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Adrian Frutiger – Typefaces. The Complete Works
ADRIAN FRUTIGER
THE
TYPEFACES.
COMPLETE WORKS
Heidrun Osterer Edited by the
Philipp Stamm Swiss Foundation Type and Typography
Birkhäuser
Basel
Content
6 Adrian Frutiger – The standard-setter 12 Adrian Frutiger’s teachers and mentors 134 Alphabet Orly 234 Iridium
Kurt Weidemann Career path A signalisation without a system The origin of Iridium
The noble form in a typeface
7 A typeface is a tool 26 Président 138 Apollo D. Stempel AG
Adrian Frutiger About Président Production stages of Apollo ‘Der Mensch und seine Zeichen’
Latins, Runic, Etienne, Renaissance Stylistic elements of Apollo Typeface comparison
8 How we made this book Business card typefaces Apollo as a book typeface
Basic forms of & Marketing Apollo 244 Alphabet Métro
10 How to use this book Additions to Président Typeface comparison The Métro in Paris, the Tube in London
Typeface comparison Univers as the basis for Métro
148 Alphabet Entreprise Francis Bouygues The arrow
36 Delta Collaboration
The ‘Delta’ style 248 Alphabet Centre Georges Pompidou
150 Concorde The typeface Centre Georges Pompidou CGP
38 Phoebus The development of Concorde
About Phoebus A dynamic sans serif 250 Frutiger
Swashes The static aspects in the dynamic Concorde A signage type becomes a text type
Typophane transfer sheets Frutiger for photosetting
Typeface comparison 156 Serifen-Grotesk / Gespannte Grotesk Comparison between Concorde, Roissy, Frutiger
An inscriptional roman for text setting Frutiger LT PostScript
46 Element-Grotesk The humane in the grotesque Frutiger for form and the Post Office
A new approach to type A true cursive in addition to the grotesque
160 Alphabet Algol Is Frutiger Next really a Frutiger ?
48 Federduktus Typeface for a computer language The digital versions
Experiments and designs Imitations of Frutiger
162 Serifa The colour of a typeface
50 Ondine Beginning of Serifa Typeface comparison
About Ondine Serifa designs Back to signage type – Astra Frutiger
Formal derivation of Ondine Twelve Serifa theses
Script fonts by Deberny & Peignot Slab serif typeface group 268 Glypha
Deberny & Peignot market segments Advertising Serifa Serifa versus Glypha
Typeface comparison Typeface comparison Differences to Serifa
Typeface comparison
60 Méridien 176 OCR-B
About Méridien Worldwide standardisation 276 Icone
Le Mariage de Figaro Machine-readable typefaces Technical development
Rhythm and proportion Character recognition The distortion of type
The multitude of originals Designing OCR-B Creative counterattack
Dualism of shapes in nature Applications Typeface comparison
Typeface comparison Typeface comparison
286 Breughel
74 Caractères Lumitype 190 Univers IBM Composer Typographic designs for Breughel
About Lumitype Cooperation with IBM Relationship to Jenson
Lumitype classification Typesetting and typeface quality A typeface suited to digitisation
Possibilities of Photon-Lumitype Typeface design for the Composer Leading of a typeface
Lumitype font range Typeface comparison
Em square and units 198 Alphabet EDF- GDF
Architecture and typography 296 Dolmen
88 Univers ‘Delta’ and ‘Dolmen’
About Univers 202 Katalog Curve junctures in ‘Dolmen’
Historical background A strong typeface for newsprint A further ‘Dolmen’ project
Univers diagrams
Static grotesque 206 Devanagari / Tamil 302 Tiemann
Antique Presse and Univad Scripts of the Indian cultures Tiemann-Antiqua at Die Zeit
Non-Latin typefaces Indo-European scripts The 20th-century neoclassical antiquas
Univers extensions Indian scripts Typeface comparison
Linotype Univers Working on the new Devanagari
Univers original versus digital A linear Tamil type 308 Versailles
Univers adaptations Historically ‘correct’ Latin typeface
Frutiger’s thoughts on the new 214 Alpha BP Designing the curve endings
Linotype Univers A better Futura or a typeface in its own right ? ITC Latin typefaces at Linotype
Typeface comparison Determining the letter-spacing
218 Documenta Typeface comparison
118 Egyptienne F A harmonious OCR typeface
A first typeface for photosetting 318 Linotype Centennial
Origins of Egyptian typefaces 220 Alphabet Facom Linotype’s demands
Problems of photosetting Catalogue design and corporate typeface Characterisation of type
Development / adaptation of Egyptienne F A standard neoclassical typeface
Formal differences between the versions 224 Alphabet Roissy 100 years of Linotype typesetting
The quality of an atypical typeface Projects involving flying Two design sizes
Typeface comparison Legibility and choice of typeface Typeface comparison
Unambiguous symbol recognition
130 Opéra Information technologies
Development of Opéra
Formal characteristics 230 Alphabet Brancher
A typeface as viscous as honey
330 Avenir Production of type Logos and wordmarks Addendum
Avenir – A humanist linear grotesque 24 Handsetting 128 1957 –1960 421 Notes
Studies on the linear grotesque 58 Photosetting Photon-Lumitype 196 1961 –1964
Early geometric sans serif 86 Machine setting – Single-letter casting 232 1965 –1971 438 Index of typefaces
A new constructed grotesque 87 Photosetting Monophoto 274 1972 –1978 440 Index of subjects
New Wave and Techno 129 Machine setting – Line-casting 316 1979 –1983 442 Index of names
Production and marketing 175 OCR technology 360 1984 –1990 443 Index of firms
Typeface comparison 189 Strike-on composition 406 1991 – 2008 445 List of literature
Avenir Next 223 Transfer type 448 List of illustrations
233 Photosetting Linofilm
346 Westside 275 CRT setting 450 Biography Adrian Frutiger
Consistency in Westside 317 Lasersetting 450 Awards and prizes
The Italienne subgroup 361 Digital setting 450 Lectures
Typeface comparison 451 Exhibitions
452 Publications by Adrian Frutiger
352 Vectora Detail in typography 452 Specialist articles by Adrian Frutiger
General remarks on Vectora 262 The colour of a typeface 453 Films / Videos
American Gothics as the starting point 292 Leading of a typeface 453 Radio interviews
Size and impact of a typeface 312 Determining the letter-spacing 454 Publications about Adrian Frutiger’s work
Typeface comparison 321 Characterisation of type 454 Articles on Adrian Frutiger’s work
356 Size and impact of a typeface 456 Typefaces by Adrian Frutiger
362 Linotype Didot 364 Design sizes 456 Typeface manufacturers
The genesis of Linotype Didot 458 Places of work and co-workers
Design sizes 458 Collaborations with other companies
The originals Quotations of Adrian Frutiger
Ornaments and decorative fonts 137 Type is like a spoon 460 The authors
Typeface comparison 174 Keyhole and key 461 Our thanks
188 The feeling for shapes and a technical grasp 462 Credits
370 Herculanum 201 I make the bricks
‘Type before Gutenberg’ 217 The balance of the counters
Historical analysis of Herculanum 222 Like the work of a dressmaker
‘Type before Gutenberg’ type sets 420 The simplicity of abstract symbols
Typeface comparison 436 Like a pure tone in music
378 Shiseido
A whiff of a typeface
384 Pompeijana
Further development of ‘TBG’
The design of Pompeijana
Typeface comparison
390 Rusticana
‘Type before Gutenberg’ – Third instalment
Shape changes in the terminals
Typeface comparison
402 Nami
Half a century in the making
Typeface comparison
With Gutenberg’s invention of the adjustable hand mould, no less was achieved than the
industrial-scale production of a commodity – metal type – in any desired quantity and
with consistent quality, effectively ushering in the modern era. Master scribes were re-
placed by master printers. This invention would last half a millennium before it, in turn,
was pushed aside by photosetting, by information being transmitted at the speed of light.
The end result, however, was still a printed letter on a page. Unfortunately a correspond-
ingly fast improvement in human comprehension has not been forthcoming. The composi-
tion of our brains is basically unchanged since the time of Adam & Eve. An a is an a, and
always will be.
At the threshold of this new era in printing technology, one name stood out: Adrian
Frutiger. The measurer and standard-setter of all things typographic. In his 1951 diploma
submission, Adrian Frutiger produced nine wooden panels on which he had engraved,
letter by letter, examples of Western alphabets – from Greek inscriptional capitals to
humanistic minuscules and cursives. It was already apparent in this work that he was a
master of space, proportion and order. It was clear even then that his career path would
be characterised by his passion for the criteria of legibility and the beauty of form. During
his time in France, typefaces such as Méridien, Serifa, Iridium and Linotype Centennial
were produced, typefaces that captured the zeitgeist, and which are still proving their
worth today.
Around the middle of the last century work began on the production of a typeface
family with the name Univers. A system ordered and classified into 21 members was a
totally new approach at the time. These 21 members would find their application in every
area of use: from gracing posters to appearing on the smallest packaging leaflet. The first
step in the generation of every printed product developed by a highly specialised profes-
sion is the choice of a typeface and its design. As much for movable type as for photosetting
and the compositor, this typeface is still the lynchpin at the end of those 500 years. It
represents both the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. If survival down the
ages is an important criterion for art, then this is also true for the art of typography. And
it is all the more true for a typographic art that neither displays nor has need of modish
showiness.
With Adrian Frutiger there has always been a seamless transition between applied
and fine art. The glyphs of his Indian typeface and of his logotypes have also been applied
in his sculptures, reliefs and woodcuts in a free and unique manner. They spring from the
same sense of form and strength of expression as his applied art. Everything that takes
and assumes shape in his works has been filtered through his depth of knowledge and his
power of thought. However, Adrian Frutiger has always remained a great, yet modest man,
a man who, in his dedication to his work in the service of type and the word, and in his
ceaseless invention in the form and material of his fine art works has been, and will remain,
a standard-setter.
6 P r E FA C E
Adrian Frutiger
A typeface is a tool
Working with hot metal was my first experience of the power of type to make the whole
world of thought legible simply by re-arranging the same letters over and over again. This
made it clear to me that optimum readability should always be foremost when developing
a typeface. But then we found ourselves in an era in which type was no longer set using
lead characters, but with beams of light. Transforming the typefaces of the old masters
from the old to the new process was the best learning experience for me. But when it came
to the grotesques, I had an idea of my own. And from that idea arose the Univers family.
Technical progress took a great leap forward. Moving typefaces to electronic representa-
tion brought with it the jaggies and later the vectorisation of the outlines. Given my sense
of form, it was quite a painful experience. Now, though, with font creation programmes
and their resolution-independent Bézier curves, and with lasersetting, it looks to me like
our journey through the desert is finally over.
Other tasks fell to me. OCR-B set me the problem of designing characters that were
readable not only to the human eye, but also to mechanical ones – something that stirred
up, shall we say, an aesthetic conflict that taught me how to think about things in a dif-
ferent way. With the signage concepts for the airports and the Paris Métro I worked on
large-scale typefaces. That’s how I came to realise that, in all sizes, readability follows the
same rules about counters and side bearings. When I was asked to think about the Indian
typefaces, this uncharted territory amazed me. Only when I began to write and draw the
characters, did I become aware of the deep-seated connections between the Indo-European
cultures. It took only a short time for me to grasp that my task consisted of imparting
500 years of Western experience in setting and printing technology. My Indian colleagues
would have to find their own way forward from there.
The evolution of these letters – this continual simplification from symbol to sound – is
something that has always preoccupied me. I was always fascinated by the symbol as the
expression of a signature, a brand, and above all, a cipher. This connection between letters
and symbols brought me into the commercial world of the logo as an area of operation. In
the course of my working life I built up knowledge and skill. To impart those achievements
and experiences to the next generation became the most important thing. In May 1968 the
intellectual climate changed. In their impetuousness, the students pushed their craft to
one side and tried to solve problems simply by force of intellect. I could never express
myself only through words, without using my hands and the tools of my trade. So I have
chronicled my legacy in my books, through my writing and my drawing.
On my career path I learned to understand that beauty and readability – and up to a
certain point, banality – are close bedfellows: the best typeface is the one that impinges
least on the reader’s consciousness, becoming the sole tool that communicates the mean-
ing of the writer to the understanding of the reader.
from Adrian Frutiger. Denken und Schaffen einer Typographie
The book that you are holding is the result of many conversations between myself and
friends from the profession, conducted over a period of two years at my studio in Bremgar-
ten near Bern. Erich Alb, Rudolf Barmettler and Philipp Stamm used their subtle but – at
the same time – direct questioning and discussing to awake in me memories that, for years,
had been deeply buried. For that I am grateful to them. We met once a month, and talked
about my typeface design work in chronological order. It was almost like living my profes-
sional life all over again, beginning with the school in Zurich, through my time at Deberny
& Peignot and then on to Linotype.
Without the discussions between specialists, my friends in the profession, and other
advisors, this book would never have happened. My thanks go to Heidrun Osterer, Philipp
Stamm, my above-mentioned colleagues, and to Silvia Werfel, who transformed the tran-
scripts into proper German.
P r E FA C E 7
introduction
How we made this book
This book is the product of a series of factors and happy coincidences. In 1999 Erich Alb,
publisher of Syndor Press approached us to carry out the design of a book about the typo-
graphical work of Adrian Frutiger. We gladly agreed, little realising what the project would
become – a task that would define our working lives for the next decade.
The project began in 1994, at a dinner held to celebrate a Linotype typeface competi-
tion, during the course of which Friedrich Friedl suggested during a conversation with
Adrian Frutiger that he write his professional memoirs. Frutiger rose to the challenge and
Syndor Press, publishers of Frutiger’s books between 1996 and 2001, undertook the planning
of a multi-volume edition. The first volume, which dealt with Frutiger’s fine art works,
appeared in 1998 under the title Forms and Counterforms. The content of the second vol-
ume, containing his typographical works, had burgeoned so much that we were brought
in as designers in 1999.
During the development of the design concept we were faced with many questions
regarding content, simply because our involvement in Adrian Frutiger’s typeface creation
runs so deep. Between 2001 and 2003, in a series of intensive discussions with Adrian
Frutiger, Erich Alb, Rudolf Barmettler and Philipp Stamm analysed and examined the ori-
gins and development of each of his typefaces. These conversations were recorded on tape.
In 2001 we undertook a month-long research journey through France, England and Ger-
many, to gather as much material as possible from libraries, museums and antiquarian
booksellers, as well as from public and private collections. We also sought out people who
had worked with Adrian Frutiger or who were still in contact with him, and during the
course of some long and wide-ranging interviews we deepened our knowledge of Adrian
Frutiger’s life’s work.
In our discussions with Erich Alb we tried to exert a little more influence over the
book’s concept. This wasn’t always successful, but the project was making progress – until
the moment at the end of 2001 when Syndor Press was forced into liquidation. At that time
we were already far more familiar with the deeper material, and after securing Erich Alb
and Adrian Frutiger’s agreement, decided to carry the project forward ourselves, becoming
the book’s authors as well as its designers.
The collected documents pertaining to Adrian Frutiger’s work were transferred from
Syndor Press in Cham to our offices in Basel, so that we would always have the originals
at our disposal for consultation and reproduction. In order to get an overview of the
material and to see how we were going to organise the chapters in the book, we began to
form an archive of all the documents from Adrian Frutiger, as well as those that we had
collected on our travels. The question was, of course, what would ultimately become of all
this material? And so, starting in October 2002, during many meetings over the course of
two years, a group of six people prepared the establishment of Swiss Foundation Type and
Typography, whose founding member was to be Adrian Frutiger.
The work on the book continued in parallel. We started, basically, at the beginning,
throwing out a lot of original concepts, and completely reworking the ideas for the design
and contents. Only the size format of the first volume of the originally planned series
was retained. We presented our ideas to Adrian Frutiger, Erich Alb and Rudolf Barmettler.
The reaction was very positive, and, above all, Adrian Frutiger was grateful that his typo-
graphical work would be so comprehensively documented.
The setting up of the Foundation was yet under way, and took up a lot of time and
energy, so much so that the book was pushed somewhat into the background. But further
research travels and interviews were also being conducted that enabled us to answer
questions that were becoming ever more exacting and searching. The Linotype company
opened up its archive and entrusted us with the remaining original design drawings of
Adrian Frutiger’s typefaces for Swiss Foundation Type and Typography. We undertook
research into type design and history and re-appraised the material we had on hand. We
had Adrian Frutiger’s hot metal typefaces recast at Rainer Gerstenberg’s in Darmstadt,
8 i nTrOduCTiOn
then set them as alphabets at a hand compositor’s in Basel and printed them on barite
paper. Our colleagues scanned in these typefaces and, over many hours, prepared them
for the examples in the book. New typefaces by Adrian Frutiger for Linotype necessitated
an ongoing enlargement of the book’s scope. We also needed to find a publisher for the
book and draw up a contract. And still the questions rolled in, and the discussions contin-
ued. There were many delays, and many clarifications were necessary – including the
question of who was actually now the author of the book.
The transcriptions of the interviews were edited by us before being sent to Silvia
Werfel, a specialist journalist, who took Adrian Frutiger’s words and translated them into
flowing prose. In summer 2007, the publishing contract with Birkhäuser was finally signed,
and we began to compose the ancillary texts that would frame Adrian Frutiger’s typefac-
es against a background of typographic history and contemporary typographic design. As
Silvia Werfel’s texts came in, we gave them the finishing touches. At this point, with the
solid support of our co-workers, the available material for the chapters had already been
sounded out, sorted, and built into the layout.
That the project has come to a successful conclusion with the book you are now hold-
ing is due to many people. First and foremost, we must thank the extreme patience and
good will of Adrian Frutiger, who read every chapter and gave his input on each of them.
Furthermore, we would like to thank the Foundation, which backed us financially; Linotype,
in whose company archives we were allowed to research at any time without hindrance;
Silvia Werfel, who captured the nuances of Adrian Frutiger’s speech, and whose transcripts
provided an excellent foundation for the chapters; Erich Alb and Bruno Pfäffli, who scrupu-
lously proofread the book using two very different approaches; the translators and proof-
readers of the English and French editions, in particular Paul Shaw, who read the chapters
in the already translated English version with a critical and scholarly eye – and who made
small improvements here and there; Birkhäuser Verlag, for their appreciation and support
of our work; and, naturally, our colleagues and co-workers, who, in spite of little compen-
sation, have given us their committed support, and who transformed our ideas and supple-
mented them with their own. And let us not forget the worldwide support – be it moral or
in the form of further information and documents – that we have encountered everywhere,
and which gave us the strength to bring together the three available language editions of
this work. It was planned to be published in time for Adrian Frutiger’s 80th birthday in the
spring of 2008 – but at least we managed it by autumn of the same year.
With the second edition, we have striven to make improvements. Mistakes that were iden-
tified and about which we have been informed (for which our sincerest thanks) have been
corrected. An essential improvement in relation to the first edition is the index. Wherever
possible, we have updated material; now, for example, the digital version of Phoebus is
shown in its complete form. Time constraints made it impossible to discuss the additional
fonts that have meanwhile been published by Linotype (all of them reworked versions of
earlier typefaces by Adrian Frutiger); they are however listed in the individual chapters
and in an appendix.
i ntroduction 9
introduction
How to use this book
10 i nTrOduCTiOn
career path
adrian Frutiger’s teachers and mentors
Starting out
Adrian Frutiger was born on 24 May 1928 in Unterseen near Interlaken in Switzerland. He /01/
grew up as the second-youngest child, with his sister Charlotte and his brothers Roland Logo for Frutiger Heimtextil,
designed around 1985 for
and Erich. His mother, Johanna, a baker’s daughter, raised the children and ran the house- the family weaving and cloth
hold. His father Johann, son of a carpenter, was at this time employed in a draper’s in business in Interlaken.
Unterseen.1 The village itself is cut off from Interlaken by the river Aare, and lies on the
valley floor between Lake Brienz in the east and Lake Thun in the west. Towards the south
stands the imposing mountain panorama of the Berner Alps, with the Eiger, Mönch and
Jungfrau peaks; towards the north the foothills of the Alps proper dominate the horizon.
The wider world seems distant, yet the proximity of fashionable Interlaken means it is
never far away. In 1934 Adrian Frutiger’s father opened a handloom workshop there, the
Oberländer Webstube, whereupon the family moved to the health resort. Their house stood
directly by the train tracks. To the rear could be seen a gasworks with its coal silos and
loading cranes, and a little further away, the base station of a mountain cable car could
be seen. Adrian Frutiger liked to look at this scenery through the window. With hindsight
he has stated that this daily contact with all things mechanical – his passion for model
traction engines and the interest in electricity that this awoke in him from an early age –
proved to be a natural education. Even the simple Jacquard loom that his father acquired
aroused his interest. This machine allowed semi-automatic weaving and, with the help of
homemade punch cards, they were able to produce versions of the weaving samples that
his father had collected over the years with a much finer warp and weft. Under its later
name of Frutiger Heimtextil, the shop continued to be run by Frutiger’s younger brother
Erich until 2006. In the mid 1980s Adrian Frutiger designed the logo for the family com-
pany /01/, one of almost 100 logos and wordmarks he made during his career.
Frutiger’s education began in 1935. His first years in school did little to fire his enthu-
siasm. Adolescence, however, brought about a great transformation: he discovered the joys
of reading, drawing and painting. The children’s books of Ernst Eberhard, with their hand-
drawn ink illustrations, especially captivated him. One of these stories centred on a boy
who inherited a great deal of money through his willingness to help other people. This
legacy enabled the boy to attend the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts) in Bern,
and the story ended with the boy continuing his studies in far-off Italy. This story captured
Adrian Frutiger’s imagination so strongly that he wrote to Ernst Eberhard, who lived in
Unterseen and worked as a secondary school teacher. The reply he received, with its invi-
tation to visit, was written in a beautiful script that Adrian Frutiger started immediately /02/
to imitate. Eberhard advised him to observe more closely while drawing from nature. At secondary school Frutiger learnt the
Hulliger Schrift handwriting system,
Through yearly visits to Eberhard, Adrian Frutiger’s drawings received critical dissection. which was introduced in 1926 by
This father figure became his first mentor. In 1948, while Frutiger was working on his Die the Basel schoolteacher Paul Hulliger.
Kirchen am Thunersee, a deep friendship also developed with his former primary school
teacher Franz Knuchel and his wife Leny. Inspired by them, he started reading classic
literature. The works of Herman Hesse, particularly Steppenwolf, Narcissus and Gold-
mund and The Glass Bead Game, left a lasting impression on him. Even as a youth, Fruti-
ger already displayed a desire to travel further and wider, although home still remained
important to him. After living in Paris for nearly 20 years, he still gladly designed the dust
jacket for the Jahrbuch vom Thuner- und Brienzersee 1971 2, at the request of Franz Knuchel.
At the end of secondary school, Adrian Frutiger’s interest in letterform took firm root.
Something in him rebelled against the stiff up-and-down strokes of the Hulliger Schrift
/02/. This style of handwriting, developed by the Basel teacher Paul Hulliger was introduced
into Basel schools in 1926, and by 1936 had been adopted by ten of Switzerland’s 25 cantons.
It is a reworking of Ludwig Sütterlin’s handwriting style that had been used in German
schools since 1911. Frutiger straightened the joined, rightward-sloping script, and mod- /03/
elled his own rounder, more flowing hand on the writing of Ernst Eberhard /03/. Adrian Frutiger’s handwriting
at age 13 (top) and 15 (bottom) –
At the age of 15, Adrian Frutiger decided on his career path, but his father was firmly it became more upright,
set against the profession of a ‘starving painter’. There was also no money available for a more rounded and more fluid.
12 c a r e e r pat h
/04/
Die Kirchen am Thunersee –
cover and double-page spread from
Adrian Frutiger’s final submission
for his diploma in typesetting, 1948.
further build, gradually to take his place in the realm of the arts. That he succeeds in this, Willow branch, designed by
Adrian Frutiger in 1949 in the style of
I wish him with all my heart. God bless Art!” 7 The book was handset in Rudolf and Paul Chinese and Japanese woodcuts.
Koch’s blackletter typeface Claudius.8 Accompanied by Adrian Frutiger’s 12 woodcuts, it
was printed in a run of 1 000 copies, 25 of which were bibliophile editions, linen-bound,
individually numbered and coloured by hand. Additionally Adrian Frutiger also added the
book’s title in calligraphy by hand.9 He received his initial instruction in writing with the
broad-nib pen from Werner Wälchli, who was active as a typesetter in the same company.
After the successful conclusion of his typesetting apprenticeship Adrian Frutiger took
up a six-month position as a hand compositor at the well known printing plant Gebr. Fretz
AG in Zurich. However, his goal was still entry into the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich.
Enrichment
Shortly before his 21st birthday in early 1949, Adrian Frutiger began his further education.
After Max B. Kämpf,10 Frutiger was the second student at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich
who wanted to study type design. (Another, earlier Zurich student who went on to become
a type designer had been Hans Eduard Meier, whose Syntax Antiqua was issued in 1968.) /07/
During the week, Frutiger attended various type design courses given by Alfred Willimann. Inscriptional capitals, carved
in stone in 1949 by Adrian Frutiger
After a short time, he asked that his timetable be changed to enable him to attend Walter during his further education as a
Käch’s courses for lettering as well. In addition he attended classes in other specialist type designer in Zurich.
14 c a r e e r pat h
/08/
Nicolas Jenson’s roman typeface
from 1470 – the balance of
the text image was an example for
Adrian Frutiger.
with my little book about the churches, he greeted me with a good-natured smile and said Alfred Willimann, Adrian Frutiger’s
teacher in the history of lettering and
something like: ‘you really are from the old typesetters’ guild, and are spoiling it already practice of calligraphy at the Kunst-
for the artists’. He ignored me for some weeks after that … I followed him anyway to all gewerbeschule in Zurich.
four preparation classes in letterform, each course four hours per week and obligatory. I
listened to him, and looked over his shoulder when he was explaining calligraphy to the
others at their desks. I was astounded at this glimpse into a new world of understanding
lettering, so very different from what I had learned as a compositor at the Gewerbeschule.
My first weeks in Zurich were like being in a maze. Everything that I had learned as a com-
positor and woodcut artist seemed so squalid and naïve, parochial and, well, a bit kitschy.
My first encounter with Willimann had left my youthful pride in my work severely dented;
I only realised later that he did it on purpose, to give me a wake up call, to get me fired up
from the very start.” 12 Alfred Willimann’s teaching built on the history of lettering, which
he illustrated with examples. He drew the historic scripts with a piece of chalk held flat
against the board, imitating a broad-nib pen and then explained the pen grip, the drawing
of the stroke and the rhythm of the various script examples. For him calligraphy meant a
sort of two-dimensional architecture, as Frutiger once described it. For Alfred Willimann /10/
the essence of calligraphy was not building up the black, but rather covering the white, Wordmarks by Alfred Willimann for
the carpenter and joiner Karl Steiner
so that the light of the white page remains alive. That light, that white from the counters (top), for Lignoplast (middle) and
and side bearings, would, in time, become an important aspect of Adrian Frutiger’s entire for the paint manufacturer Gromalto
work as a type designer. Under Willimann’s teaching he also learned to understand the (bottom).
quality of the downstrokes. So that these contain tension and life, pressure must be applied
at both the beginning and end of the stroke, without the stroke ends becoming flat. /12/. The
result of this waisted stroke can also be found in some of Adrian Frutiger’s type designs.
In contrast to Alfred Willimann, Walter Käch /13/ graduated from a course of several
years study in graphic design at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich after completion of an
apprenticeship as a lithograph. Towards the end of his studies in 1920, three of the great-
est European personalities, who brought about the definitive upheaval in typographic
teaching and education at the beginning of the 20th century, were lecturing in Zurich. It
was a singular stroke of luck for Walter Käch that Fritz Helmut Ehmcke, Rudolf von Larisch
and Anna Simons were in Zurich for one year. Thanks to Anna Simons, a former student of
Edward Johnston, Johnston’s seminal 1906 work, Writing and Illuminating and Lettering,13
was available in German after 1910. Anna Simons’ translation was titled Schreibschrift, /11/
Zierschrift & angewandte Schrift.14 The Austrian Rudolf von Larisch was also responsible Poster title by Alfred Willimann for
a 1953 exhibition on Roman portrait
for many books on calligraphy and lettering, amongst them the standard work Unterricht sculpture at the Kunsthaus Zurich,
in ornamentaler Schrift 15 first published in 1905. The title emphasises Larisch’s basic designed using inscriptional capitals.
approach to writing: understanding letters as a medium for graphic expression. Edward
Johnston and Anna Simons put more emphasis on the role of readability in calligraphy.
The graphic artist and type designer Fritz Helmut Ehmcke, from Germany like Anna Simons,
was well known as an author of books on lettering. One of them was Ziele des Schriftunter-
richts,16 published in 1911. At the end of the 1921 academic year, Walter Käch accompanied
Ehmcke to the Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich, and stayed there for a year as his assistant.
From 1925 to 1929 Walter Käch lectured graphic design and woodcarving in the crafts-
department of the trade school in Zurich. After a break he lectured from 1940 to 1967 on
16 c a r e e r pat h
/12/
Instructions for correct lettering by
Alfred Willimann, from his lettering
course at the Kunstgewerbeschule
in Zurich.
in der Schrift / Rhythm and Proportion in Lettering /14/.18 Walter Käch, Adrian Frutiger’s
teacher in lettering at the Kunst-
Walter Käch divided the text sections of his first book into chapters on written script gewerbeschule in Zurich, taking a
and drawn script. For the drawn scripts he demonstrated the tracing of the outlines of a rubbing of Imperial Roman capitals.
script using illustrated examples. Using Roman Imperial capitals as a model, he contrasted
correctly and incorrectly drawn sans serif capitals /16/. Adrian Frutiger adopted many of
the form-giving principles described in the book. They were instrumental in shaping his
canonical forms. He also fell back on his teacher’s knowledge and insight when it came
to the optical rules governing his letter shapes, refining them gradually, and culminating
in 1953’s Univers. However, Adrian Frutiger and Walter Käch did not always see eye to eye.
“One thing that always stirred up confrontation was the concept of rhythm in a line of text.
Referring to an enlargement of Nicolas Jenson’s roman, I tried to demonstrate that the
counters and side bearings were of equal weight,” Frutiger later said. “It seemed to me that
Jenson, like Gutenberg, had adopted a grid system as a framework. Käch didn’t agree. He
taught that the side bearings should be kept narrower, which is certainly valid for sign- /14/
writing. My thoughts, however, lay in the direction of typefaces for reading. I later drew Walter Käch’s 1956 textbook
Rhythmus und Proportion contained
all my serif typefaces according to this concept, to avoid irregularity in the text flow.” 19 analyses of the Roman Capitalis
Frutiger’s appreciation for Nicolas Jenson’s roman /08/, designed in Venice in 1470, was a Monumentalis.
result of his study under Alfred Willimann. For Frutiger it was the regularity of the text
image and not the individual letter shapes that is paramount. The quality lies in the inter-
play of form and counterform. “The letters should stand next to each other like links in a /15/
as a model the Roman uncial and half-uncial of the 4th and 5th centuries AD, the letter
widths of which exhibit a unifying principle /15/. This harmonisation of the proportions
can also be found in the sans serifs of the 19th century, such as Akzidenz Grotesk. Walter
Käch defined the symmetry of a letter on a grid to be a guiding principle. Stylistically, these
were static scripts with square, oval and triangle as their elementary forms. The stroke
contrast in the scripts is more pronounced than in the inscriptional letters. As with the
uncials – drawn with a shallow pen angle – the curves close the letter shape. The curve /16/
terminals in Käch’s letters are therefore horizontally terminated /17/, which was a novelty Instructions from Walter Käch’s
Schriften Lettering Écritures –
in contrast to the majority of the grotesques that existed at the time. It is a characteristic the basis for correct lettering is the
that can also be seen in Adrian Frutiger’s sans serif design /19/, drawn in 1950–51, under Imperial Roman capitals.
Käch’s supervision. In 1953 at Deberny & Peignot in Paris, this design formed the basis for
the Univers typeface concept. “In my head, I always had this idea of completeness. And
that had already started forming under Käch. Käch had taught us how to think in terms
of typeface families.” 21 With his first grotesque, Frutiger had gone beyond Käch’s ideas. He
changed and considerably refined the typeface and, at Emil Ruder’s suggestion, opened
out the counters. With his second grotesque, Concorde, designed 1961–64 in conjunction
with André Gürtler, the differentiated letter proportions owed more to Alfred Willimann’s
understanding of lettering.
Adrian Frutiger brought his further education at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich
to a close with his final diploma submission, which he had worked on for nearly a year.
Like Max B. Kämpf he took as his subject the history of lettering, and cut 15 historical
scripts, reversed out on nine wooden plates /18/. In order to get the stress of the strokes
18 c a r e e r pat h
/17/
Cover and inner pages of
Walter Käch’s 1949 textbook
Schriften Lettering Écritures,
showing drawn sans serifs.
Fabricius, 13
Fall-fish, 600
Fierasfer, 549
Fighting-fish, 519
File-fishes, 684
Fins, 40
Fishing-Frog, 470
Fistularia, 507, 508
Fitzroyia, 615
Flat-fishes, 553
Flounder, 557
Flute-mouth, 507
Flying-fish, 621
Flying Gurnard, 482
Forskal, 13
Forster, 13
Freshwater-fishes, 208
Freshwater-Herring, 645
Fries and Ekström, 27
Frog-fish, 470
Frontal bone, 57, 89
Frost-fish, 436
Fuegian sub-region, 248
Fundulus, 615
Gadiculus, 541
Gadidæ, 539
Gadopsis, 537
Gadus, 539
Galapagoes district, 280
Galaxias, 624
Galeichthys, 569
Galeocerdo, 317
Galeoides, 425
Galeus, 318
Gallo, 451
Gambusia, 616
Ganodus, 349
Ganoidei, 350
Ganoid scales, 47
Gar-pike, 367, 620
Gaspereau, 659
Gastrochisma, 455
Gastrocnemus, 452
Gastromyzon, 604
Gastropelecus, 610
Gastrosteus, 505
Gastrotokeus, 682
Gazza, 450
Gegenbaur, 32
Gempylus, 437
Genidens, 569
Genyoroge, 384
Genypterus, 549
Geoffroy, 33
Geophagus, 537
Geotria, 693
Gerres, 388
Gillaroo, 645
Gill-cover, 38
Gill-opening, 38
Gill-rakers, 59, 139
Gills, 136
Gilthead, 409
Ginglymostoma, 326
Girardinus, 618
Girella, 406
Glanidium, 572
Glanis, 566
Glaucosoma, 384
Globe-fish, 687
Glossohyal, 58
Glottis, 149
Glut, 673
Glutinous hag, 694
Glyphidodon, 525
Glyptauchen, 415
Glyptolæmus, 365
Glyptolepis, 365
Glyptopomus, 365
Glyptosternum, 572
Gmelin, 13
Gobiesocidæ, 510
Gobiesox, 513
Gobio, 595
Gobiodon, 487
Gobiosoma, 487
Gobius, 486
Goby, 486
Gold-fish, 591
Gold-Sinny, 527
Gomphodus, 319
Gomphosus, 530
Gonatodus, 370
Goniognathus, 452
Gonorhynchus, 652
Gonostoma, 629
Gourami, 517
Grammistes, 382
Granular teeth, 126
Graphiurus, 365
Grayling, 649
Greenland Shark, 333
Grey Mullet, 501
Grig, 673
Gronow, 12
Growler, 393
Growth of Fishes, 170
Grystes, 392
Gudgeon, 596
Gular plates, 80
Güldenstedt, 13
Gunellichthys, 498
Gunnel-fish, 496
Günther, 27, 30
Gurnard, 479
Gwyniad, 649
Gymnachirus, 558
Gymnarchus, 626
Gymnelis, 538
Gymnocrotaphus, 406
Gymnocypris, 595
Gymnomuræna, 677
Gynmoscopelus, 585
Gymnotus, 667
Gyracanthus, 314
Gyrodus, 367
Gyropristis, 314
Gyroptychius, 365
Haddock, 540
Hadot, 540
Hæmal arches, 86
Hæmal spine, 52
Hæmapophyses, 51
Hæmulon, 386
Hag-fish, 694
Hair-tail, 436
Hake, 542
Halargyreus, 541
Halec, 656
Halecidæ, 656
Half-beak, 621
Halidesmus, 549
Halieutæa, 475
Halieutichthys, 475
Haliophis, 550
Haller, 16
Haloporphyrus, 543
Halosauridæ, 665
Hamilton, 17
Hammerhead, 318
Hapalogenys, 386
Haplochilus, 615
Haplochiton, 651
Haplodactylina, 406
Hapuku, 392
Harpagifer, 467
Harpodon, 583
Harttia, 580
Hasse, 32
Hasselquist, 13
Hausen, 361
Head, 36
Heart, 150
Heckel, 28
Hector, 32
Heliastes, 525
Helicophagus, 566
Heliodus, 359
Helmichthys, 180
Helogenes, 567
Helotes, 385
Hemerocœtes, 491
Hemichromis, 535
Hemiculter, 604
Hemigaleus, 319
Hemigymnus, 530
Hemilepidotus, 480
Hemiodus, 607
Hemipimelodus, 569
Hemipristis, 317
Hemirhamphus, 621
Hemirhombus, 556
Hemirhynchus, 437
Hemisaurida, 582
Hemisilurus, 566
Hemisorubim, 568
Hemithyrsites, 434
Hemitrichas, 656
Hemitripterus, 417
Heniochus, 399
Heptanchus, 325
Heptapterus, 581
Hermaphroditism, 157
Heros, 536
Herring, 658
Heteracanth, 41
Heterobranchus, 563
Heterocercy, 80
Heteroconger, 674
Heterognathodon, 389
Heterolepidotidæ, 491
Heteropygii, 618
Heterostichus, 498
Heterotis, 655
Hexanchus, 325
Hexapsephus, 588
Himantolophus, 472
Hippocampus, 683
Hippoglossoides, 555
Hippoglossus, 555
Histiophorus, 431
Histiopterus, 387
Holacanthus, 400
Holibut, 555
Hollardia, 684
Holocentrum, 423
Holocephala, 348
Holophagus, 365
Holoptychidæ, 365
Holosteus, 619
Homacanth, 41
Homaloptera, 604
Hombron et Jacquinot, 27
Homelyn Ray, 341
Homocanthus, 314
Homocercy, 83
Homoeolepis, 366
Homonotus, 421
Hopladelus, 568
Hoplichthys, 478
Hoplognathus, 410
Hoplopleuridæ, 665
Hoplopteryx, 421
Hoplopygus, 365
Hoplostethus, 421
Hoplunnis, 674
Horse-mackerel, 442
Hounds, 319
Huchen, 645
Humeral arch, 59
Hunds-fish, 619
Hunter, 16
Huro, 393
Hutton, 32
Huxley, 33
Hybernation, 188
Hybodontidæ, 328
Hybognathus, 596
Hyborhynchus, 596
Hybridism, 178
Hydrocyon, 611
Hygrogonus, 536
Hyodon, 653
Hyoid arch, 58
Hyomandibular, 55, 89
Hyoprorus, 674
Hyoptopoma, 578
Hyostylic skull, 74
Hypamia, 372
Hyperoglyphe, 387
Hyperopisus, 625
Hypnos, 340
Hypobranchial, 58
Hypomessus, 647
Hypophthalmichthys, 602
Hypophthalmus, 566
Hypophysis, 98
Hypotympanic, 55
Hypsinotus, 402
Hypsodon, 500
Hypural, 53, 84
Hyrtl, 32
Hysterocarpus, 534
Hystricodon, 611
Icelus, 477
Ichthyborus, 612
Ichthyocampus, 681
Ichthyodorulites, 194
Ichthyomyzon, 693
Id, 599
Ikan sumpit, 403
Impregnation, artificial, 186
Indian region, 220
Indo-Pacific ocean, 278
Infraorbital, 54
Infundibulum, 98
Interhæmals, 53
Intermaxillary, 53
Interneurals, 53
Interoperculum, 38, 55, 91
Intestine, 127
Ipnops, 585
Ischyodus, 349
Ischyrocephalus, 666
Isistius, 334
Isthmus, 39, 58
Isurus, 457
Japanese District, 270
Jenyns, 27
Jenynsia, 616
John Dory, 451
Jugular fins, 42
Julis, 529
Kabeljau, 540
Kalm, 13
Kamtschatkan district, 269
Karausche, 591
Karpfen, 589
Kathetostoma, 463
Kaup, 33
Kelb el bahr, 611
Kelb el moyeh, 611
Kelp-fish, 533
Keris, 440
Ketengus, 569
Kidney, 155
King of the herrings, 522
Klein, 12
Klipvisch, 549
Klunzinger, 30
Kner, 27, 28
Kneria, 606
Kokopu, 625
Kölliker, 32
Kovalevsky, 33
Kröyer, 27
Kurtus, 425
Labberdan, 540
Labeo, 593
Labials, 64, 69
Labrax, 376
Labrichthys, 530
Labridæ, 525
Labroides, 530
Labrus, 526
Labyrinthici, 514
Lachnolæmus, 528
Lachs, 644
Lacépède, 15
Lactarius, 450
Ladislavia, 596
Læmargus, 333
Læmonema, 543
Læops, 557
Lais, 566
Laminæ branchiales, 136
Lamna, 320
Lamnidæ, 319
Lampern, 692
Lampris, 454
Lamprey, 692
Lancelet, 696
Lanioperca, 397
Larimus, 431
Lateral line, 48
Lates, 377
Latilus, 466
Latris, 412
Latrunculus, 486
Launce, 550
Leather-carp, 591
Lebiasina, 607
Lemon-sole, 558
Lentipes, 487
Lepadogaster, 513
Lepidoblennius, 498
Lepidocephalichthys, 606
Lepidocephalus, 606
Lepidocottus, 476
Lepidopsetta, 556
Lepidopus, 435
Lepidosiren, 355
Lepidosteidæ, 367
Lepidotrigla, 479
Lepidotus, 368
Lepidozygus, 525
Leporinus, 608
Lepracanthus, 314
Leptacanthus, 314
Leptobarbus, 597
Leptocarcharias, 319
Leptocardii, 696
Leptocephali, 179
Leptoichthys, 681
Leptojulis, 529
Leptolepidæ, 371
Leptopterygius, 513
Leptoscopus, 463
Leptosomus, 656
Leptotrachelus, 666
Lesson, 26
Lethrinus, 407
Leucaspius, 604
Leuciscus, 598
Leucosomus, 600
Liacanthus, 314
Liachirus, 558
Liassic fishes, 198
Lichia, 446
Ligamentum longitudinale, 72
Limnurgus, 615
Ling, 544, 549
Linnæus, 10
Liocassis, 567
Liopsetta, 556
Lioscorpius, 415
Liparis, 485
Liposarcus, 576
Liver, 132
Loach, 604
Lobotes, 387
Lonchurus, 431
Lophiogobius, 487
Lophiosilurus, 569
Lophiostomus, 368
Lophius, 470
Lophobranchii, 678
Lophonectes, 556
Loricaria, 578
Lota, 544
Lotella, 543
Loxodon, 319
Lucania, 615
Lucifuga, 547
Luciocephalidæ, 519
Luciogobius, 489
Lucioperca, 378
Luciosoma, 598
Luciotrutta, 646
Lump-sucker, 484
Lütken, 32
Lycodes, 537
Nandus, 418
Nannœthiops, 610
Nannobrachium, 587
Nannocampus, 681
Nannocharax, 608
Nannostomus, 607
Narcine, 340
Naseus, 438, 440
Nauclerus, 446
Naucrates, 444
Nautichthys, 480
Nealotus, 434
Nearctic region, 246
Nebris, 431
Nebrius, 326
Neetroplus, 536
Nefasch, 612
Nemacanthus, 314
Nemachilus, 605
Nemadactylus, 412
Nematogenys, 581
Nematops, 557
Nematoptychius, 370
Nemichthys, 670
Nemophis, 498
Nemopteryx, 434, 539
Neochanna, 624
Neoclinus, 498
Neoconger, 674
Neophrynichthys, 469
Neotropical region, 233
Nerfling, 599
Nerophis, 681
Nerves, 103
Nesiarchus, 434
Nettastoma, 674
Neural arches, 85
Neural spine, 52
Neurapophyses, 51
Neurology, 96
Neuroskeleton, 85
New Zealand sub-region, 248
Nictitating membrane, 113
Nilsson, 27
Niphon, 397
Nomeidæ, 455
Nomeus, 456
Nonnat, 501
Nordmann, 28
North American district, 266
North American region, 246
North Atlantic, 262
Northern temperate zone, 262
Northern zone, 240
North Pacific, 268
Nostrils, 37, 109
Notacanthus, 523
Notidanus, 325
Notochord, 63
Notoglanis, 569
Notograptus, 498
Notopterus, 665
Notothenia, 466
Noturus, 568
Novacula, 529
Nummopalatus, 526
Nuria, 598
Nutrition, organs of, 121
Oar-Fish, 522
Oblata, 406
Occipital, 56
Ochetobius, 602
Odax, 532
Odontaspis, 321
Odonteus, 525
Odontostomus, 587
Oil-sardine, 660
Old Red Sandstone, 194
Old wife, 406
Olfactory lobes, 97
Olfactory organ, 109
Oligorus, 392
Oligosarcus, 611
Olistherops, 533
Ombre, 429
Ombre chevalier, 645
Omentum, 132
Onchus, 314
Oncorhynchus, 646
Oneirodes, 473
Oolithic fishes, 199
Opercular gill, 138
Operculum, 38, 54, 91
Ophichthys, 674
Ophidiidæ, 546
Ophidium, 549
Ophiocephalidæ, 513
Ophiodon, 491
Ophiopsis, 368
Opisthognathus, 466
Opisthopteryx, 656
Opisthoticum, 88
Opsariichthys, 602
Optic lobes, 97
Oracanthus, 314
Orbitosphenoid, 57, 88
Oreinus, 595
Oreonectes, 606
Orestias, 615
Orfe, 599
Orthacanthus, 334
Orthagoriscus, 690
Orthodon, 601
Orthostomus, 489
Osbeck, 13
Osmeroides, 582, 631
Osmerus, 646
Os operculare, 91
Osphromenus, 517
Osteobrama, 604
Osteochilus, 596
Osteogeniosus, 569
Osteoglossum, 654
Osteolepis, 365
Ostracion, 686
Os transversum, 56
Otolith, 116
Otolithus, 430
Oulachon, 647
Ovaries, 158, 166
Ovum, 158, 159, 167
Owen, 33
Oxuderces, 489