Adrian Frutiger was born in 1928 at Unterseen near Interlaken (Switzerland). After an apprenticeship as a compositor he made further education in type and graphics at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule) from 1949 to 1951 (teacher: Alfred Willimann and Walter Käch).
Frutiger was called to Paris in 1952 and worked as typeface designer and artistic manager at Deberny & Peignot. He founded his own studio in Arcueil near Paris 1961, together with Bruno Pfäffli and André Gürtler. Frutiger was Professor for ten years at the Ecole Estienne and eight years at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.
Frutiger’s work has concentrated mainly on the design of printing types and signage systems, but he has also created free forms. The book "Forms and counterforms", published by Erich Alb of Syndor Press, presents this free forms in a single volume for the first time (Cham, Switzerland, ISBN 3-908257-07-7).
He has received several awards and honours: In 1986, the Gutenberg Prize of the City of Mainz (Germany); 1987, Medal of the Type Directors Club of New York; 1993, Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Paris); 1993, Grand prix national des Arts Graphiques (France).
© 1999, Textes and photos by Syndor Press, Cham, Switzerland. Downloading allowed only subject to permission of Syndor Press.
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