Project made at Leeds Beckett University answering an ISTD brief where I designed a spec style publication celebrating Adrian Frutiger’s most famous typefaces Avenir, Univers and Frutiger, displaying the technical details behind the design and structure of the typefaces .

See the full project on andrewwolfenden.co.uk

In these letters Adrian Frutiger writes to Mike Parker (then Director of Typographic Development at LInotype) about Concorde, his sans serif from 1964, and the typeface that would soon become Frutiger. The letterhead plays off the uppercase alphabet of Serifa, Frutiger’s slab serif released in 1966.

The letters were shown by Matthew Carter in a Frutiger tribute speech he gave in New York on April 27, 2016. He paraphrases the first letter:

Mike had shown an interest in Concorde as a potential photocomposition face. Adrian writes thank Mike for his interest and to say,

“It’s not possible for me today to tell you my intentions for this face. In my imagination it all was a matter of making a sans serif typeface that was very neutral, a little in the vein of Gill, but with a less classical appearance. Concorde, as it is now, has become perhaps a little bit too impersonal, and I wonder if it would be enough to simply correct certain letters in order to give it a new allure.”

And it is the last sentence which I think is absolutely key here.

“Because, I have other ideas for sans serif faces.”

I think this is the first gleam in Adrian’s eye of a sans serif beyond Concorde — in other words, Frutiger.

One year later, 1971. “I send you here enclosed two first proofs of the alphabet Roissy. The relationship between Concorde and this new alphabet certainly exists in the general area. The Roissy realization is quite new and adequate to the legibility of architectural typography. Nevertheless it could be possible that this study could be interesting to the typographical area.”

A new letterhead in 1974.

I was very sad to hear of the passing of Adrian Frutiger this year. I always loved the iconic type specimens for his Univers typeface – a perfect way of showcasing Frutiger’s masterpiece – an almost scientific system of 21 weights and widths that could be combined perfectly (and a sublime solution to the many different sans serif faces at the time that very rarely complemented each other). They were created by Rémy Peignot for the Parisian type foundry Deberny et Peignot and released in the early 1960s (Univers was designed by Adrian Frutiger between 1954 and 1957).

So referencing these type specimens, I found out that Univers also has a nice range of snowy asterisks.

In memoriam Adrian Frutiger, 1928–2015.

“Man and his signs” is a series of books written and illustrated by Adrian Frutiger. The content is based on the teaching materials as used in his classes at École Estienne (1952–1960) and ESAD (1954–1966)¹ and comprise his thoughts on signs and symbols. Volume 1 is generally about recognizing and designing signs, while volume 2 more specifically deals with the characters that are used to record language. The third volume is concerned with pictograms, non-alphabetic symbols, and signets.

The books were produced by D. Stempel AG as annual giveaways in 1978, 1979 and 1981, and are typeset in Iridium, Frutiger’s first typeface design for Stempel. It was made in 1972 for phototypesetting technology, following the request to “design the most beautiful typeface you’re capable of.”² Iridium later was replaced by Linotype Centennial when the original three volumes were merged into one book.³

Text editing: Horst Heiderhoff (art director at Stempel)
Final artwork vol. 1: Helena Novak
Typesetting and printing: Hausdruckerei der D. Stempel AG

1–3: Osterer & Stamm (ed.): Adrian Frutiger – Typefaces: The Complete Works

Sample spread from the interior (vol. 2, chapter VII “The manipulated letterform”)