Ubiquitous UniversU The Workhorse of Type Univers is a that was created in 1957. Its designer, Adrian ’s goal was to fulfill the need for a utilitarian, versatile sans- workhorse. Univers was originally designed for the foundry Deberny and Peignot. It was then passed along to a number of other foundries and is currently owned by Linotype. The updated version, reworked by Frutiger in 1997, is called Linotype Univers. It is a family that includes a wide variety of weights and styles, making it ideal for many types of work.

2 1957 3 Frutiger designed 21 Univers 55 Roman versions of Univers, in five weights and five widths. Whereas many typographic families grow over time as they become popular, Univers 55 Oblique U Univers was conceived as a total system from its inception.

Univers 85 Extra Black U

Univers 63 Bold Extended U

Univers 67 Bold U is one of the Condensed most important type designers Univers 93 Extra Black Extended U to emerge since World War II. U

4 Frutiger has created a broad range of necessarily caused legibility problems. He is the designer of many notable 5 faces—the best known being the sans-serifs including OCR-B, a type for Frutiger himself is skeptical about theories Univers and Frutiger—and was one of the optical character recognition. His 1982 of legibility. He learned to read with Gothic first designers to create type for film. Breughel is an original face almost wholly characters without difficulty and says comprised of curves and fitting into no legibility is solely a matter of habit. Although Frutiger has said that all his types existing type category. He has embraced have Univers as their skeleton, he felt that new technology and used it to his when he came to design a face for the advantage in faces such as Centennial, a Charles de Gaulle Airport at Roissy, that modern type face whose fine serifs are Univers seemed dated, with a 1960’s feel. made possible by recent improvements in His airport face, originally known as Roissy definition. but renamed Frutiger for its issue to the trade by Mergenthaler Linotype in 1976, is a More than ten years earlier his Iridium had humanistic sans-serif that has been demonstrated that the classical AAAAAA compared to Gill and types. modern face was neither outdated nor

Diagonal strokes of ‘k’

meet at the stem

Built up from a geometric basis, the lines G must play freely, so that the individuals find Stroke modulation their own expression and join together in a

Two-storied ‘a’ is the most cohesive structure in word, line, and page. distinctive letter, with a straight back, no baseline curl, and a perpendicular connection at Kthe top of the bowl “

‘G’ does not have a spur

6 Inspired by his study of the limitations of existing sans-serif and t 7 scientific research done in the 1930’s and ‘40’s on the mechanics of eye movement during reading, Frutiger based his type family purely on geometry. Frutiger was interested in creating a functional and efficient type family. He chose to use different weights for” the Squaring of round horizontal, diagonals, and verticals as a response to his assessment strokes of visual discrepancies in other type faces. Larger x-heights also provided greater legibility, addressing the concern that sans-serif type a was more difficult to read than serif type. All of these innovations contributed to the overall harmony among letters, allowing for a Rsmooth line flow. 8 Modulated strokes give Univers more Univers font was created almost 9 simultaneously with other successful character than Helvetica. It was designed as Cap Height X-Height Ualphabets: Helvetica (1957) and Optima Ha full system of fonts with a wide range of (1958). Whereas Neue Helvetica, created weights, unlike Helvetica, which spawned Base Line variants in a rather disordered way. Univers 1aGHKQRtuxy for Linotype in 1982 by a digital re-cut of the The tail of the ‘a’ and top of The arms of ‘K’ The top of ‘t’ 1957 by Max Miedinger, had a general clarity has a somewhat smaller x-height than the ‘1’ are less rounded. join at the stem. is angled. and a modern, timeless and neutral effect Helvetica, and the base font set is wider. Univers UH Cap Height without any conspicuous attributes (lending X-Height to its great success), Univers expressed Base Line 1aGHKQRtuxy Many of the numerals in ‘G’ is formed without The tail of the ‘’ The tail of ‘R’ is ‘y’ has a straight a factual and cool elegance, a Universe have straigt versus an arrow head tail runs along the curved. descender. curved ascenders. (called a spur). base line. rational competence. Univers is known for its clear lines and legibility “at great distances.

10 It enjoyed great popularity in the 1960’s and 1970’s. General Electric used the font from 1986 ” 11 to 2004 before switching to GE Inspira. Apple Inc. previously used this typeface as well as

its condensed oblique variant for the key caps on many of its keyboards, before completely

switching to VAG Rounded in August 2007 with the introduction of the new keyboards and

the new iMac. Since early 2009, CNN Domestic and CNN International have adopted several

weights of Univers in their on screen graphics. CNN International used Helvetica until the

switch to Univers, while CNN Domestic previously used many different typefaces. The font is

also used in the UK for School Tests and exams extensively, due to its clear differences

between characters like I and 1, so there is no confusion. Bibliography References

Blackwell, Lewis. 20th-Century Type. New Pincus W. Jaspert, The Encyclopaedia of Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. (A&A: Typefaces. (Poole, Dorset: Blandford Press, Z250.A2 B59 1998 and Vault) 1983), 69-70.

Kunz, Willi. : Macro- and Alexander S. Lawson, Anatomy of a Typeface Microaesthetics. Sulgen: Verlag Niggli AG, (Boston: D.R. Godine, 1990), 304. 2000. (A&A: Z246 .K86 2000 and Vault) Jennifer Gibson. Revival of the Fittest: Digital Carter, Sebastian. Twentieth Century Type Versions of Classic Typefaces Designers. Great Britain: Lund Humphries, (New York: RC Publications), 171. 2002.(A&A: Z250 A2 C364 1995 and Vault) Ibid, 173. Revival of the Fittest: Digital Versions of Classic Typefaces, essays by Carolyn Annand Linotype Library GmbH, Available at ... [et al.]; edited by Philip B. Meggs and Roy www.linotype.com/7-267-7-13347/univers. McKelvey, New York: RC Publications, 2000. html Accessed November 1, 2005 (A&A: Z250.R45 2000)

www.linotype.com B www.fonts.com R This book was created by Jill McKay for her Typography I Studio at Washington University in St. Louis in 2010. She used the Univers and Helvetica font family and the colors black and white.