Adrian Frutiger European Design Hall of fame 2009 BIOGRAPHY Adrian Frutiger, a Swiss national, one one of the greatest typographers and typeface designers of the 20th century. He developed more than one hundred and seventy typefaces, of which many have become standard fonts, are now in daily use, and shape our reading habits. Adrian Frutiger was born in Unterseen near Interlaken, Switzerland, in 1928. In Interlaken he served an apprenticeship as a compositor at Schäfli, a printer. Then Adrian Frutiger went on to study sculpture, graphic design, and illustration at the Zurick Kunstgewerbeschule from 1948 until 1951. From 1952 Adrian Frutiger worked for the Deberny & Peignot type foundry in Paris.
1 With André Gürtler and Bruno Pfäffli, Adrian Frutiger established a graphic design studio in the Paris suburb of Arcueil in 1962. Adrian Frutiger freelanced as a typographer, designing typefaces and logos
2 In 1969 Adrian Frutiger Frutiger spent much of Frutiger exerted a formative designed Frutiger lettering his life in Paris, where, in stylistic influence on the for the signage system for addition to working as a Swiss school of typography Charles de Gaulle Airport typographer, he also taught and was one of the greatest near Paris. It is viewed typography and illustration typographers and typeface as exceptionally easy to for some years at the École designers of the 20th read because it is so clear. Estienne and the École century. In the course of Adrian Frutiger designed Nationale Superieure des his career, Adrian Frutiger it deliberately to be Arts Décoratifs. In 1978 d e v e l o p e d m o r e t h a n rapidly recognizable and Adrian Frutiger's book "Der one hundred and seventy readable. Motorway signs Mensch und seine Zeichen" typefaces. Many of them in France and Switzerland was published, a standard have become standard are also in Frutiger. Adrian work on typography. Adrian fonts that are now in daily
Since 1992 Adrian Frutiger has again lived in Switzerland
3 4 5 At the same time Frutiger started to design his own typefaces, a few of which became very significant, and this earned him his status as a great type Type, Sign, Symbol (1980) designer. Signs and Symbols: Their Throughout Design and Meaning (1989) his career The International Type Book he has (1990) produced a Geometry of Feelings number of (1998) books, such The Development of as Western Type Carved in Wood Plates (1999) Forms and Counterforms (1999) Life Cycle (1999) The Univers (1999) Symbols and Signs: Explorations (1999) 6 ADRIAN FRUTIGER TALKS ABOUT HIS WORKS
7 ADRIAN FRUTIGER TALKS ABOUT HIS WORKS
8 ADRIAN FRUTIGER
A f t e r a h e a r t fifty years of his change, from the operation in 1994, l i f e a s a t y p e first phototype Adrian Frutiger designer. Adrian of the 1950s to began work on Frutiger sketched d i g i t a l s e t t i n g his professional out the demands w i t h p e r s o n a l memoirs, covering o f t e c h n o l o g y computers in
9 QUOTES BY
10 He always saw himself as design of printing types awards and honours: In "a child of his time" and, and signage systems, but 1 9 8 6 , t h e G u t e n b e r g being one of the very few he has also created free Prize of the City of Mainz typeface designers who forms. The book "Forms (Germany); 1987, Medal of stood at the junction of a n d c o u n t e r f o r m s " , the Type Directors Club of these various technologies, published by Erich Alb of New York; 1993, Officier he considered it important Syndor Press, presents de l’Ordre des Arts et des to write an account of "how this free forms in a single Lettres (Paris); 1993, Grand it all went" for the following volume for the first time prix national des Arts generation. (Cham, Switzerland, ISBN Graphiques (France). F r u t i g e r ’ s w o r k h a s 3-908257-07-7). concentrated mainly on the He has received several
11 12 HOME AND ABROAD
Interlaken, my home, lies deep in a valley in the middle of of the Jura mountains. the Bernese Alps. To the east, the valley opens up to the I often used to ride my Lake of Brienz and to the west is the Lake of Thun. Sunrise bicycle to the shore of the comes late, the air is cold, and I did not much like the early lake and I still remember mornings. In winter the valley is usually shrouded in mist. the wonderful romantic Climbing up into the sunshine did not appeal to me as my feelings I had on those days were filled with work, play and odd jobs; I never really evenings. From an early age enjoyed going to school. I was seized by a feeling for which I knew no name but My happiest time was the evening when it was still light. I suppose it was a kind of Almost every day the mist disappeared to the westward. Wanderlust. I longed for a The valley beyond the Lake of Thun draws the gaze to the distant, sunny land and for pre-Alps and climbing a little higher one can see the chain a metropolis where I could . 13 14 At this point I hands of peasants were able w o u l d l i k e t o to cut out the minutest details draw attention with absolute precision of form. t o a m a t t e r I think it is possible that a deep- w h i c h h a s seated appreciation of black- c o n c e r n e d m e and-white contrasts, achieved for many years. through the practice of cutout In my homeland, techniques, was present in the t h e B e r n e s e genes of the Bernese people Oberland, in the and was inherited by myself. I valleys of Saanen have always felt a reluctance a n d S i m m e n to use black ink as a medium, (where the name preferring whenever possible o f F r u t i g e r i s to scratch, cut or engrave the common and I material. probably have m y r o o t s ) a pictorial manner o f e x p r e s s i o n became familiar i n t h e 1 9 t h century and has developed into a flourishing craft: t h e m a k i n g o f p a p e r c u t o u t s or silhouettes. A m o n g t h e peasant farmers there emerged a talent for cutting out scenes from their daily lives in fine black paper.
It is astonishing with what manual skill the horny 15 The black-white contrast soon came to play an important part in my professional life. I remember the fascination which I experienced on first seeing the sign of wisdom of the Tao Te Ching, the perfect representation of duality with its black and white fish bladder signs united within a circle.
I owe another realization to an engineer in Paris, who explained to me the binary calculating method of computers: one and Alfred zero, black and white. Williman’s For me, the black-and- theory was: Do white contrast conveys the not apply black absolute construction of an but cover up image. Taking black away white, so as to means adding white. In this make the light way, the space between an of the white R and an S becomes like a sheet active" sculpture for me. 16 17 18 19 Gardons-nous d’une trop grande abstraction dans la conduite des affaires typographiques. Ne plus parler de polices de caractères, mais de caractères, tout simplement. Parler de chiffres et de lettres enfin. 20 THE LOVE OF LINEAR SYMBOLS
21 THE LOVE OF LINEAR SYMBOLS
Adrian Frutiger has completely reworked the Avenir type family in close cooperation with Akira Kobayashi, Type Director at Linotype. The result is the Avenir Next with harmoniously incremented weights and matching condensed versions.
Avenir Next is part of the Platinum Collection and comes in 4 typeface sets, Regular, Italic, Condensed and Condensed Italic, each
22 ADRIAN FRUTIGER INFORMATION ABOUT THE FONT DESIGNER ADRIAN FRUTIGER AND HIS TYPEFACES
Type, Sign, Symbol (1980)
Signs and Symbols: Their Design and Meaning (1989)
The International Type Book (1990)
The Development of Western Type Carved in Wood Plates (1999)
Forms and Counterforms (1999)
Life Cycle (1999)
Symbols and Signs: Explorations (1999)