adrian frutiger’s
univers
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introduction Adrian Frutiger’s 1957 sans serif typeface, Univers, became a sensation because of its versatility. Desgined around the same time as Helvetica, another popular sans serif typeface, Univers was part of a motion towards legibility rather than style. Especially in lighter fonts, Univers can accomodate long texts because Frutiger designed it with a strong mind for a utilitarian, legible way to use typography.
Univers 45 Light and Univers 65 Bold Oblique. The numbers in the font names reflect the visual weight of the strokes. Univers stroke weights are famous because they are optically steady and even. At the time of its design, Univers had 21 weight variations; now, it has 27.
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the designer Adrian Frutiger is one of the the most important type designers to emerge since World War II. Born and raised in Switzerland, he is the designer of many notable faces â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the best known being the sans serifs Univers and Frutiger â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and was one of the first designers to create type for film. Just after his graduation from the Zurich Kunstgewerbeschule, he was invited to oversee the drawing office at Deberny & Peignot in Paris, where he spent many years as a designer and later would develop Univers. Although Frutiger has said that all his types have Univers as their skeleton he felt, when he came to design a face for the Charles de Gaulle Airport at Roissy, that Univers seems dated, with a 1960â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s feel. His airport face, originally known as Roissy, but renamed Frutiger for its issue to the trade by 2
Frutigerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s` interest in type began at a young age. He started setting type with metal at age twelve, studied design in Zurich during his university years, and entered the design firm Deberny & Peignot the year following his graduation.
Mergenthaler Linotype in 1976, is a humanistic sans serif that has been compared to Gill and Johnston types. Frutiger has created a broad range of typefaces including OCR-N, a type for optical character recognition. His 1982 Breughel is an original face almost wholly comprised of curves and fitting into no existing type category. He has embraced new technology and used it to advantage in faces such as Centennial, a modern whose fine serifs are made possible by recent improvements in definition. More than ten years earlier his Iridium had demonstrated that the classical modern face was neither outdated nor necessarily caused legibility problems. Frutiger himself is skeptical about theories of legibility. He learned to read with gothic characters without difficulty and says legibility is soley a matter of habit. 3
â&#x20AC;&#x153;a purely geometric character is unacceptable in the long run; an O represented by a perfect circle strikes us as shapeless and has a disturbing effect on the word as a whole.â&#x20AC;?
origins of univers To achieve the goal of an expansive, integrated type family, designers must be sensitive to the nuances of each letterform while simultaneously considering the overall system. In the case of Univers, this sophisticated approach to type-family design is supported by a well-considered set of typographical characters. Inspired by his study of the limitations of existing sans serifs, Frutiger began with the assumption that a purely geometric character is unacceptable in the long run; an O represented by a perfect circle strikes us as shapeless and has a disturbing effect on the word as a whole.
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A capital Univers 55 Roman O set in a perfect circle illustrates Adrian Frutigerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decision to diverge from purely geometric forms.
O
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Different treatments of capital letter O in sans serif typefaces developed contemporaneously with Univers. From left to right: Univers 75 Black, Frutiger 75 Black, Optima Bold, and Helvetica Bold.
Such assumptions arose from Frutiger’s studies at the School for the Applied Arts in Switzerland. Frutiger designed Univers by reworking sketches for other typefaces he developed during his time there. He always maintained an interest in calligraphy and old roman script, working his first designs with a broad-nibbed pen to make his letterforms open and round. His style marks a Swiss influence too, however; he held a deep appreciation for the intricacy and precision of the forms that Bernese peasant farmers could cut from black paper, scratch, or engrave, and preferred this traditional medium of design to black ink. Despite living abroad, Frutiger’s style remains fundamentally Swiss. According to Allan Haley, Univers is a prime example
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O O O of this: “Think of [Univers] 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.”
O
Akzidenz-Grotesk was a Swiss style that inspired Univers. Swiss style emphasized regularity, cleanliness, and readability. The typography is sans serif â&#x20AC;&#x201D; there are no lines extending from the edges of letters. Grotesque (or Grotesk, in German) typography is sans serif, while Roman is typically understood as serif.
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Z T
By overlapping a Z and a T of the same point size, variation in stroke thickness becomes apparent.
characteristics Well-documented research in the 1930’s and ‘40s on the mechanics of eye movement during reading also directed Frutiger’s design of Univers. Frutiger’s decision to use different stroke thicknesses for the horizontal, diagonals, and verticals was a response to both this research — which would clarify ways to make reading functional and efficient — and to his assessment of visual discrepancies in other typefaces. The typeface ultimately is classified as “neo-grotesque sans serif.” While Frutiger’s goal was to make letters that fit together so flawlessly that the assemblage formed a new satisfying gestalt, he also deemed it important that individual letterfomrs remain distinct from one another. “Built up from a
u n
o c
These diagrams, set in Univers 75 Black, demonstrate the interaction of white space with letterforms. The n is taller and slighter wider than the u to make the two letters appear more consistent.
geometric basis, the lines must play freely,” Frutiger wrote, “so that the individuals find their own expression and join together in a cohesive structure in word, line, and page.” To maintain the integrity of each letterform, careful optical adjustments were made, based on the current knowledge of the principles of perception. the c is smaller than the o because in open letters the white space achieves greater penetration into the form, thereby appearing larger. The n is slightly larger than the u because white entering a letterform from the top appears more active than white entering from the bottom. Ascenders and descenders (the line on a p or a d, for example, that crosses the horizontal rhythm of the typeface’s x-height) were shortened in comparison with existing typographic norms, and x-heights (the height of the body of a lower-case letter) were increased.
Likewise, the o is larger than the c because the white space entering the c from the side gives it more weight than the o.
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Larger x-heights also provided greater legibility. This addressed concerns that sans serif type was more difficult to read than serif type. All of these innovations in Univers contributed to the overall harmony among letters, allowing for a smooth line flow.
The cap heights (the maximum height of a capital letter from its baseline) are equivalent in this diagram of Baskerville Regular and Univers 55 Roman to indicate that
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Univers has a smaller x-height. Baskerville is set in a bigger point size than Univers, but its x-height is still smaller.
XxXx
cap height
univers xâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;height
baskerville xâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;height
Unlike Univers, for which ascenders and descenders are purposefully consistent in all fonts (or variations), the stroke weights of Gill Sans are not as consistent. Gill Sans, a humanist typeface, is less geometric than Univers because it is based on Roman style serif typefaces such as Baskerville and on Carolingian script — a historic typeface with rounded letters. Nonetheless, some letters in Gill Sans are based on geometry. The point of the capital M, for instance, meets at a square’s middle.
The key letters in this diagram, set in Gill Sans Light and Univers 45 Light, compare differences and similarities between the two typefaces. The diagram indicates how even when a
Q
gill sans univers
Q M M p p
Decorative finial derived from serif script, as opposed to utilitarian finial in Univers Capital M is based on a square. This letter is more geometric than most of Gill Sans. Lightly tapered strokes in both typefaces, but rounder, more geometric bowls in Univers.
typeface is classified as “sans serif,” it may vary greatly from other typefaces with the same classification.
e e g g S S
Stroke weight tapers, but Univers’ optically regular stroke weight increases legibility. Rounded lowercase letters echo Carolingian tradition, unlike simplified Univers. Less pronounced bowls. Both forms show attention to history of calligraphy pens.
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In typography, a serif is a small line trailing from the edges of letters and symbols, such as when handwriting is separated into distinct units for a typewriter or typsetter. A typeface without serifs is called sans serif, from the French sans, meaning “without”. Serifed fonts are widely used for body text because many consider them easier to read than sans serif fonts in print.
Calligraphy BASKERVILLE letterforms with geometric roots
UNIVERS tapered, calligraphic strokes
Calligraphy 12
Serif typefaces, like Baskerville, are more clearly derived from calligraphic history than sans serif typefaces. They vary dramatically in stroke weight their rounded finials imitate a pen’s inkblots. Nonetheless, the personality of the sans serif Univers is also influenced by the stroke of a pen. Though Univers has an overall consistency and uniformity not found in serif typefaces, the stroke weight within each letter does vary, unlike in other popular sans serifs. In addition, Baskerville’s designer, William Caslon, strove to make a typeface based on geometry — as evidenced in the circular O and the angular R — but Frutiger wanted to give a sense of the structure of geometry without using geometric forms. Both typefaces are easily legible, despite the discrepancy in the degrees of flair.
www.monotypeimaging.com/ProductsServices/ TypeDesignerShowcase/AdrianFrutiger/Biography.aspx http://books.google.com/books?id=FiJ87ixLs0sC&pg=PA304&lpg=PA304&dq=alexander+lawson+on+frutiger&source=bl&ots=iImbg8Omar&sig=UMEfnFB1C1w4fjvlwZ285blqaQM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=AydmUfv1POTC2QXUi4GAAQ&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=alexander%20lawson%20on%20 frutiger&f=false
bibliography Blackwell, Lewis. 20th-Century Type. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. Carter, Sebastian. Twentietch Century Type Designers. Great Britain, Lund Humphries, 2002. Kunz, Willi. Typography: Macro- and Microaesthetics. Sulgen: Verlag Niggli AG, 2000. Revival of the Fittest: Digital Versions of Classic Typefaces, essays by Carolyn Annand ... [et al.]; edited by Philip B. Meggs and Roy McKelvey, New York: RC Publications, 2000. www.linotype.com www.rightreading.com/typehead/univers.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolingian_script en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gill_Sans en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baskerville en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serif
This book discusses the origins and influence of Adrian Frutigerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Univers typeface. It covers a general history of the designer himself, as well as specific discussion about the typefaceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s characteristics. Adrian Frutiger:Univers was published by Sophia Brown at Washington University in St. Louis. Printed on HP Colorjet C6015x. Body copy is set in Baskerville 10/12. Headers are set in Univers 57 Condensed 32 pt., and captions are set in Univers 45 Light 7/10.