It is now used just about everywhere: on Swiss roads, for the numbers on euro banknotes, in a condensed version on Swiss passports, and even in the WHO logo. This typeface developed for signage was subsequently adapted for text, resulting in Frutiger, which is judged by many to be his most accomplished work. He founded his own studio and from the early 1970s his work could be found all over Paris: he redesigned the characters used in the Paris métro and developed a special typeface for Charles de Gaulle Airport. Univers became an instant worldwide success – it was adopted in particular by IBM typewriters – and Adrian Frutiger began to make a name for himself. To promote its new creation, Deberny & Peignot presented the family of characters in a chart reminiscent of the periodic table. "It heralded the systematic way in which we view typography today," says François Rappo. Univers marked a turning point that paved the way to digital typesetting.
But Frutiger came at it from a different angle, creating from the outset a whole family of coherent typefaces, made up of 21 series (italic, bold, condensed, etc.) designated by numbers and designed with harmony in mind. Up until that point, a typeface would be designed in just one or two weights, and then eventually expanded to include other formats, sometimes by different typographers. He based it on the late 19th century typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk and on sketches he had made during his studies in Zurich. His ambition "to achieve the best possible legibility" was matched by his undeniable technical gift, and this combination led him to design Univers in 1957. Frutiger was one of the first typographers to fully embrace this new technology, which enabled him to design a wide variety of typefaces and to think about his first major project. I just make good bricks for graphic designers to build with." Creator of the Univers typefaceĭiploma in hand, he was hired at an old established Parisian foundry, Deberny & Peignot, where he quickly set about developing a new, revolutionary technique based on a photographic principle – photocomposition – which would subsequently spell the end of cast lead type. He always considered himself first and foremost a craftsman: "For me, the work of a typographer is just like sculpting," he explained in 1994 in an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. As a student, he displayed great passion for the history of his discipline: as part of his final diploma work he produced a set of engraved wooden plates retracing the history of European typography since Ancient Greece. He completed an apprenticeship as a typesetter and then continued his studies at Zurich University of the Arts, the breeding ground for a generation of typographers who would go on to make Switzerland famous, including the creators of the emblematic Helvetica typeface. Born near Interlaken in 1928, Frutiger was attracted to drawing and sculpture from an early age.