He was responsible for dozens of typefaces over a career spanning more than fifty years and bridging the gap between hot metal and photo-typesetting. In 1976 the typeface he christened with his own name, a typeface which is regarded as particularly legible, was adopted by the country of his birth for the nation’s road signage. It was to prove a good move, since he was commissioned to produce the signage for the new Charles de Gaulle Airport in the early ‘70s. In 1960 he branched out on his own, setting up his own studio in Paris. He suggested himself that typography in Switzerland was much more orientated towards the sans-serif adding tartly that “much can be covered up by serifs but the clean smooth lines of the sans serif demand much more from the designer”. He became its artistic director and developed fonts such as Online, President and the ubiquitous Univers, which he had started designing when he studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule School Applied Arts in Zurich.Īlthough he designed some serif typefaces like Meridien and Didot, he is best remembered for his sans-serif fonts that avoid the projecting lines and features of the Roman serif faces. He progressed to font design and eventually joined the famous French type foundry of Deberny & Peignot. As part of his apprenticeship he studied calligraphy in Zurich and started engraving and drawing as a hobby. Street corner sign in London Borough using Adrian Frutiger’s typefaceĪdrian Frutiger was born in Bern in Switzerland in 1928 and started his career as a compositor in a Zurich printer. A stroll around modern London will reveal his Univers Bold Condensed on every street corner, since it is used for all of London’s street signs. His most famous type font – Univers, has been used by many great companies including today’s eBay and Apple. Those outside of print and graphic arts may not recognise the Frutiger name, but they will recognise the typefaces he designed over the last sixty years or so. With Herman Zapf dying earlier in 2015, typography and calligraphy have become eminently poorer for their loss. The world of type design lost another great name this year with the announcement of the death of Adrian Frutiger at the age of 87. By Gerry Mulvaney, European Sales Manager, Landa Digital Printing
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