FRUTIGER & BRODY

one -modernistM O D E R N I S T

oo

TYPOGRAPHERS ARE KEY TO THE DESIGN

world. If not for them what would people today read?

Type designers Adrian

Frutiger and Neville

Brody both made huge

impacts on today’s

society from the type

designs they created.

Frutiger grew from a

small town in Switzerland

into the most well

known Swiss Modernism

typographer. He affected

a very sophisticated side

of design and never

seemed to slow down.

He was passionate about

typography and decided

to make 66 typefaces

through out his lifetime

time – from Linotype to

Digital. Neville Brody,

on the other hand,

was indeed a fantastic

designer/typographer

but he did not cling to

typography as much

as Frutiger, but what

typography he did create

was utterly inspiring and

useful. Brody did not see

the change in art and

design as drastically as

Frutiger – mainly using

Digital Photo/Type

Setting in the 80’s and

so on. Each generation

has a different effect

and each typographer

has his own style. Both

are truly an inspiration.

Adrian Johann Frutiger was

born on May 24, 1928 in

Unterseen, Switzerland, a

true Swiss designer – born

and raised. By 1944, just

a mere sixteen year old,

he started a “typesetting

apprenticeship at Otto

Schlaeflie AG, printers,

Interlaken, Switzerland”

(Osterer 442). He realized

typography was his true

passion, which helped

him decide to go toKunt-

gewerbeschule (school of

arts and crafts) in Zurich,

Switzerland. Later on in

his career, after working

many years at Deberny &

Peignot in Paris, he was

finally announced Artistic

Director for D and P.

Becoming Art Director was indeed a huge accomplishment,

but Frutiger was even more amazing than that. Starting

in the year 1950 he received awards and prizes. First was

the Federal Department of the Interior Prize;

Chevalier Pans L’orde Des Arts Et Des Leitres; Award

for ‘Most Beautiful Swiss Books’ for Imanfang Au

Commencement in the Beginning; Coat of Arms by city

Interlaken, Switzerland; Paul Haupt Prize from the city of

Bern; Gutenberg Prize from the International Gutenberg

Society; Gold Medal from the Type Director’s Club; Jaggi

Prize; Grand Prix National De La Culture – Graphics; SOTA

Type Award and finally, Prix Designer 2007 – Federal

Office of Culture

Advertising Campaign Award;

Switzerland.

aB cd E f g h i J

k L mnO P Q r st u V w X y zaB c

aB cd E f g h i J

k L mnO P Q r st u V w X y z

Neville Brody was born when Frutiger already had a name

for himself. Brody was born on April 23, 1957 in Southgate,

London. He was mainly known for his design work and The

Face, but known as the typographer who designed Arcadia.

Brody grew up in a suburb just north of London. Once he was

ready to leave for school he had to choose (because of his father)

whether to go into art and design or not. “In 1975, Brody went

onto do foundation at Hornsey College of Art and by 1976 Brody

started a three year BA course at the London College of Printing”

(Brody 5). After his education he had designed and created his

own hand drawn type called Typeface One, 1979. This typeface

was specifically designed and used for his magazine The Face.

Brody states, “type is seen as being extra – territorial, but it’s

not; type is used to express an inner feeling and reaction, it has

to be, it’s not a natural phenomenon, it symbolizes a thought

process. It’s organic, in it’s basis, it’s man – created” (Brody 41).

“BY THE LATE 1980’S, NEVILLE BRODY W AS THE BEST KNOWN GRAPHIC DESI GNER OF HIS

GENERATION” (BRODY 5).B r i t i s h

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

“BY THE LATE 1980’S, NEVILLE BRODY W AS THE BEST KNOWN GRAPHIC DESI GNER OF HIS

GENERATION” (BRODY 5).

Frutiger has more of a positive, very strong outlook on not only design,

but mainly typography – much more than Brody. The difference is not

only age and technology but nationality as well. These three main topics

explain almost fully why each think a certain way and design a certain way.

Adrian Frutiger was a prominent typographer in the 20th century. He was a

Swiss Designer – a very good Swiss Designer – therefore; he produced Swiss

Modernist typography and design. He is famous for quite a few typefaces

that he designed, Univers, Avenir, Frutiger and OCR – B. These are the three

most famous typefaces but through out his career he designed a total of 66

typefaces, starting in the year 1952 and ending in 1993… They include: ‘Initiales President’ year 1952 -54; ‘Initiales Phoebus’

year 1953; ‘Ondine’ year 1953 – 54; ‘Meridien’ year

1953 – 57; ‘Univers’ year 1953 – 57; ‘Egyptienne

F’ year c. 1956 – 58; ‘Opera’ year 1958 – 60;

‘Alphabet Orly’ year 1959 – 61; ‘Apollo’ year 1960

– 64; ‘Concorde’ year 1961 – 64; ‘Antique Presse’

year1962 – 64; ‘Algol’ year 1963; ‘OCR – B’ from

1963, from 1965; ‘Serifa’ year 1963 – 67; ‘Univers

IBM Composer’ year 1964 – 66; ‘Alphabet EDF-

GDF’ year 1964 – 67; ‘Univers Greek’ year 1967;

‘Devanagari/Tamill’ year 1967 – 73; ‘Alpha BP’

Neonscript’ year 1996; ‘Linotype Univers’ year 1996 –

98; ‘Frutiger Next’ year 1998 – 2001; ‘Astra Frutiger’

1999 – 2002; ‘Avenir Next’ year 2002 – 04; year 1990 –

91; ‘Herculanum’ year 1990 – 91; ‘Shiseido’ year 1991;

‘Frutiger Capitalis’ year 1991 – 2005; ‘Pompeijana’ year

1992; ‘Rusticana’ year 1992 – 93; ‘ Frutiger Stones/

Frutiger Symbols’ year 1992 – 98; ‘Frutiger

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

brody

Frutiger’s most famous typeface – ‘UNIVERS’.

brody

year 1968 – 69; ‘Documenta’ year

1969 – 70; ‘Alphabet Facom’ year

1970 – 71; ‘Alphabet Roissy’ year

1970 – 72; ‘Alphabet Brancher’

year 1971 – 72; ‘Iridium’ year 1972;

‘Alphabet Metro’ year 1973; ‘Roissy-

Solaris’ year 1973 – 74; ‘Univers

Cyrillic’ year 1973 – 76; ‘Alphabet

Centre Georges Pompidou’ year

1974 – 76; ‘Frutiger’ year 1974 – 76;

‘Glypha’ year 1976 – 80; ‘Caracteres

TVP’ year 1978 – 79; ‘Icone’ year

1978 – 80; ‘Breughel’ year 1978 – 82;

‘Tiemann’ year 1982; ‘Versailles’ year

1982 – 84; ‘Frutiger Cyrillic’ year

1985; ‘Linotype Centennial’ year

1985 – 86; ‘Avenir’ year 1987 – 88;

‘Westside’ year 1988 – 89; ‘Vectora’

year 1988 – 91; ‘Linotype Didot’

‘Nami’ year (1952) 2007; ‘Frutiger

Serif’ year (1954) 2008 (Osterer 448).

Each one of these typefaces are

carefully drawn and thought out

by Fruitger himself as well as fully

thought out in the manufacture

department.

The typeface was designed by

Frutiger in the winter of 1953. When

he first designed the typeface he

handset it himself. He was one of

the few who started the Lumitype

setting. The main focus of this

typeface is that it needed to be sans

serif and be “consistent The classical

double loop shape of the g was

rejected for similar reasons, it looks

forced in narrow, small and italic

weights” (Osterer 88).

Frutiger’s most famous typeface – ‘UNIVERS’.

Frutiger also “constructed ‘Univers’ on a vertical axis. That was my starting point (Osterer

92). The type was thought out from inspiration from Peignot’s ‘Futura’ as well as old

historical scripts including Roman Capitals Monumentalis. Charles Peignot and Emil

Ruder are both very responsible for the entire creation of ‘Univers.’ Frutiger in no way,

shape or form would have been able to fix and perfect every detail without them.

The second most famous typeface Adrian Frutiger designed is called ‘Avenir.’ Just like

‘Univers,’ ‘Avenir’ is still used very commonly used today. It was designed and completed

in 1987 – 88. Frutiger used CRY and laser digital typesetting during this time period. He

also used Post Script digital typesetting and OpenType digital typesetting for the 1988

version. The 80’s were much more advanced and the stylistic development was incredibly

different than that of the early 1950’s. Avenir is a sans serif font and was originally

designed to be a geometric font, “the geometric sans was the fundamental idea behind

‘Avenir’ ” (Oysterer 333) – he first designed they typeface using a compass (creating

perfect circles).

Frutiger states “ with this o as a starting point, I drew the entire alphabet in a light

weight. All the strokes had to sit with those of the o. It was about making the tiniest

adjustments” (Oysterer 330).

Then the third most popular, another

sans serif/geometric font is ‘OCR –

B’ It also is an optical character read

typeface. Frutiger designed this in

the 60’s – no specific date.

This typeface was created when only

“thirteen computer and typewriter

manufacturers founded the

‘European Computer Manufactureres

Association’ – EMCMA – based in

Geneva” (Oysterer 176). The grid

that was designed for the typeface

was only used to make copies (OCR

fonts were created for Optical

Character Recognition – to be read

by a computerized device). Quite

a lot went into figuring out the

sizing and placement of the type.

It was also quite expensive back

in this day when they only had a

few people in the design industry.

Frutiger designed/made up this

typeface for the sole purpose to be

legible and easy to use in different

technology such as a typewriter,

a copy machine or full computer

print – outs. When Frutiger started

designing typography it was post –

war time period – when artists went

two separate ways after the two

world wars. “Swiss artists had been

exposed earlier to the movements

and styles flourishing elsewhere

in Europe (De Stijil, Bauhaus and

Constructivism)…” (Swiss Legacy).

Whe used computer composition,typewriter composition and post script.

1977, was beginning to have a major effect upon London life...

1977, was beginning to have a major effect upon London life...

His neo-modernist typefaces from the 80’s include Arcadia,

Industria, Insignia etc... which are all geometric sans serifs. In the

90’s, Brody was much more expressive in type and even design.

He created Blur which is an organic, post-modernist typeface.

Nationality plays a big part in Adrian Frutiger’s design and

typography world. Growing up and going to school in

Switzerland he created the Swiss Old-School Style. As a young

boy, his father was a major influence – he was a Swiss weaver.

This opened Frutiger’s mind to art and how he got in the art and

design field. Swiss Modernism back in the 20th century (following

after Bauhaus) was much more expressive and creative. The

Swiss had a heritage of being more advanced and modern in not

only design but within their entire country.

Neville is a typographer from London. His main influence was the

modern world and how the world was starting to communicate

with the changing of technology etc… Surprisingly (even though

he hated ‘Univers’) was highly influenced by Swiss Designers

such as Adrian Frutiger himself and Cornel Windlin.

As for Neville Brody,

around “1977 punk

rock was beginning

to have a major effect

upon London life,

and as far as Brody

was concerned, this

provided the catalyst

it needed” (Brody 5).

In his design of the

The Face, he needed

to create a typeface

that would fit this

new hip grunge look.

How he created and

was inspired to make

‘Typeface One’ was

‘Helvetica.’

Here is a major

example about the

difference of time

period – the 50’s and

the 80’s. Yes Frutiger

designed past the 80’s

as well, he just had

an earlier, classy and

more redefined look.

One did not agree

with the other. Brody

also designed other

typefaces such as

Insignia, Fuse and Font

Shop. These typefaces

were post-modernist

typefaces. He was both

neo-modernist as well

as a post-modernist.

As the typeface’s progressed, so did the technology that came with them.

Linotype was what Frutiger had to start out with – back in the early 50’s.

Linotype Phototypesetting was a method of setting type. It was setting

type by hand, not by the computer or anything digital yet (sort of by

hand, but typed on a machine). Later on in the 1960’s software was

becoming more common and handy to the common consumer. Brody’s

newer typeface, Univers Platinum was one of his most

successful typefaces. It was based off his original typeface, Univers, and

built on a more contemporary - modern-day level.

Photocomposition processing began in the late 1950’s to early 60’s (photo type) and

then ending using digital type in the most recent typefaces such as ‘University.’

P H O T O C O M P O S I T I O N

During Brody’s time he did not have to deal with the change of technology as

drastically as Frutiger did.

– during the 80’s and 90’s this was the common way to do things. He collaborated

with Erik Spiekermann – also a modern/contemporary

designer and typographer, both using Digital Type (it was the highest form of technology to date at this point). Digital Phototypesetting is when a computer or digital

device sets all type for you. Technology plays a major part in typography because it has

let us experiment and take all typography to an entirely new level, one even Adrian Frutiger could have never

dreamt of back in the 50’s.

Brody was a MODERN/contemporary typographer and used

MODERN Digital TypeIn conclusion Adrian Frutiger and Neville Brody are both

drastically different. Brody did have a lot of experience and

education but not nearly as much as Frutiger. He was not able

to experience the hard work and beauty of Linotype Setting

and the transformation of type through out the ages. Now

Brody may not have had all the experimentation in the world

either but he still was one of the first to create a ‘handwritten’

– like typeface. His type is very expressive and not uniform like

Frutiger – who was very set and put together type designer.

P H O T O C O M P O S I T I O N

712 3 4568 9 0 1234 5 6 7

34

712 3 4568 9 0 3412 4 5

Today in modern day society and in modern education we still use these typefaces from these

TYPOGRAPHERS.

bri l l iant

Today in modern day society and in modern education we still use these typefaces from these

TYPOGRAPHERS.

bri l l iantBRILLIANTbrilliant

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Frutiger and Brody are two very strong

typographers and designers. As stated earlier,

Frutiger was a prominent typographer in the 20th

century. He was a Swiss Designer – a very good

Swiss Designer – therefore; he produced Swiss

Modernist typography and design. He is famous

for quite a few typefaces that he designed, Univers,

Avenir, Frutiger and OCR – B. Neville Brody was

mainly known for his design work and

but known as the typographer who designed

Arcadia. Design was just as equally important

to Brody as type work was. Frutiger thought

differently... type was his world, it was his job, his

life and who he was as a typographer and designer.

the face

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

the face

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

ALEXANDRA COLLINS

INSIGNIA. AVENIR. ARCADIA. OCR A STD. TYPEFACE SIX. UNIVERS.

TYPOGRAPHY 3

FRANCHESKA GUERRERO

des igner

typefaces

course

facu l ty