Simchick - Frutiger

History

Frutiger is a sans serif typeface that was created in 1968 by Adrian Frutiger for signs used in the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, France. It was released in 1977 by Linotype for public use. The typeface has very subtle thick and thin lines making it have more character than Univers, one of Adrian Frutiger's previous typefaces. The goal in creating the font was to make a sans serif typeface that was as rational and clean as Univers but have the organic proportional aspects of Gill Sans. It also needed to be legible at various angles, sizes and distances while also looking modern for its use in the Charles De Gaulle airport. Each letter was drawn out by hand by Frutiger and has the same numbering system as Univers to indicate weight and style. In 1999 Frutiger, together with Linotype, included true italics along with other features to an updated version called “Frutiger Next. Then, in 2003, the font was revised for use on highway signs in Switzerland; this version is titled ASTRA-Frutiger. The simple, legible and casual character has made Frutiger very popular in todays advertising and small print. Along with its use on road signs in Switzerland, Frutiger has been used all over the world in logos such as the British Royal Navy, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Banco Bradesco in Brazil and the Finnish Defense Forces in Finland.

Biography

Adrian Frutiger, designer of some of the world's most popular fonts, was born on March 24, 1928 in Interlaken, Switzerland. When he was 16 years old, he worked as a printer's apprentice, then later moved on to study at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts. After he finished school, Frutiger moved to Paris where he worked at the Deberny & Peignot typefoundry. Alongside working at the foundry, Frutiger began designing his own typefaces , such as Frutiger, Univers, and Avenir. He currently resides in Bern, Switzerland where he works with Linotype to create revisions on a number of his typefaces.

Concept

Since Frutiger was originally designed for the use in Charles de Gaulle, I'm going to base my book off of airports. Each section will instead be labeled as one of the terminals in the Charles de Gaulle airport, and I will use other airport terms throughout the book. For example, instead of saying "designed by Adrian Frutiger" I am going to say "air navigation provided by Adrian Frutiger".