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…