AVENIR
SOMETHING ABOUT AVENIR
01 ADRIAN FRUTIGER He was a Swiss typeface designer who design Avenir. He influenced the direction of type design in 20th and 21st century.
AKIRA KOBAYASHI PARTNER
AVENIR 1998
AVENIR NEXT 2003-2007
He was a Swiss typeface designer who design Avenir. He influenced the direction of type design in 20th and 21st century.
BASIC INFORMATION
S SANS-SERIF
GEOMETRIC
MCM LXXXVIII 1988
LINOTYPE GMBH
AVENIR
AVENIR NEXT
STYLES LIGHT/THIN (UPRIGHT+ITALIC+CONDENSED +CONDENSED ITALIC)(8) ULTRALIGHT/REGULAR/ MEDIUM/DEMI/BOLD/HEAVY (UPRIGHT+ITALIC+CONDENSED +CONDENSED ITALIC)(8) LIGHT/MEDIUM/BLACK (UPRIGHT+OBLIGUE)(6) BOOK/ROMAN/HEAVY (UPRIGHT+OBLIGUE)(6)
TOTAL 44 STYLES
=
AVENIR
FUTURE
AVENIR FAMILY
02
WEIGHT IN AVENIR When Avenir relased in 1988, is used Frutiger’s two-digit weight and width convention for names.
1 2 3 (35)
(45)
(55)
Light
Book
Roman
(65)
(85)
(95)
456
Medium
Heavy
Black
AVENIR
Aa Bb Ee Ff Ii Jj Mm Nn Qq Rr Uu Vv Yy Zz
Cc Dd Gg Hh Kk Ll Oo Pp Ss Tt Ww X x
(THE DISPLAY USES AVENIR HEAVY)
AVENIR NEXT
Aa Bb Ee Ff Ii Jj Mm Nn Qq R r Uu Vv Yy Zz
Cc Dd Gg Hh Kk L l Oo Pp Ss T t Ww X x
(THE DISPLAY USES AVENIR NEXT HEAVY)
AVENIR FAMILY
EARLIER DESIGN
WHOLE AVENIR ST YLES
BOOK
Qq HEAVY
ROMAN
ROMAN OBLIGUE
BOOK OBLIGUE
HEAVY OBLIGUE
LATER DESIGN
Qq LIGHT
BLACK
MEDIUM
Qq MEDIUM OBLIGUE
LIGHT OBLIGUE
HEAVY OBLIGUE
LIG
Qq THIN
Qq THIN ITALIC
Qq THIN CONDENSED
Qq THIN CONDENSED ITALIC
LIG
AVENIR NEXT FAMILY EARLIER DESIGN
Qq ULTRALIGHT
Qq LATER DESIGN
Qq LIGHT
Qq LIGHT ITALIC
GHT CONDENSED
GHT CONDENSED ITALIC
REGULAR
Qq MEDIUM
Qq DEMI
Qq BOLD
Qq HEAVY
Qq ULTRALIGHT ITALIC
Qq ITALIC
Qq MEDIUM ITALIC
Qq DEMI ITALIC
Qq BOLD ITALIC
Qq HEAVY ITALIC
Qq ULTRALIGHT CONDENSED
Qq ULTRALIGHT CONDENSED ITALIC
CONDENSED
CONDENSED ITALIC
Qq MEDIUMCONDENSED
Qq DEMI CONDENSED
Qq BOLD CONDENSED
Qq HEAVY CONDENSED
Qq MEDIUM CONDENSED ITALIC
Qq DEMI CONDENSED ITALIC
Qq BOLD CONDENSED ITALIC
Qq HEAVY CONDENSED ITALIC
03 G M 1
2
AVENIR‘S T YPEFACE ANATOMY
Curve ends in vertical throat without spur
5 Stem cut horizontally at top, curved under
Wide, right-angled proportion, V-form rests horizontally on the baseline
t o 6
TYPEFACE ASCENDER
A fg x b STEM
APEX
EAR
X-HEIGHT
CROSSBAR
DESCENDER
COUN
3
R
Diagonal leg clearly offset from stem
a v 46 4
7
classical shape, curve terminated diagonally
Angle horizontally terminated
Stroke weight slightly reduced top and bottom
8
Blunt termination of angles, diagonals horizontally terminated
ANATOMY
bkQ o ARM
BOWL
CAP HEIGHT
SPUR
TAIL
NTER
BODY SIZE
LEG
ANATOMY
C OVERSHOOT
Overshoot is a optical correction prevents the letters which extends byond x-height from appearing smaller.
V
A APEX
Avenir has a flat apex.
n JOINT
VERTEX
Avenir has a flat vertex.
Avenir’s joints become thinner as a shoulder or bowl joins a stem.
AVENIR’S FOOT Avenir 35 Light Avenir 45 Book Avenir 55 Roman Avenir 65 Medium Avenir 65 Medium Avenir 65 Medium
a m n r a m n r a m n r a m n r a m n r
Avenir 65 Medium Avenir 65 Medium Avenir 65 Medium Avenir 65 Medium
u u u u u
a a mn u Avenir 85 Heavy
Avenir 95 Black
a
(Avenir 85 Heavy)
a
a m n r u
(Avenir 55 Medium)
For the weight Light(35), Book (45), Roman(55) and Medium (65), the lower-case “a” presents a slightly angled foot, but not quite to the degree of being classified as a serif. While weights Heavy(85) and Black(95), the foot is striaght. This also applies to lower-case “r, m, n” and “u” excepted Medium (65) weight.
m
r
r
n u
(Avenir 55 Medium)
In Avenir Medium(65) weight, only lower-case “a” presents in curved root, other letterforms “r, m, n” and “u” are exhibited in a straightened foot.
AVENIR’S COMPARISON
04
TIMELINE
FUTURA
1927
AVENIR
1998
AVENIR vs FUTURA The inspiration of Avenir’s stems is come from Futura and typefaces. Compared to Futura, Avenir has a softer appearance, is wider, and contains less angles. Commenting on his own creations, Frutiger writes, “Looking back on more than fourty years of concern with sans serif typefaces, I felt an obligation to design a linear style of sans serif, in the tradition of Erba, Futura, and to a lesser extent Gill Sans. These have purely constructed characters from which the element of a handwriting movement has been removed.”
u u uu V S
Avenir’s lower -case “u” has a stem/serif while Futura ‘s lower case “u” has no stem/serif.
Q Q
M M
The tail on Avenir’s uppercase “Q” is a contiuation of its body, while Futura’s tail is a separate diagonal stroke
The verticals of Avenir’s upper-case “M” are parallel and the stem is flat, while the verticals of Futura’s upper-case “M” are sloping and sharp stem.
QQ V S
G G GG V S
The right side of the Avenir’s upper-case “G” has a flat section while Futura is curved.
t
t t
t
V S
Avenir’s lower -case “t” has a terminal while Futura ‘s lower case “t” is tall andstright.
MM MM V S
R
V S
RR
R
V S
The leg of Avenir’s upper-case ‘R’ is separated from the vertical by a distinct horizontal section while the leg of Futura’s upper-case ‘R’ meets the vertical.
a
a
aa a a V S
V S
Avenir’s lower-case “a” stem continuously curves over the top of the bowl (double storey); while Futura’s lower-case ‘a’ stem stops at the top of the bowl (single storey).
TRIVIA OF AVENIR
05
AVENIR IN MOVIE Avenir applies in many movie poster design, for example:
LOVE HAPPENS (2009) -Avenir Light INCEPTION (2010) - Avenir 95 Black SAFE HAVEN (2013) - Avenir Medium THE LOBSTER (2015) - Avenir Next Heavy THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (2016) - Avenir Light CITY OF GHOSTS (2017) - Avenir 95 Black
8o
OO OBLIGUE AVENIR “O” WAS CREATED ELECTRONICALLY
O = AVENIR “O” IS NOT A PERFECT CIRCLE
NOW SHOWING
G G
AVENIR “G” FOLLOWS THE MODEL OF ROMAN CAPITALS
AKNSV THERE ARE THREE VARYING STROKE WEITGHTS IN AVENIR “A”
IN AVENIR, THE HALF SERIFS HAVE A SLIGHTLY LIGHTER STROKE WEIGHT THAN THE DOWNSTROKES
ODER
ODER
THE STROKE WIDTHS IN AVENIR ARE NOT CONSTANT
AVENIR NEXT