Born in 1928 near Interlaken, Switzerland,
Adrian Frutiger is one of the predominant figures in twentieth century European design. His career has taken him to many countries, and his work has touched designers around the world, inspiring generations of newcomers since the 1950s. On May 24, he will be 80 years old. We at Linotype.com know that our readers and customers would love the opportunity to wish him a happy birthday.
Adrian Frutiger’s career path is legendary. During the late 1940s, while he was still a student in Zürich, he created an extraordinary piece for his graduation project: a woodcut series of lettering styles illustrating the evolution of the Roman alphabet. After Charles Peignot at the Deberny & Peignot foundry in Paris received a copy of the prints, he quickly brought the young Adrian Frutiger to France.
Although he returned to Switzerland many years ago, Adrian Frutiger spent most of his professional career in Paris. For almost a decade, he was employed by Deberny & Peignot, until he set off on his own in 1961. Over the course of three decades, he designed numerous typefaces still used around the world today, including
Apollo™,
Breughel®,
Frutiger®,
Meridien®,
OCR B,
Ondine™,
President™,
Serifa®, and
Univers®. Which one is your favorite?
Along the way, he took the time to teach younger generations and develop on large-scale projects as well, such as typefaces for the
signage system at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris and the Paris Metro. Since the 1980s, Adrian Frutiger has designed typefaces exclusively for release through Linotype, including
Avenir®,
Avenir® Next,
Linotype Centennial®,
Frutiger® Capitalis,
Frutiger® Stones,
Herculanum®,
Pompeijana™,
Vectora®, and
Westside™.
Adrian Frutiger may be most well known for his groundbreaking sans serif typefaces, like Univers and Frutiger. But his work has gone in many other directions, as
Meridien®/
Frutiger ® Serif,
Ondine™,
Herculanum®, and
Frutiger® Stones all illustrate.
