow. (Not unlike those serial killer profilers, but without all the, you know, killing and stuff.)
Jonathan’s work for the Guggenheim and for Radio City certainly started with existing forms, but weren’t quite as obligated to them, as their new application had to go well past the original. The typefaces for The Wall Street Journal and The Whitney Museum were outright new constructions, but both meant to acknowledge what had existed before them.
Were you interested in designing Gotham for use in building signage?
Though it wasn’t part of any brief from the client or ourselves, I always figured that the finished typeface could come back full circle to signage. While it’s not as blatant as Bell Gothic and other designs, Gotham builds its esthetic directly out of the pressures of its environment. (Incidentally, designer William Addison Dwiggins was a master at turning the necessary into the desirable, though his circumstances were quite different – faces like Caledonia become only more impressive when you know what he was up against.)
What piece of music most closely resembles the process of type design?
Yow. Hm. While I’m not sure I could pick out a single piece, I think most anything by Autechre would come pretty close, as those guys seem to work on very large and very small scales simultaneously. And even their most startling and disorienting pieces sound deliberate and carefully planned. I could also have an unfair bias, as I listen to them quite often while drawing.
How does designing a typeface that is self-initiated differ from designing one that is commissioned?
Two of the designs that I’m most pleased with – Whitney and Gotham – wouldn’t have happened if somebody hadn’t asked for them. Those parts of the spectrum – the humanist and the geometric – had already been thoroughly staked out and developed by past designers. I didn’t think that anything new could have been found there, but luckily for me (and the client), I was mistaken. The best custom jobs will push me to take on a problem that I hadn’t considered before, or to reexamine what I had regarded as the final word for a given motif.
How would you approach creating a typeface based on typography and graphic design of the recent past – say the mid-1990’s?
Given how quickly Interstate gained currency with designers, I’m really not sure how I’d handle that. My first thought is that it would be like trying to call myself on the telephone: ‘What? How come I always get a busy signal? Who could I possibly be talking to?’
What sort of creative or research projects do you work on outside of type design?
Music (or sound, generally) is definitely the largest activity aside from design. It gets sidelined by work now and then, but I like to stay close to that way of thinking.
What is the absolute worst use you could think of for Gotham, and what kind of sick pleasure would you take in seeing it used just that way?
With Gotham’s origin – and my own stubborn opinions – I think that anywhere in the suburban sprawl would be the worst place for it: advertising for featureless subdivisions, the specials board at the Exit 23 Dairy Queen, bumper stickers that say ‘I [heart] my SUV’ and so on.
Tobias Frere-Jones’ types include:
Armada, 1987–94
Dolores, 1990
Hightower, 1990–94
Nobel, 1991–93
Garage Gothic, 1992
Archipelago, 1992–98
Cafeteria, 1993
Epitaph, 1993
Reactor, 1993–96
Reiner Script, 1993
Stereo, 1993
Interstate, 1993–99
Fibonacci, 1994
Niagara, 1994
Asphalt, 1995
MSL Gothic (Benton Sans), 1995
Citadel, 1995
Microphone, 1995
Pilsner, 1995
Poynter Oldstyle, 1996–97
Poynter Gothic, 1997
Griffith Gothic, 1997
Whitney, 1996-2004
Numbers (with Jonathan Hoefler), 1997–2006
Phemister, 1997
Grand Central, 1998
Welo Script, 1998
Mercury Text (with Jonathan Hoefler), 1999
Vitesse (with Jonathan Hoefler), 2000
Lever Sans (with Jonathan Hoefler), 2000
Evolution (with Jonathan Hoefler), 2000
Retina, 2000
Nitro, 2001
Surveyor, 2001
Archer (with Jonathan Hoefler and Jesse Ragan), 2001
Gotham, 2001
Idlewild, 2002
Exchange, 2002
Monarch, 2003
Dulcet, 2003
Tungsten, 2004
Argosy, 2004
He has designed over five hundred typefaces for retail publication, custom clients, and experimental research. His clients have included The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Cooper-Hewitt Museum, The Whitney Museum, The American Institute of Graphic Arts Journal, and Neville Brody. He has lectured at Rhode Island School of Design, Yale School of Art, Pratt Institute, Royal College of Art, and Universidad de las Americas. His work has been featured in How, ID, Page, and Print, and is included in the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. In 2006, Frere-Jones became the first American to receive the Gerrit Noordzij Award, presented by the Royal Academy of The Hague in honor of his unique contributions to type design, typography, and type education.
He is perhaps best known as the designer of Interstate, another sans serif typeface with industrial roots. First released in 1994, Interstate was based loosely on the font family Highway Gothic, used by the United States Federal Highway Administration for road signs. Despite the specificity of its origins, Interstate was embraced universally by graphic designers and has been used on most everything, including the 2000 U.S. Census. It is the most prominent result of the designer’s continuing interest in what he calls working class lettering. This interest began while he was a student at the Rhode Island School of Design where he designed the typeface Garage Gothic based on the typography of parking garage tickets. After graduating, Frere-Jones joined the digital type-foundry Font Bureau who had already released Garage Gothic. There he designed typefaces in every style, but continued his exploration of vernacular lettering with Interstate and another typeface, Pilsner, based on a French beer label. With these typefaces Frere-Jones preserves the humble letters that inspire them and creates type that resonates with life outside of typography and graphic design.
A native New Yorker, Frere-Jones’s work is as connected to his hometown as the name of his latest design. In fact, he has undertaken the task of ‘documenting anything extant and noteworthy’ in Manhattan. Gotham was inspired by a variety of unassuming, often derelict signs originally carved, painted, rendered in neon, and cast in steel or bronze on the facades of buildings throughout New York. It took an intimate knowledge of the city to see the formal and historical connections between these varied letterforms, but also a humble respect for metropolitan history to focus on such an unglamorous aspect of New York. By focusing on the mundane – even decrepit – corners of his environment with Gotham, Frere-Jones has created a typeface that carries with it the disorienting bustle of a walk in the city – the sense of being engulfed by a history that remains just out of reach.
At what point in the process did the inspiration for Gotham assert itself? Do you study the source material only initially or is it a constant resource?
It was always close by, and required a lot of (literal) legwork as we moved through the character set. We were pretty well informed about the caps, needed to search around to understand the figures, and went searching (in vain, ultimately) for lowercase sources. This was the start of the photo excursions that I make almost every weekend now.
When asked if the world really needs any more typefaces, he replied, “The day we stop needing new type will be the same day that we stop needing new stories and new songs.”
Why did you choose to focus on such a blue-collar form of New York lettering?
I suppose there’s a hidden personal agenda in the design, to preserve those pieces of New York that could be wiped out before they’re appreciated. Having grown up here, I was always fond of the ‘old’ (or just older) New York and its lettering. After watching one of the most distinctive features of the city being destroyed last fall, it seemed more urgent to protect the original ‘character’ of the city, both in the sense of letters and personality. After collecting material for Gotham, I set myself the task of walking every last block of Manhattan with a camera, and recording anything extant and noteworthy.
How did the process of designing Gotham relate to some of the other projects HTF has done related to New York City?
The projects for Grand Central and Lever House had what we sometimes call a ‘forensic’ aspect, in that they called for the reconstruction of something lost, or the completion of something partial. In these cases, we used historical photos and records to suss out the original motives we’d need to follow. (Not unlike those serial killer profilers, but without all the, you know, killing and stuff.)
Jonathan’s work for the Guggenheim and for Radio City certainly started with existing forms, but weren’t quite as obligated to them, as their new application had to go well past the original. The typefaces for The Wall Street Journal and The Whitney Museum were outright new constructions, but both meant to acknowledge what had existed before them.
Were you interested in designing Gotham for use in building signage?
Though it wasn’t part of any brief from the client or ourselves, I always figured that the finished typeface could come back full circle to signage. While it’s not as blatant as Bell Gothic and other designs, Gotham builds its esthetic directly out of the pressures of its environment. (Incidentally, designer William Addison Dwiggins was a master at turning the necessary into the desirable, though his circumstances were quite different – faces like Caledonia become only more impressive when you know what he was up against.)
What piece of music most closely resembles the process of type design?
Yow. Hm. While I’m not sure I could pick out a single piece, I think most anything by Autechre would come pretty close, as those guys seem to work on very large and very small scales simultaneously. And even their most startling and disorienting pieces sound deliberate and carefully planned. I could also have an unfair bias, as I listen to them quite often while drawing.
How does designing a typeface that is self-initiated differ from designing one that is commissioned?
Two of the designs that I’m most pleased with – Whitney and Gotham – wouldn’t have happened if somebody hadn’t asked for them. Those parts of the spectrum – the humanist and the geometric – had already been thoroughly staked out and developed by past designers. I didn’t think that anything new could have been found there, but luckily for me (and the client), I was mistaken. The best custom jobs will push me to take on a problem that I hadn’t considered before, or to reexamine what I had regarded as the final word for a given motif.
How would you approach creating a typeface based on typography and graphic design of the recent past – say the mid-1990’s?
Given how quickly Interstate gained currency with designers, I’m really not sure how I’d handle that. My first thought is that it would be like trying to call myself on the telephone: ‘What? How come I always get a busy signal? Who could I possibly be talking to?’
What sort of creative or research projects do you work on outside of type design?
Music (or sound, generally) is definitely the largest activity aside from design. It gets sidelined by work now and then, but I like to stay close to that way of thinking.
What is the absolute worst use you could think of for Gotham, and what kind of sick pleasure would you take in seeing it used just that way?
With Gotham’s origin – and my own stubborn opinions – I think that anywhere in the suburban sprawl would be the worst place for it: advertising for featureless subdivisions, the specials board at the Exit 23 Dairy Queen, bumper stickers that say ‘I [heart] my SUV’ and so on.
Tobias Frere-Jones’ types include:
Armada, 1987–94
Dolores, 1990
Hightower, 1990–94
Nobel, 1991–93
Garage Gothic, 1992
Archipelago, 1992–98
Cafeteria, 1993
Epitaph, 1993
Reactor, 1993–96
Reiner Script, 1993
Stereo, 1993
Interstate, 1993–99
Fibonacci, 1994
Niagara, 1994
Asphalt, 1995
MSL Gothic (Benton Sans), 1995
Citadel, 1995
Microphone, 1995
Pilsner, 1995
Poynter Oldstyle, 1996–97
Poynter Gothic, 1997
Griffith Gothic, 1997
Whitney, 1996-2004
Numbers (with Jonathan Hoefler), 1997–2006
Phemister, 1997
Grand Central, 1998
Welo Script, 1998
Mercury Text (with Jonathan Hoefler), 1999
Vitesse (with Jonathan Hoefler), 2000
Lever Sans (with Jonathan Hoefler), 2000
Evolution (with Jonathan Hoefler), 2000
Retina, 2000
Nitro, 2001
Surveyor, 2001
Archer (with Jonathan Hoefler and Jesse Ragan), 2001
Gotham, 2001
Idlewild, 2002
Exchange, 2002
Monarch, 2003
Dulcet, 2003
Tungsten, 2004
Argosy, 2004
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Adrian Frutiger
Quote:
"I first experienced the power of type to make the whole intellectual world readable with the same letters in the days of metal. This awakened in me the urge to develop the best possible legibility. The time soon came when texts were no longer set in metal types but by means of a beam of light. The task of adapting the typefaces of the old masters from relief type to flat film was my best school. When we came to the "Grotesk" style of sanserif, however, I had my own ideas which led to the Univers™ family. Technological progress was rapid. Electronic transfer of images brought the stepping, followed by my feelings for form. But today, with curve programs and laser exposure, it seems to me that the way through the desert has been completed.
From all these experiences 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. In the course of my professional life I have aquired knowledge and manual skill. To pass on what I had learned and achieved to the next generation became a necessity."
-Frutiger
Typefaces Designed by Frutiger:
• President (1952) Although often disregarded, this was Frutiger’s first commercially released typeface, by the Deberny & Peignot type foundry. The typeface was crucial in Frutiger’s development as a designer and taught him much about letterforms that he applied to his future designs.
• Phoebus (1953)
• Ondine (1954)
• Méridien (1955) Méridien is considered to be Frutiger’s first significant typeface, and inspired by 16th-century Jenson.
• Egyptienne (1956) This is a slab-serif face designed right before he designed Univers, and has many resemblances to the style of Clarendon.
• Univers (1956) Univers was designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1956 and released by the Deberny & Peignot type foundry in 1957. It is a neo-grotesque sans serif; it features optically even stroke weights and a large x-height to improve legibility. It’s become known for the variety of weights and set-widths included in the family. At the time it was designed it included 21 variations, and was the first type family to implement a numbering system as opposed to using names. Today there are over 27 different variations of Univers available. Univers is an extremely diverse typeface that has the ability to work very well at large display sizes for applications such as headlines and mastheads as well as in small sizes for body copy.
• Apollo (1962) Apollo is an old-style serif typeface designed to have the dual functionality of headline as well as body text.
• Serifa (1967) Serifa is a slab-serif design, based on the forms of Univers. It was designed to be used a large variety of sizes.
• OCR-B (1968) The typeface used for optical character recognition in America (OCR-A) was deemed inappropriate for use in Europe. Fruitger was commissioned to design this typeface to be used for European OCR while remaining aesthetically pleasing.
• Iridium (1975) Iridium is a serif type designed with a relatively strong contrast between the thick and thin strokes.
• Frutiger (1975) The result of a commission to develop signs appropriate to the architecture of the the newly constructed Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Linotype's best selling typeface.
• Glypha (1979) Glypha is another slab-serif based on the forms of Univers, much like Serifa, but with a larger x-height for greater legibility, and more weights.
• Icone (1980) A typeface based on stone inscriptions found in Normandy and Ireland.
• Breughel (1982) A serif type designed for book and use at text sizes; like Meridien it was based on the forms of 16th century Jenson.
• Versailles (1982) A serif typeface suitable for headlines and small amounts of copy that was based on inscriptions from 19th century France, in particular those found on the back of the tombstone of Charles Garnier.
• Avenir (1988) Avenir, French for future, is a geometric sans-serif, with many similarities to Futura. It was designed in a number of different weights. The forms of the letters are not completely geometric and this aspect of the face is what gives it its own distinct character that separates it from other geometrics such as Futura and Century Gothic. Avenir is also highly legible, and has recently been revised, like Frutiger Next, by Linotype and Frutiger himself to include true italics and other features. The new family is called Avenir Next
• Vectora (1990) Vectora is a sans-serif typeface inspired by American-styled typefaces such as Franklin and News Gothic. Vectora is a sans-serif typeface inspired by American-styled typefaces such as Franklin and News Gothic.
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In 2002 Czech designer Filip Blažek conducted a poll in which he asked about 100 Typographers from the Czech Republic and from other parts of the world about their favourite typefaces. One of the most successful typefaces was “Frutiger”. I spent the summer of 2002 in New Zealand, a small country of 3.5 million people, with several graphical studies and typographers alongside 50 million sheep… The last time I visited the country was in 1986—I could not believe the changes that had taken place in graphics since then: all I could see were signs in “Frutiger” and in “Rotis”. Frutiger is everywhere: There are metre-high signs in supermarkets, at the Post Offi ce, on road signs, books, as though all printed matter is written in Frutiger. It was almost boring seeing only this Typeface beside some information in Rotis. How do you feel about that as the designer of Frutiger?
Well, that’s very interesting news, I was not aware of this. But it doesn’t surprise me. You see, I think there is something in human beings, a certain amount of good taste, even if they have no education in graphics or typography. It’s like music: everybody knows what a good melody is, and the same applies to type design: A good typeface that is clear, distinct and obvious is legible to anybody, and is a nice thing to look at. Therefore Frutiger soon became one of the most popular typefaces around the world. I designed the “Roissy” for Charles-de-Gaulle Airport in Paris in early 1970s, and in 1976 Hansjörg Hunziker adjusted it in my studio in Paris for printing, calling it “Frutiger” for legal reasons. So, I must say, it makes me feel good that people will have a good clear typeface to read for perhaps the whole of the next century. Thinking of Univers: it’s been going for almost 50 years now, besides Max Miedinger’s Helvetica).
Did you design the diacritical marks in the Frutiger font yourself or in cooperation with other typographers? F. Blažek wrote to me that many other typefaces have diacritical marks in the wrong position, and are almost illegible to the Czech reader.
Yes, I worked with Hansjörg Hunziker. I learned this when designing the “Golf Ball” for the IBM typewriter. IBM was very fussy about having all the signs in the right place. We had very good engineers, and I learned a lot from them. Before that time, I didn’t know anything about the right placement of diacritical signs. It’s nice to hear that the signs are ok as I wasn’t aware of this either.
Were you ever in contact with Czech Typographers like Muzika, Menhart, Hlavsa?
No. But I do know the names; yes Hlavsa was very good. And Muzika’s book was also very good. But we were never in contact. It’s a pity they never could come to the ATYPI congresses, it was far too expensive for them. But it’s changing now, and that’s terrifi c I think. I hope the community of typographers will expand soon to include all these countries. And they all can learn and extend their knowledge of typography and typefaces in Europe and USA, besides meeting other professional colleagues.
Your typefaces became part of Euro-American typographical culture. How do you feel to be ranked next to Garamond, Caslon, Baskerville…
Ohh, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Don’t forget, my typefaces are not 200 or more years old yet. Only 50 years. Maybe they will still be in use in 200 years, who knows. For me it’s important, that everyone can look at a nice typeface, like Garamond (500 years old). And if someone uses Univers, Frutiger, Serifa, that’s nice. Maybe they understand something about good forms. What is rather interesting for me is that quite a lot of people are using the OCR-B type. I never ever thought this alphabet would be in use for text setting. It was never designed for that reason. But it’s probably the right time for it now, whether on a street parade in Berlin or Zurich you see posters in OCR-B. It would look completely wrong in Garamond or Frutiger.
Do you think there is any more space left for new, highly elaborated typefaces created with an accent on legibility, maybe a Helvetica of the 21st century?
Helvetica is not really the best typeface for legibility. Weingart said, if someone is using Helvetica he doesn’t know anything about typography. Helvetica is the Bluejeans-Sans Serif for the daily worker. Helvetica was lucky to be marketed worldwide in any technical material. Since the emergence of Letraset in the early 1960s Helvetica became widespread in that fi eld. It also goes into every machine for Type production, even rubber-stamping machines etc. We didn’t have that sort of money at Deberny & Peignot, when we began with Univers at the same time. But we’ve been lucky that Monotype has bought the license and produced Univers for bookwork. That was great: worldwide Monotype matrixes in Univers! Yes, of course there is still enough room for new good typefaces. You can see the result today: every now and again we’re getting good typefaces: from the US, Netherlands, Switzerland, France etc. But I cannot describe any one of them as the typeface of this century.
Who do you respect of contemporary type designers? Is there a next “Frutiger”?
Well, I don’t like to give specifi c names. Certainly my colleague Hans Eduard Meier is a very good type designer: his Syntax is a classic, also more than 40 years old. It’s a very good typeface. Also his new face “Lapidar” is excellent. It refl ects the spirit of his teacher. We went to the same school in Zurich and had the same teacher: Alfred Willimann. He was a very good person! He taught me a lot as did Walter Käch. Hansjörg Hunziker is doing very good things. He has just designed a custom made font for Siemens. Terrifi c. Or of the younger generation there is Roger Slimbach of the US, except the unnecessary doubt concerning Myriad, his work is also very good. Then there are some Dutch guys such as Gerard Unger; he has been designing some terrifi c typefaces for a long time now. I also like the experiments of contemporary designers. However they must have good form, balance, and a nice shape of the white inside contours in contrast to the black contours of the type. That is what counts: the balance of black and white. And who will be the next “Frutiger”? Well, I was just lucky to be in every place where technical changes took place in the last 50 years. We won’t have so many changes now, so nobody will be able to work in so many fi elds anymore as I did. Hermann Zapf has also come up with some excellent work, but who will be the next Zapf? Who can tell…
Quote:
"I first experienced the power of type to make the whole intellectual world readable with the same letters in the days of metal. This awakened in me the urge to develop the best possible legibility. The time soon came when texts were no longer set in metal types but by means of a beam of light. The task of adapting the typefaces of the old masters from relief type to flat film was my best school. When we came to the "Grotesk" style of sanserif, however, I had my own ideas which led to the Univers™ family. Technological progress was rapid. Electronic transfer of images brought the stepping, followed by my feelings for form. But today, with curve programs and laser exposure, it seems to me that the way through the desert has been completed.
From all these experiences 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. In the course of my professional life I have aquired knowledge and manual skill. To pass on what I had learned and achieved to the next generation became a necessity."
-Frutiger
Typefaces Designed by Frutiger:
• President (1952) Although often disregarded, this was Frutiger’s first commercially released typeface, by the Deberny & Peignot type foundry. The typeface was crucial in Frutiger’s development as a designer and taught him much about letterforms that he applied to his future designs.
• Phoebus (1953)
• Ondine (1954)
• Méridien (1955) Méridien is considered to be Frutiger’s first significant typeface, and inspired by 16th-century Jenson.
• Egyptienne (1956) This is a slab-serif face designed right before he designed Univers, and has many resemblances to the style of Clarendon.
• Univers (1956) Univers was designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1956 and released by the Deberny & Peignot type foundry in 1957. It is a neo-grotesque sans serif; it features optically even stroke weights and a large x-height to improve legibility. It’s become known for the variety of weights and set-widths included in the family. At the time it was designed it included 21 variations, and was the first type family to implement a numbering system as opposed to using names. Today there are over 27 different variations of Univers available. Univers is an extremely diverse typeface that has the ability to work very well at large display sizes for applications such as headlines and mastheads as well as in small sizes for body copy.
• Apollo (1962) Apollo is an old-style serif typeface designed to have the dual functionality of headline as well as body text.
• Serifa (1967) Serifa is a slab-serif design, based on the forms of Univers. It was designed to be used a large variety of sizes.
• OCR-B (1968) The typeface used for optical character recognition in America (OCR-A) was deemed inappropriate for use in Europe. Fruitger was commissioned to design this typeface to be used for European OCR while remaining aesthetically pleasing.
• Iridium (1975) Iridium is a serif type designed with a relatively strong contrast between the thick and thin strokes.
• Frutiger (1975) The result of a commission to develop signs appropriate to the architecture of the the newly constructed Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Linotype's best selling typeface.
• Glypha (1979) Glypha is another slab-serif based on the forms of Univers, much like Serifa, but with a larger x-height for greater legibility, and more weights.
• Icone (1980) A typeface based on stone inscriptions found in Normandy and Ireland.
• Breughel (1982) A serif type designed for book and use at text sizes; like Meridien it was based on the forms of 16th century Jenson.
• Versailles (1982) A serif typeface suitable for headlines and small amounts of copy that was based on inscriptions from 19th century France, in particular those found on the back of the tombstone of Charles Garnier.
• Avenir (1988) Avenir, French for future, is a geometric sans-serif, with many similarities to Futura. It was designed in a number of different weights. The forms of the letters are not completely geometric and this aspect of the face is what gives it its own distinct character that separates it from other geometrics such as Futura and Century Gothic. Avenir is also highly legible, and has recently been revised, like Frutiger Next, by Linotype and Frutiger himself to include true italics and other features. The new family is called Avenir Next
• Vectora (1990) Vectora is a sans-serif typeface inspired by American-styled typefaces such as Franklin and News Gothic. Vectora is a sans-serif typeface inspired by American-styled typefaces such as Franklin and News Gothic.
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In 2002 Czech designer Filip Blažek conducted a poll in which he asked about 100 Typographers from the Czech Republic and from other parts of the world about their favourite typefaces. One of the most successful typefaces was “Frutiger”. I spent the summer of 2002 in New Zealand, a small country of 3.5 million people, with several graphical studies and typographers alongside 50 million sheep… The last time I visited the country was in 1986—I could not believe the changes that had taken place in graphics since then: all I could see were signs in “Frutiger” and in “Rotis”. Frutiger is everywhere: There are metre-high signs in supermarkets, at the Post Offi ce, on road signs, books, as though all printed matter is written in Frutiger. It was almost boring seeing only this Typeface beside some information in Rotis. How do you feel about that as the designer of Frutiger?
Well, that’s very interesting news, I was not aware of this. But it doesn’t surprise me. You see, I think there is something in human beings, a certain amount of good taste, even if they have no education in graphics or typography. It’s like music: everybody knows what a good melody is, and the same applies to type design: A good typeface that is clear, distinct and obvious is legible to anybody, and is a nice thing to look at. Therefore Frutiger soon became one of the most popular typefaces around the world. I designed the “Roissy” for Charles-de-Gaulle Airport in Paris in early 1970s, and in 1976 Hansjörg Hunziker adjusted it in my studio in Paris for printing, calling it “Frutiger” for legal reasons. So, I must say, it makes me feel good that people will have a good clear typeface to read for perhaps the whole of the next century. Thinking of Univers: it’s been going for almost 50 years now, besides Max Miedinger’s Helvetica).
Did you design the diacritical marks in the Frutiger font yourself or in cooperation with other typographers? F. Blažek wrote to me that many other typefaces have diacritical marks in the wrong position, and are almost illegible to the Czech reader.
Yes, I worked with Hansjörg Hunziker. I learned this when designing the “Golf Ball” for the IBM typewriter. IBM was very fussy about having all the signs in the right place. We had very good engineers, and I learned a lot from them. Before that time, I didn’t know anything about the right placement of diacritical signs. It’s nice to hear that the signs are ok as I wasn’t aware of this either.
Were you ever in contact with Czech Typographers like Muzika, Menhart, Hlavsa?
No. But I do know the names; yes Hlavsa was very good. And Muzika’s book was also very good. But we were never in contact. It’s a pity they never could come to the ATYPI congresses, it was far too expensive for them. But it’s changing now, and that’s terrifi c I think. I hope the community of typographers will expand soon to include all these countries. And they all can learn and extend their knowledge of typography and typefaces in Europe and USA, besides meeting other professional colleagues.
Your typefaces became part of Euro-American typographical culture. How do you feel to be ranked next to Garamond, Caslon, Baskerville…
Ohh, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Don’t forget, my typefaces are not 200 or more years old yet. Only 50 years. Maybe they will still be in use in 200 years, who knows. For me it’s important, that everyone can look at a nice typeface, like Garamond (500 years old). And if someone uses Univers, Frutiger, Serifa, that’s nice. Maybe they understand something about good forms. What is rather interesting for me is that quite a lot of people are using the OCR-B type. I never ever thought this alphabet would be in use for text setting. It was never designed for that reason. But it’s probably the right time for it now, whether on a street parade in Berlin or Zurich you see posters in OCR-B. It would look completely wrong in Garamond or Frutiger.
Do you think there is any more space left for new, highly elaborated typefaces created with an accent on legibility, maybe a Helvetica of the 21st century?
Helvetica is not really the best typeface for legibility. Weingart said, if someone is using Helvetica he doesn’t know anything about typography. Helvetica is the Bluejeans-Sans Serif for the daily worker. Helvetica was lucky to be marketed worldwide in any technical material. Since the emergence of Letraset in the early 1960s Helvetica became widespread in that fi eld. It also goes into every machine for Type production, even rubber-stamping machines etc. We didn’t have that sort of money at Deberny & Peignot, when we began with Univers at the same time. But we’ve been lucky that Monotype has bought the license and produced Univers for bookwork. That was great: worldwide Monotype matrixes in Univers! Yes, of course there is still enough room for new good typefaces. You can see the result today: every now and again we’re getting good typefaces: from the US, Netherlands, Switzerland, France etc. But I cannot describe any one of them as the typeface of this century.
Who do you respect of contemporary type designers? Is there a next “Frutiger”?
Well, I don’t like to give specifi c names. Certainly my colleague Hans Eduard Meier is a very good type designer: his Syntax is a classic, also more than 40 years old. It’s a very good typeface. Also his new face “Lapidar” is excellent. It refl ects the spirit of his teacher. We went to the same school in Zurich and had the same teacher: Alfred Willimann. He was a very good person! He taught me a lot as did Walter Käch. Hansjörg Hunziker is doing very good things. He has just designed a custom made font for Siemens. Terrifi c. Or of the younger generation there is Roger Slimbach of the US, except the unnecessary doubt concerning Myriad, his work is also very good. Then there are some Dutch guys such as Gerard Unger; he has been designing some terrifi c typefaces for a long time now. I also like the experiments of contemporary designers. However they must have good form, balance, and a nice shape of the white inside contours in contrast to the black contours of the type. That is what counts: the balance of black and white. And who will be the next “Frutiger”? Well, I was just lucky to be in every place where technical changes took place in the last 50 years. We won’t have so many changes now, so nobody will be able to work in so many fi elds anymore as I did. Hermann Zapf has also come up with some excellent work, but who will be the next Zapf? Who can tell…
Gulliver's Travels
It's Yong Joon.
First time posting my work..
I revised my Poster project..
Please give me a feedback and any suggestion.
Thanks
Monday, December 1, 2008
The Raven
Hi Dear Typefamily (should I say Dear Olga, Matt, Jared and Megan?? :P)
Here I attach my Raven.
Big type, big ornaments.
I tried to be baroque... and I think that I got it!
Please tell me your opinions,
Loads of love,
Gonzalo.
p.d: The other day I went to the Met, and guess what story has some illustrations made by Eduard Manet...?
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