e v i
E
n
v i n
s r e
s r R E V
YT
N HI
Go
ed
ne
u yo ow kn
UN
t
t
u bo
a
IV
S R E
De
rs
ve
ni
ni lvi
ng
in
to
th e U ni r ve s
ve
rs
8
Characteristics
2
9
Comparision
10
*Grotesque *Geometric *Humanist
3
Contents
The Designer
11
Bibiography Acknowedgements
Applications
Historical Cont
1
Univers Typeface
5
text
10 4
Applications History
6
7
Recast & Revival
Unique Numbering System
Glyph Set
Think of it as a Swiss design with a French heart. As its weight increases, this personality becomes more apparent. The slight (but clearly visible) contrast in stroke weight, subtle angularity, and just the smallest hint of calligraphic brush stroke make Univers a typeface with a twinkle in its eye.� — Allan Haley
U
univers typeface Univers is the name of a realist sans-serif typeface designed
by Adrian Frutiger in 1954. Univers is one of a group of neo-grotesque sans-serif typefaces, all released in 1957, that includes Folio and Helvetica. It is a ‘universal’ typeface and is known for its extreme versatility because of its large type family and simplistic design features.Frutiger’s main priority while designing Univers was readability. “The secret of a good text face, explains Frutiger in Signs and symbols,their design and meaning, ‘lies in the coordination of letters to form a community that is rich in contrast, while still retaining a family likeness.”
Historical Context
1950’s Univers was released in 1957, and is an example of the Swiss style of graphic design.
The International Typographic Style, also known as the Swviss Style, is a graphic design style developed in Switzerland in the 1950s that emphasizes cleanliness, readability and objectivity. The objective clarity of his design movement won converts throughout the world. The characteristics of this design include a unity of design achieved by asymmetrical organization of the design elements on a mathematically constructed grid: objective photography and copy that present visual and verbal information in a clear and factual manner , free from the exaggerated claims of propaganda and commercial advertising and the use of sans serif typography set in a flush-left and ragged-right configuration. The emerging International Typographic Style was exemplified by several new sans serif typefaces, mathematically constructed with drafting instruments during the 1920’s and 30’s, which were rejected in favour of more refined designs inspired by late 19th century Akzidenz Grotesk fonts.
The NID logo was designed by Frutiger in the 60’s.
Adrian Frutiger (born 1928, Switzerland) influenced the direction of digital typography in the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st.
Designer
He is best known for creating the Univers and Frutiger typefaces. At the age of 16, he was apprenticed for 4 years, as a compositor, to the printer Otto Schaerffli in Interlaken; between 1949 and 1951 he studied under Walter Käch and Alfred Willimann in the Kunstgewerbeschule (school of applied arts) in Zürich, where students studied monumental inscriptions from Roman forum rubbings. At the Kunstgewerbeschule, Frutiger primarily concentrated on calligraphy — a craft favouring the nib and the brush, instead of drafting tools. Frutiger first conceived univers during his studies at the school of applied arts in Zurich between 1949 and 1951.
History Charles Peignot envisioned a large, unified font family, that might be set in both the metal and the phototypesetting systems. Impressed by the success of the Bauer foundry’s Futura typeface, Peignot encouraged a new, geometric sans-serif type in competition. Frutiger disliked the regimentation of Futura, and persuaded Peignot that the new sans-serif should be based on the realist model. Frutiger laboured for three years on Univers. To produce the universe family, the deberny and peignot foundry in paris invested over 200,000 hours of machine engraving, retouching and final hand punching to create the 35,000 matrixes needed to produce all 21 fonts in the full range of sizes.
D&P Linotype
Univers was conceived and released by Deberny & Peignot in 1957.
In 1997 Frutiger reworked the whole Univers family in cooperation with Linotype, thus creating the Linotype Univers, which consists of 63 fonts.
Phototypesetting is a method of setting type that uses a photographic process to generate columns of type on a scroll of photographic paper.
Recast & Revival By reworking the Univers more “extreme” weights as Ultra Light or Extended Heavy were added as well as some monospaced typefaces. The numbering system was extended to three digits to reflect the larger number of variations in the family. Also,the fonts are digitally interpolated, so that character widths scale uniformly with changing font weights. Due to some typeface manufacturers’ failure to understand and implement the system correctly, however things have actually become more confusing. To make matters worse, the numbering system is not consistently applied to the univers font family. In 2010, Linotype extended the Linotype Univers family and renamed into a more logical naming of “Univers Next” to fit better in the Platinum Collection naming. All later extensions of the font family were marketed under the Univers Next title. Univers Next W1G This version supports Greek and Cyrillic characters. Univers Next Arabic (2011) It is companion to the Latin typeface Univers Next designed by Nadine Chahine with the consulting of Adrian Frutiger.
12 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
U
NIVERS
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
g Hh Ii Jj Kk Rr Ss Tt
59 Ultra Condensed
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Unique Numbering System Family
The palette of typographic variations â&#x20AC;&#x201C; limited to regular, italic, bold in traditional typography was expanded sevenfold. Number replaced conventional nomenclature. The normal or regular weight with the proper black and white relationships for book setting is called univers 55, and the family ranges from univer 39 (light extra condensed) to univers 89 ( expanded extra bold ). Fons to the left of univers 55 are expanded and the ones on the right are condensed. The stroke weights of the fonts above 55 are lighter and the stroke weights below are heavier.
Unity
A good typeface is sensitive to the nuances of each letterform while simulatneously considering the overall system. All Univers fonts have the same x height , same ascender and descender heights and form a uniform whole that can be used together with complete harmony.
Ch
e
short crossbar
stem of uniform width CAP Ht.
ct a r a
s c i t ris
counter
eye
vertical terminal
X-Ht.
squaring of round edges vertical stress
horizontal terminal
Baseline
short descender
Tapered joint
B
Z o c
Certain adjustments are made to maintain the identity of the letterforms.
The c is smaller than the o because in the open letters the white space achieves greater penetration into the form, thereby making it appear larger. The e,c and o appear to be similar , yet they have ther own distinct counters.
Univers is guided by rules of optical balance based on the principles of perception ,and not mathematical ones.
eco
un
The u is slightly smaller than n because space entering a letterform from the top appears more active than from the bottom.
It consists of well crafted proportionalte letterforms with minimal stroke variations,yet apparent in terms of vertical, horizontal and diagonal strokes as can be seen by overlapping Z and T.
All the letterforms have tightly cut vertical or horizontal terminals, with the exception of the apex of ‘t’, which is slanted.
pqrst
“Originally, Univers was to be named Monde, which translates into “world” in French and “moon” in German. But since the typeface was to be promoted internationally, the name Univers was chosen for its universally understood meaning.”
Qq Qq Qq
The size and weight of the capitals are close to that of the lowercase characters, therefore the texture and tone of a univers text is more uniform than other earlier typefaces. Optically even stroke weights and a large x-height in relation to cap height enhances legibility.
O Frutiger found the perfectly geometrical O of Futura extremely disturbing , hence, Univers letterforms have squared contours. They also have a vertical stress with minimal stroke varitaion.
B C D G P Q R S
Comparision
straight leg
R
Grotesque
Q
tail does not stick into counter
A
i
u
y slightly flared leg
k
A QuiRky Helvetica Max Miedinger 1957 It is one of the most popular typefaces of all times. With large x-heights, its provides great legibilty.
A
tail is flat to the baseline
Q
u
tail is at an angle to baseline and sticks into the counter
straight, short decenders
i
R
k
tail is at an angle to baseline and sticks into the counter
y
Akzidenz Grotesk Berthold AG Foundry 1898 It was the first sans serif typeface to be widely used and influenced many later neogrotesque typefaces.
right angled spur, no quirk
G
rounder form
C
K
e
! o
arms of K meet at stem
lack of spur
less apparent taper
GeCKo ! wider counter squared cotours
G
Angled spur, quirky
e
K C
organic form
o
!
Geometric
O Q
Futura is a geometric typeface designed by Paul Renner in 1927. Frutiger disliked the rigid geometry of Futura , hence he created Univers with with Univers a more a more humane, humane, optical and complex optical and complex geometry. geometry.
FUTURA FUTURA
almost thirded almost thirdedcrossbar crossbar smaller smaller x-height x-height
consistent consistent counters counters
slanted slanted terminal terminal
pointed pointed apex
round tittle tittle
typoGrAPhic !
longer descenders
FUTURA STD / 60 Pt / Book
perfectly perfectly rounded rounded
single stroke stroke
wider counters wider counters
Humanist
Q
Frutiger was designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1958. rutigerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s goal was to create a sans serif typeface with the rationality and cleanliness of Univers, but with the organic and proportional aspects of Gill Sans. The weight of the forms are much less monotone than Univers, and due to these subtle thicks and thins the typeface has far more character
FRUTIGER
vertical terminal
smaller bowl
more stroke variation
typoGraPhic ! thicker joint
curved descenders
less squared contours
open counters
FRUTIGER / 60 Pt / 55 Roman
UNIVERS
halved crossbar
inconsistent counters
straight terminal
flat apex
square tittle
vareigated stroke
larger x-height
shorter descenders
UNIVERS / 60 Pt / 55 Roman
squared count0urs
more closed counters
UNIVERS
horizontal terminal
straight descenders
squared count0urs
wider bowl
thinner taper
more closed counters
UNIVERS / 60 Pt / 55 Roman
Applications
Audi used Univers for their logo initially.
Appleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s keyboards have been labeled with Univers 57 (Condensed Oblique), a design choice by Appleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s industrial design partner, Frog Design. This began in 1984 with the Apple IIc, which had tilted front-panel buttons to match the inclination of the lettering.
Univers is used in the Ebay logo, though each of the letters is slightly distorted.
Cover design for an album.
A book cover for Dada poetry. Only Univers has been used. Otl Aicher used Univer in the 1972 Olympics posters and designs.
The Fedex wordmark is known for the hidden arrown that appears as the negative spacebetween E and x, which was achieved by using a proprietary font between Univers and Futura
Anton Stankowski designed the logo for Deutsche bank. It is readable from great distances.
It is also used by the Swiss Airlines due to itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s great legibility.
Bibliography TYPEFACE : CLASSIC TYPOGRAPHY FOR CONTEMPORARY DESIGN Tamye riggs MEGGS HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN Meggs Phillip B. KNOW YOUR TYPE Varsha Mehta, NID ABOUT FACE Rrotovision David jury www.wikipedia.com www.behance.net http://s3images.coroflot.com/ www.sparkledesign.net
Acknowledgements For this extremely interesting assignment, i would like to thank my guide, Mr. Tarun Deep Girdher . This assignment was a first time, and full of ups and downs, and I am very thankful to Tarun for being so patient and understanding. This was also my first time using InDesign, and I would like to thank Mr. Mahendra Patel for helping me get over my software issues. I would like to thank my seniors for always helping out, giving suggestions and helping out with any issue what so ever. I would like to thank my Graphic Design batch for the constant feedback, suggestion and for being there through the all nighters and coffee breaks in the night mess! I am, ofcourse, in awe of Frutiger and his brilliant mind!
Ishita Jain Graphic Design
3rd Semester UG, 2012-13
TYPOGRAPHY Guide: Mr. Tarun Deep Girder