A Avenir

Adrian Frutiger

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Copyright 2016 by Zoya Trendafilova

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 3

Adrian Frutiger - Life and expertise

Since antiquity, art has been an inevitable part of

humans life on a daily basis. As the continued pace of
art improvement that has caught up to the constant
technological expansion in the twentieth century,
human visions and necessity has had the urge to
create more practical and usable art pieces rather
than just the pure decorative. As an integral part of
the design, typography has evolved accordingly too.
In the twentieth century, there were three main
stages of progression in typography hot-metal type,
phototypesetting, as well as digital typesetting that is
still the main system today. During years of changes,
there was one designer who crafted in all three
stages and improved the quality of various typefaces
throughout the transition Adrian Frutiger. His
expertise and his commitment towards learning and
applying new techniques were main motives of his
successful career.
Fig. 1 Frutigers (fig.1) craft has always his career, Frutiger created more than
A portrait of Adrian Frutiger been technology-driven though he has one hundred and seventy five typefaces,
always been open-minded towards but the most effective and recognized
advice and suggestions and had the typefaces are Univers released in
will to lead each project to triumph. 1957, Frutiger in 1975 and Avenir in
Frutiger attempted to modernize 1988. Despite the enormous triumph
typography and create more tools of Univers and the innovative look
despite his very conventional workflow. and wide-ranging usage of Frutiger,
As the artist himself, he described his the designer considered Avenir his
approach as designing around white masterpiece as well as the most
spaces considering them being the most difficult typeface he had worked on
important part of a typeface. During individually expressing his personality.
Avenir by Adrian Frutiger 6 7

Personal and Professional

Life of Adrian Frutiger
Adrian Frutiger left a remarkable sign in the world of
Typography. His career lasted more than fifty years
and took place primarily in France. The artist was
born in 1928 in Unterseen, Switzerland and had two
brothers and a sister. Later, he received his education
in his homeland at Kunstgewerbeschule, (School of
Applied Arts) in Bern. Shortly after graduating, he
moved to Paris for his first job at foundry Deberny Et.
Peignot. As optimistic and promising his professional
life was, his personal life was a catastrophe. Frutiger
was married twice with both leading to unfortunate
circumstances. His first wife, Paulette, died during
the birth of their son, Stephan while his second wife,
Simone, (fig.2) gave birth to two daughters whom
committed suicide at a later age due to mental health
problems. After their deaths, he and his wife started
a foundation in their memory in order to contribute
funds to neuroscience and support mental health
research. His second wife passed away in 2008 and
Frutiger later died in September 2015 in Switzerland
at the age of 87.

Fig. 2
Adrian Frutiger and his
second wife Simone
Avenir by Adrian Frutiger 8

He produced many typefaces at the foundry and he

was given the opportunity to adjust the existing fonts
so they can be appropriate not only for hot-metal
type, but for the new phototypesetting process. Not
too long after he started working at the foundry, he
was commissioned to create new typefaces for the
Paris public transportation as well as, at the time,
the newly built airport Charles De Gaulle both of
which are still in use.
During Frutigers career he won numerous awards like
the Silver medal in competition for Most Beautiful
Swiss Books with Bruno Pfffli for Das Hohe Lied
Salomos, in Leipzig, 1971 and The Gutenberg Prize
of the City of Mainz in 1986. His career had been
very fruitful and left positive influences not only the
elaboration of typography but encouraged new young
designers to follow in his footsteps. His goal was to
continue expanding the contemporary movements
and to transition into a more modern epoch of
typesetting being very influenced by the contemporary
International Style1 (fig.3) Despite his recent death,
typefaces like Univers, Frutiger and Avenir will
always be reminiscent of him and his work.

Fig. 3
Poster by Joseph Mller-
Brockmann from the Swiss Style
1. Adrian Frutiger, Signs and Symbols: Their Design and Meaning (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1989).
Avenir by Adrian Frutiger 10

Univers (1957)

As previously mentioned, one of

Frutigers first career achievements was
the production of type family Univers
(fig.4) in 1957. Univers is categorized
as a sans serif, neo-grotesque typeface.
The biggest innovation that Frutiger
made in terms of Univers in order
to set it apart from existing sans
serif typefaces is producing a wholly
unified family. In addition, Frutiger
made another modernization with
Univers by introducing the double-
digit numeration as a way to distinct
different styles by their weight and
width instead of using different names
for each modification as designers
before him did
Univers is suitable for continuous text
due to the equal color even at a lighter
weight. The tall x-height is actually
shorter than its contemporary rival,
Helvetica, but as a whole, the font is
set wider. Unlike Helvetica, Univers
has a wider range of weights; its
modified strokes lends itself to a more
elegant and tasteful aesthetic than
that of Helvetica.
Both typefaces were influenced
heavily by Akzidenz-Grotesque2 and
were made in response to the need of
practical and multipurpose sans-serif storied a, with a straight back, Fig. 4
typefaces that are elegant and and no baseline curl. The different weights of Univers
modern following the trends of the Even though the typeface was created
Swiss Style. Nevertheless, some more than fifty years ago, the wide
identifying attributes that set apart variety of weights make it desirable by a
Univers are the squared appearance lot of designers due to the ease of creating
of the round strokes, no spur on the hierarchy. The quick positive reaction
G, the diagonal strokes in the k towards Univers and immediate success
that meet at the stem and maybe the that followed led Frutiger to further
most distinguishing factor is the two- explore sans serif typefaces.

2.Adrian Frutiger, Signs and Symbols: Their Design and Meaning (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1989).
Avenir by Adrian Frutiger 12

Fig. 5
Directional sign from Charles De
Gaulle Airport in Paris

Frutiger (1974)
It did not take long for Adrian Frutiger to come up Essentially, Roissy was intended to be a more
with another remarkable typeface. The original readable version of Concorde, the success of which
font created was called Roissy and was designed led to the conversion of Roissy into a typeface
for the newly built Charles De Gaulle Airport for print because of its impressible quality and
in Paris (fig.5) for its sign system. The typeface practical usage. Incorporating the influence of the
was intended to be clear, legible from every angle typeface Gill Sans, Frutiger balances a mixture of
and from a long distance even in a smaller size. the clarity of Univers and the humanistic aesthetic
The main inspiration for Roissy came from a font of Gill Sans. As the artist refers to the typeface,
previously designed by Frutiger in the 1960s called stating that the most important part in creating
Concorde. The idea was to create a new legible and it was the lack of any artistic touch what he would
clean sans-serif typeface that is more classical in consider nudity.4 In some cases, Frutiger and
appearance yet distinctive from Univers. Concorde Univers share similar characteristics, but in a
ended up failing due to lack of attention, therefore manner distinctive to each typeface. For example,
Frutiger had to improve on the typeface for the both typefaces have a square dot over the i as well
Charles De Gaulle project to be successful. as double-story a and a single-story g.
Avenir by Adrian Frutiger 14

Fig. 6
A poster depicting the
different weights of Frutiger

Although slightly diverse, both typefaces have tall

x-heights, one of the main reasons why they are so
easily readable under a variety of conditions. As a
font specifically designed for the directional sign
system (fig. 6) of an airport, the ability to be read on
a small size and from distance without requiring the
use of small caps was probably the most important
condition for Frutiger typeface.
In 1997, the new version Frutiger Next was
released, including true italics with every weight
available. Also, in the 2000s the font was released
for the Greek, Cyrillic and Arabic alphabets. When
creating a new font, one of the main necessities for
its success is to have it available in every applicable
weight and width as well as in different alphabets,
including numerals, as opposed to only a typeface
in Latin. Today the typeface is still used by the
Euro banknotes, British Royal Navy, road signs in
Switzerland, Finnish Defense Forces and more.
 caps
capsheight
height

base

baseline
line




AVE NIR
ADDITIONAL GLYPHS
Fig. 7
Newly added glyphs

AVE
AVENIR
NIR
The Masterpiece Avenir (1988)

After the success of Univers and Frutiger, two on the sans serif stage, there was a considerable
typefaces that were considered some of the best of
the twentieth century, it was almost impossible to
create something more impressive, but Frutiger
ADDITIONAL
ADDITIONALGLYPHS
GLYPHS
lack of options. The passion to maintain mechanical,
straight forms and high legibility, however, did not
become old-fashioned, but it rather strengthen the
did it again. He overcame the accomplishment of urge to create more sans serifs. There begun a new
his previous designs and released Avenir in 1988. typography era that required different styles than the
Frutiger considered Avenir his masterpiece. (fig.7) edgy and harsh geometric Futura and Erbar. Their
The name of the typeface is translated to future strong influence could definitely be seen throughout
in French and the font is classified as a humanist the development of Avenir but what certainly made the
geometric sans serif. Futura by Paul Renner and new font outstanding is the lack of contrast between
Erbar by Jacob Erbar were the two most influential the strokes as well as the high resemblance between
typefaces to be major influences to Avenir. At the the different weights yet each made for a different
time, there was a huge gap between the contemporary purpose. Frutigers biggest achievement lies in the fact
art movement and the tendencies in typography. The that as geometric and conventional as Avenir is, the
demand for more organic and soft, yet very clean and font is very pleasant to the eye and flaunts an organic
geometric sans serif typefaces was urgent because modernist touch unlike Futura or Erbar.
Avenir by Adrian Frutiger 18

Fig. 8 In 1980, contemporary typographical fashion was

Comparison between Avenir, all about creating precisely fine fonts. There are a lot
Litera and Insignia of similarities between Avenir and its contemporary
rivals - Insignia and Litera (fig.8). Avenirs
Fig. 9 competitors are great for display type due to their
Detailed showing of the high readability, but not as suitable for body text due
different weights to the high x-heights, which is generally less pleasant
to the eye for a continuous text. The lower x-height
makes Avenir much more versatile.
The main advantage of Avenir, however, comes from
the small to complete lack of optical enforcement in
Litera and Insignia. Their resemblance to an early
ITC Avant Garde Gothic is easily recognizable,
however the similarity is in high contrast with
Avenir. Frutigers masterpiece has outstanding
characteristics. Its x-height is medium with short
ascenders and descenders, which increases the
legibility without the need of generous leading.
Very low to no contrast between strokes (fig.9)and
optically perfect circles for upper and lowercase o
and q, and lowercases p,b,d and g.
Avenir by Adrian Frutiger 20

Fig. 10
Comparison between
Avenir, Futura, Gill Sans
and Univers

The most distinguishing factor that can be considered

a trademark for Avenir is the horizontal tile of the
uppercase Q. (fig.10) More identifying qualities of
the typeface are the flattop verticals on the square,
diagonal-square and diagonal forms, the double-story
lowercase a but the single-story lowercase g3, both
also seen in the Frutiger and Univers typefaces. The
apertures throughout are very open, same-height
horizontal strokes on the uppercase letters E, F and
G. All of its characteristics satisfy the depiction of
a geometric typeface with a humanist touch, but
the unique beauty comes from the optical illusion
that Frutiger has created in order to maintain
the mechanically perfect forms with a sense of
organic taste. In order to truthfully appreciate the
configuration and idea behind this typeface and to
fully comprehend how Avenir started a new era of
typography, it is essential to briefly go over Paul
Renners Futura and Jacob Erbars Erbar.

3. Adrian Frutiger, Typefaces: The Complete Works (Basel: Birkhauser, 2008).

Avenir by Adrian Frutiger 22 23

Fig. 12
Fig. 11
Poster using the
Poster using the
typeface Futura
typeface Erbar
Grotesk

Main Influence and Uprising Need

Erbar (fig. 11) is considered to be the first geometric Paul Renners Futura, (fig. 12) which is also
sans serif ever created. Released in 1926 by Ludwig classified as a geometric sans serif, was released the
& Mayer foundation, Erbar was created by Jacob following year in 1927. Despite of the misperception
Erbar. The method lacked artistic features and failed around the two designers and which typeface was
to fulfill its purpose of high readability because of first created, one thing is definitely certain Futura
its smaller x-height and lack of fluent visual rhythm. was a substantially more successful, widely used
Therefore the typeface is suitable for display text and and recognized typeface than Erbar.
lacks versatility for much else. The most recognizable In Futura, the shapes are strongly geometric and
characteristics are double-story lower case a, the bowls mathematically precise without the organic touch
are optically circular but built on mainly geometric that Avenir possesses. Even strokes, near-perfect
shapes. Erbar was the inspiration of many geometric circles, low contrast, tall ascenders, single story
typefaces, most successful of which is Futura by Paul a and g are some of the main characteristics of
Renner. There is a common confusion that Futura was Futura. The letter O is wide and an almost perfect
the first geometric sans serif due to its popularity and circle whereas letters like T and L are much narrower
Erbars lack of received attention. resembling a square.
Avenir by Adrian Frutiger 24 29

Fig. 13
Comparison between
Avenir and Futura

The difference between the widths of single letters

is outsized and easily noticeable, whereas, in Avenir,
there is no similar separation within the letterform
from the same weight. (fig.13)
Even though there have been some troubles with
Futura that kept it from being the best sans serif of
the twentieth century, its success is unarguable and
its wide-range usage even nowadays both digitally
as well as for print. The challenge lied in creating
a visually more pleasant typeface that holds the
same engineering perfection and precision or at least
creating an optical illusion to do so.
In the case of Avenir, the Swiss typography style
was the main influence. Some features of Swiss
typography are readability, legibility, simplicity and
objectivity and cleanliness. During the height of
Swiss typography in the middle of twentieth century,
design was separated from fine arts; grids were
introduced as well as asymmetrical layout design
typical to that time period.
Cause Effect
A new variation of Avenir, produced by Frutiger University, Hong Kong International Airport whereas Fig. 14
in cooperation with the Linotypes designer Akira Avenir Next is used for Honda and a special The landmark of the City of
Kobayashi between 2004-2007, was named Avenir version for Best Buy. Amsterdam
Next. The reason for reworking his masterpiece It is hard to define whether Avenir or Avenir Next
was the need of on-screen type. Even though is the superior typeface, because both were created
Avenir is already versatile, the typeface was still for dissimilar typesetting methods, in response to
produced in 1988 for print so some changes and diverse needs from different times. However, both
additions were needed to keep the font usable. typefaces complement each other very well and give
Six new weights and two widths were added to any designer the opportunity to choose from similar
total of twenty-four fonts. Avenir Next also added yet different typefaces to find the particular font to
small caps, and true italics as well as a whole new fulfill and match the needs of their design.
version of condensed letterforms. . In order to fully understand and appreciate the
Avenir Next is the twenty-first century version of beauty and the unique qualities of Avenir, consider
Avenir and it is expected to have at least as wide if not the time period of its creation.
wider popularity than its predecessor. Both versions The idea of inventing and developing what was
of the typeface are widely used today because they considered completely new is absolutely fascinating
allow designers to easily build visual hierarchy due during a time where technology was not as
to the wide range of weights and widths.Some of the widespread as today. His abilities and talent paired
most famous examples of Avenirs usage are BBC2, with his hard work gave typography an incredible
the logo in Amsterdam City (fig. 14) Wake Forest standard and set it in a new direction.
Avenir by Adrian Frutiger 28

Fig. 15 The old Avenir Family The Avenir Next Family

Comparison between
Avenir and Avenir Next

Avenir 35 Avenir Next Ultra Light

Avenir 45 Avenir Next Regular
Avenir 55 Avenir Next Medium
Avenir 65 Avenir Next Demi
Avenir 85 Avenir Next Bold
Avenir 95 Avenir Next Heavy
Avenir and Avenir Next (fig.15) will
continue to be as usable as it is now
for the future generations where
the original creation of the typeface
would be even more fascinating and
inspiring for the young designers with
passion in typography. It would be
very hard for someone to achieve what
Frutiger has, even with all of this
technology, but we are in a time now
when typography takes new direction
and for someone as influential as
Frutiger to make an impact.
Avenir by Adrian Frutiger 30

Bibliography
1.Everything Avenir. Avenir. Accessed
September 17, 2016.
2.Osterer, Heidrun, and Adrian
Frutiger. Adrian Frutiger: Typefaces.
Basel: Birkhauser, 2009.
3.Greisner, Walter. Adrian Frutiger
Remembered. The Seybiold Report 15
(September 21, 2015).
4.Ruari McLean. Typography. Grove
Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford
University Press, accessed
September 19, 2016
5.GmbH, [email protected] Monotype.
Avenir, the Future for Amsterdam
August 7, 2003. Linotype News.
August 7, 2003. Accessed
September 19, 2016.
6.Eye Magazine. Eye Magazine.
Spring 1999. Accessed
September 18, 2016.
7. Printmag. 12 Overlooked &
Underappreciated Typefaces - Print
Magazine. Print Magazine. 2016.
Accessed September 18, 2016.
8.Haley, Allan, and Richard
Poulin. Typography, Referenced: A
Comprehensive Visual Guide to the
Language, History, and Practice of
Typography. Beverly, MA.: Rockport
Publishers, 2012.
9.Tholenaar, Jan, Cees De. Jong, and
Alston W. Purvis. Type: A Visual
History of Typefaces and
Graphic Styles. Monograph Modern Approach towards a
Vol. 1. Kln: Taschen, 2009. Traditional Appearance
10.GmbH, [email protected] Monotype. Designed by Zoya Trendafilova
Avenir Next. Avenir Typefaces used:
Next Font Family. Avenir and Avenir Next by Adrian Frutiger
11.Frutiger, Adrian. Signs and Symbols: Century Schoolbook by Morris Benton
Their Design and Meaning. New York: Monograph is designed at UMBC in Fawll 2016
Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1989. and printed at Commonvision UMBC.