A D R I A N F R U T I G E RBy Byron Vargas

From all these experiences the most important thing I have learned is that legibility and beauty stand close together and that type de-sign, in its restraint, should be only felt but not perceived by the reader.”

When choosing a designer, I was not looking for anything specific. In all honestly, I had every intention of run-ning with the first typographer that showed up under my search results. Adrian Frutiger was the lucky winner. I thought him nothing more than an old man. After much research however, I am pleased to report that what started out as an arbitrary hunt for a designer turned into a captivating and invigo-rating research project. Frutiger was not only an amazing typographer, but a true visionary. He dedicated his life to the typography and its influence on society. What he considered to be his life’s work was nothing short of genius!

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Typography must be as beautiful as a forest, not like the concrete jun-gle of the tenements It gives dis-tance between the trees, the room to breathe and allow for life.”

Through all of the tumult, toils, and snares of his life, Adrian Frutiger con-tinued to be brilliant. Though he had many goals and commitments during his career, chief among them was a dedication to excellence. His work was always fearless, innovative, and unapologetic. From his early years as an apprentice to his late years as a cel-ebrated type designer, Frutiger always pushed himself to be the best he could be. Though I have no desire to pursue Typography or Digital Design, I admire Frutigers ambition and artistic expres-sion. It behooves me to adapt his prin-ciples and work ethic to my own work.

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When I put my pen to a blank sheet, black isn’t added but rather the white sheet is deprived of light. [] Thus I also grasped that the empty spaces are the most important aspect of a typeface.”

Frutiger

The Frutiger typeface was solicited for Charles de Gaulle Airpoort in 1975. Frutiger was designed to be legible from a distance as well as in extreme obscurity. In a short amount if time, this typeface family became very pop-ular. This allowed for its own expan-sion into various forms and versions.

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Helvetica is the jeans, and Univers the dinner jacket. Helvetica is here to stay.”

Univers

The Univers font family is widely used across the globe. Standing strong at forty-four variations, it is one of the most dynamic groups of typeface families. Focusing on beauty and dy-namicy, any combination of this type will ensure a successful work. Uni-verse can be seen in such popular brands as Motorola, eBay, and Unicef .

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On my career path I learned to un-derstand that beauty and readabili-ty—and up to a certain point, banal-ity—are close bedfellows: the best typeface is the one that impinges least on the reader’s consciousness, becoming the sole tool that com-municates the meaning of the writer to the understanding of the reader.”

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If you remember the shape of your spoon at lunch, it has to be the wrong shape. The spoon and the letter are tools; one to take food from the bowl, the other to take information off the page... When it is a good design, the reader has to feel comfortable because the letter is both banal and beautiful.”

Avenir

Adrian Frutiger considered Avenir to be his life’s work. It was unveiled in 1988.

“The quality of the draughtsmanship – rather than the intellectual idea be-hind it – is my masterpiece. (...) It was the hardest typeface I have worked on in my life. Working on it, I always had human nature in mind. And what’s crucial is that I developed the typeface alone, in peace and quiet – no draft-ing assistants, no-one was there. My personality is stamped upon it. I’m proud that I was able to create Avenir.”

This type can be seen in airports and other buildings all over the globe.

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I am sure in some years from now you will see new posters with just white space and four lines in Garamond.”

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Egyptienne

Egyptienne is a serif typeface, where the serifs are not bracketed. Adri-an Frutiger designed it in 1956 for the Deberny & Peignot Foundry. It was the initial fresh text face creat-ed for the progression of phototype-setting. Egyptienne shows ancient inspiration of the Clarendon faces.

I was fortunate. Early in life, I under-stood that my world was a two-dimen-sional one. At sixteen I knew that my work would be in black and white.”

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“The material of typography is the black, and it is the designer’s task with the help of this black to capture space, to create harmonious whites inside the letters as well as between them.”

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This year the art community lost Adri-an Frutiger. He died on September 12 at the age of 87. Denoted as “the best type designer of the 20th centu-ry,” his 30-plus typefaces have guid-ed people around the globe. From the street signs in Hamburg to the Walt Disney World Resort, his work helped to plot a course for many to follow. He will be truly missed.

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