Frutiger and Univers...who needs the e anyway

Adrian Frutiger is (arguably) one of the most influential typographers of the 20th century. Born on May 24 1928, the life and work of this Swiss graphic designer has spanned the ages of drastically different type processes: hotmetal, phototypesetting, and digital typesetting. He has written many books, won numerous awards, taught in Paris, and a few of his fonts have become famous and are used world wide. In addition to being a typographer, he is also a painter, sculptor, symbolist and mathematician.

Frutiger grew up in Unterseen, near Interlaken, Switzerland. As a boy, he rebelled against the strict handwriting system taught at his school and instead experimented, at one point cutting the pen down to a broad nib to imitate the handwriting of one of his idols.

At the age of 16, he was apprenticed as a compositor (typesetter) at a printing studio for four years, and then attended the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule), focusing on calligraphy.

After his schooling, he went to Paris to work for Deberny & Peignot, revamping old types to work on newer machines. In addition, he worked on new fonts, such as "Président", "Phoebus", and "Ondine". It was in 1957, however, that he gained international recognition with the creation of his font Univers.

From then on, Frutiger has opened his own studio, taught at two French schools, worked for IBM as a consultant, created the typeface for the Charles de Gaulle airport, and created over 30 fonts.

Frutiger is still alive today and lives near Bern, Switzerland

Sources:
http://www.linotype.com/793-12658/handwriting.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typesetting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Frutiger#cite_note-1
http://www.typophile.com/node/12118
http://www.identifont.com/show?110
http://www.monotypeimaging.com/ProductsServices/TypeDesignerShowcase/AdrianFrutiger/
http://artfilm.ch/adrianfrutiger.php?lang=e&id=adrianfrutiger&suche=dvds


UNIVERS

Univers is a sans serif font created by Mr. Frutiger released in 1957 containing 44 different styles. It was the first font to use his special numbered classification for the different styles of the font face. Univers was also unique in that the entire family of font styles was all created at once as a complete unit, rather than later being expanded upon.

In this univers grid, even numbers are italic (or oblique) ad odd numbers are roman. The first number stands for the stoke weight, with 1 being lightest and 9 being heaviest. The second number represents the position and width. with 1 being the most extended to 9 being the most condensed. By this system, 55 is the the original, roman style of the typeface.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univers