Fonts of Adrian Frutiger in the Linotype Library

Westside™
Westside can be classified as a "wood type." It is reminiscent of dusty streets, Wild West heroes and swinging saloon doors. The origins of wood types are found in the early nineteenth century, when such types really were cut in wood, and printed on hand presses. Westside has big fat serifs and heavy horizontals that are much thicker than the skinny vertical strokes. When the letters are set together, the heavy serifs build dark horizontal bands. As most of Frutiger’s other fonts are serious text faces and modern classics, one might be surprised that he turned his vision sideways and designed this playful, spirited typeface. But Frutiger has always been interested in patterns, and the kind of pattern that a wood type creates must have been irresistible to this consummate designer. Use Westside at large point sizes to create a distinctive effect in headlines for banners, posters, and magazines.

Univers™
The font family Univers is one of the greatest typographic achievements of the second half of the 20th century. The family has the advantage of having a variety of weights and styles, which, even when combined, give an impression of steadiness and homogeneity. The clear, objective forms of Univers make this a legible font suitable for almost any typographic need. In 1954 the French type foundry Deberny & Peignot wanted to add a linear sans serif type in several weights to the range of the Lumitype fonts. Adrian Frutiger, the foundry’s art director, suggested refraining from adapting an existing alphabet. He wanted to instead make a new font that would, above all, be suitable for the typesetting of longer texts - quite an exciting challenge for a sans-serif font at that time. Starting with his old sketches from his student days at the School for the Applied Arts in Zurich, he created the Univers type family. In 1957, the family was released by Deberny & Piegnot, and afterwards, it was produced by Linotype.


Linotype Univers™
Linotype Univers is a completely reworked version of the original Univers typeface family designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1957. After a long process of painstakingly detailed revision, Frutiger and the design staff at Linotype Library completed this large joint project in 1997. The result: a brilliant and cohesive font family of 63 weights and styles including the 4 monospaced typewriter weights. All the existing weights were completely redrawn, with careful attention paid to making the proportions more consistent with each other and improving fine details such as curves and thick-to-thin stroke ratios. The family was expanded from 27 to 63 weights, providing a much larger framework to graphic designers for choosing just the right style. The bold and condensed weights were reworked for improved legibility and on-screen application. The stroke weights were revised for consistency within each face as well as in relationship to the other weights. By following Frutiger’s original designs, the humanist character of the sans serif Univers now comes through more distinctly. The systemized numbering system has also been updated. With its sturdy, clean forms Univers can facilitate an expression of cool elegance and rational competence. In fact, the strong familial relationships between all the styles and weights make it a serviceable choice for large graphic design projects that require versatility with consistency. Frutiger was successful in staying true to his initial aims; the new Linotype Univers does indeed work in longer texts as well as for display settings.
Get more information about Linotype Univers.