Adrian Frutiger was born in Switzerland in 1928, to a weaver. He rebelled against the formality of penmanship in Swiss schools, by inventing scripts and creating stylized handwriting. He was initially interesting in sculpture but both his father and teachers encouraged him to explore the world of printing. At sixteen he worked as an compositor, which is the process of "combining visual elements into single images, often to create the illusion that all those elements are parts of the same scene," to the printer Otto Schaerffli. He also studied under Walter Kach and Alfred Willimann at the School of Applied Arts in Zurich, there he concentrated mainly on calligraphy. When Frutiger began working at Denberry and Peignot type foundry he designed the typefaces named "President," "Phoebus," and "Ondine." He also worked to convert old typefaces to the new phototypesetting Lumitype equipment. In response to the newly developed typeface Futura, Univers was created by Peignot, and Frutiger was able to create a Unviers font variation. This new typeface was widely celebrated and soon became the new font for the Charles de Gaulle International Airport. He also went on to create Versailles, which is a serif text, Avenir, which was inspired by Futura, and Vectora. He continued to create many different typefaces which were all somewhat variations of what he had created before.
Adrian Frutiger is known as one of the best typeface designers mainly because his fonts are so widely used. He continues to work on revisions of his typefaces to include refined forms and italics. He has been awarded the "Type Directors Club" which is given to "those who have made contributions to the life, art, and the craft of typography."
No comments:
Post a Comment