UNIVERS
NASA AND JFK
UNIVERS NASA AND JFK EDITED AND DESIGNED BY: GABE KELLEY
2010 - TYPOGRAPHY I WIKIPEDIA.ORG/UNIVERS
UNIVERS
NASA AND JFK
Univers was designed in 1954 by type designer Adrian Frutiger. Frutiger drew inspiration for the typeface from a pre-existing typeface, Akizidenz-Grotesk, released in 1898. It released in with two other fonts, Folio and Neue Haas Grotesk, now renamed Helvetica. Frutiger created a way to name the typefaces so that there was an easier categorization for the typefaces, and a quicker way to sort through exactly what the font was. With Univers, Frutiger was attempting to create a typeface in varying weights, to the point where the font borders different faces, but still maintains the same characteristics across all weights. There are forty-four different typefaces in the family of Univers, sixteen of which are uniquely numbered under the system. Twenty of the fonts have oblique properties. And while there are tiny changes to most every weight the @ is never changed, spanning the whole typeface without changing design. A Linotype version of the typeface was created in 1997, as a collaboration with Frutiger, it was the first version of the typeface designed for the digital realm. The slope of the oblique also changed in this redesign from 12° to 16°.
In May of 1961, President at the time, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, introduced the idea of putting an American on the moon. From the time that JFK announced this until the time that the first american stepped foot on the moon, NASA changed their concepts about space, and that it was a frontier that man would travel to, and for a short time, inhabit. These men would be interacting with the space before another human on earth could. There were challenges along the way, the first coming just the next month, when a Russian cosmonaut entered space, this created the new race to have the first human step foot on the moon. A race that we set out from the beginning to win. The frontier of space is something that everyone had wanted conquered, and the idea of being the first to interact with the space, and not just be in space, was the new challenge, the next great push. And we would beat the Soviets.v On July 20, 1969 JFK’s dream was solidified, Neil Armstrong became the first human on the moon, breaking into a new frontier for exploration, while representing the challenge that JFK gave to the nation and NASA. What was done in those almost ten years has changed the way we look at space, it put it into a new category of travel and unlocked a new fascination that is continually unraveling.
UNIVERS 49 LIGHT ULTRA CONDENSED
ABCDEFGHIJ KLMNOPQRS TUVWXYZ DESIGN BY ADRIAN FRUTIGER
First I believe that this Nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon. John F. Kennedy, May 24, 1961
UNIVERS 39 THIN ULTRA CONDENSED
ABCDEFGHIJKLM NOPQRSTUVWXYZ REALIST SANS-SERIF
...the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward, and so wil space. John F. Kennedy, 1962
55 ROMAN
ABCDE FGHIJK LMNOP Q R ST U V W XY Z
RELEASED IN 1957 THE YEAR NASA WAS ESTABLISHED
In 1963, before his assassination, President John F. Kennedy began to go on the road again, mainly to draw more attention to the work going on at Cape Canaveral so that the congress would have to back the lunar landing, the people would know about it. On November 22nd of that same year, JFK was assassinated.
55 OBLIQUE
ABCDE FGHIJK LMNOP QRSTU VWXYZ NEO-GROTESQUE
JFK’s Vice President, and successor, Lyndon B. Johnson took head in the space race, he knew it was something that was still needed, and did not want to leave it.
75 BLACK
ABCDE FGHIJK LMNOP QRSTU VWXYZ BASED ON AKZIDENZ-GROTESK
JFK DEAD! SPACE RACE STILL ON! A LUNAR LANDING BEFORE THE DECADE’S END!
75 BLACK OBLIQUE
ABCDE FGHIJK LMNOP QRSTU VWXYZ
FEATURES A UNIQUE CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM. DESIGNATED THROUGH A NUMBER SYSTEM.
THE SPACE RACE WILL BE WON!
45 LIGHT
ABCDEF GHIJKL MNOPQ R ST U V W XY Z
44 FACES
THREE LIVES LOST ON LAUNCH PAD JANUARY 27, 1967 GUS GRISSOM EDWARD WHITE ROGER CHAFFEE
45 LIGHT OBLIQUE
ABCDEF GHIJKL MNOPQ R ST U V W XY Z
@ SIGN NEVER CHANGES
INCOMPETENCE BLAMED FOR THE DEATHS.
47 LIGHT BOLD
ABCDEF GHIJKL MNOPQ R ST UVW XY Z
DESIGNED AGAIN IN 1997 IN COLLABORATION WITH LINOTYPE.
APOLLO 11 LAUNCH: JULY 16, 1969 13:32:00 UTC
47 LIGHT BOLD OBLIQUE
ABCDEF GHIJKL MNOPQ R ST UVW XY Z
APOLLO 11 LUNAR LANDING: JULY 20, 1969 20:17:40 UTC
RELEASED IN THE SAME FAMILY WITH HELVETICA.
WE BEAT THE SOVIETS.
67 BOLD CONDENSED
ABCDEFG HIJKLMN OPQRSTU VWXYZ
APOLLO 11 LANDING: JULY 24, 1969 16:50:35 UTC
BELONGS TO DEBERNY & PEIGNOT
THE SPACE RACE WAS OVER.
Gabe Kelley Univers Adrian Frutiger Adobe InDesign Digital Print ___/2 Nov. 2010 www.gabekelley.com