[P1]:3

Phase 1

"Phase 1" moved our compositions to the digital realm.  Slightly more freedom was allowed with the ability to add typographic rules and a single color.

Adrian Frutiger

Adrian Frutiger was born in 1928 in Switzerland.  He is a well-known type designer who has worked to create some of the most used typefaces of the 20th and 21st century.

During his early years, Frutiger experimented with handwriting styles because he did not enjoy the formal cursive penmanship that was required by Swiss schools at the time.  He studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule (school of applied arts) in Zürich from 1944 until 1948.  He then worked as a compositor for a time until he returned to school until 1951.  Frutiger’s primary concentration was on calligraphy.  Throughout Frutiger’s career as a type designer, he has worked with several kinds of type as the industry evolved, beginning with hot metal.  It was during the era of metal type that Frutiger developed the urge to create the best possible legibility in typefaces.  Much of Frutiger’s career was devoted to converting typefaces from metal to photo-typsetting.

Frutiger has said that,

“the most important thing I have learned is that legibility and beauty stand close together and that type design, in its restraint, should only be felt but not perceived by the reader.”

Famous examples of Frutiger’s own typefaces include Univers, Frutiger, Egyptienne, Serifa, and Avenir.

The Frutiger Grid

One of the most influential accomplishment's of Adrian Frutiger was the invention of his grid system for identifying type faces.  Although the system was originally made for the Univers font, it has since been applied to other fonts, such as Helvetica.  The system aims to eliminate the confusion caused by varying systems for identifying fonts.

Frutiger's grid used two numbers to identify a typeset's weight and width.  The first number corresponds to the type's weight.  The second number corresponds to the width and positioning.  For example: Univers 55 is the same weight as Univers 56, but the latter is the italic set.  Univers 65 is the same width as 55, but it is more weighted.

Sources:

http://www.linotype.com/720/adrianfrutiger.html

http://www.designishistory.com/1940/adrian-frutiger/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Frutiger
Ambrose, Gavin, and Paul Harris. The Visual Dictionary of Typography. Lausanne, Switzerland: AVA Publishing, 2010. Print.