Who is Adrian Frutiger?

Born in Switzerland in 1928, Adrian Frutiger was a very influential typeface designer. Frutiger studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of applied arts) in Zurich, where he primarily focused on calligraphy – a craft that favored the brush as opposed to drafting tools. He went on to work for Deberny & Peignot foundry, where he began working on his own font designs. 

Frutiger created over thirty different typefaces, but he is most well known for Frutiger and Univers, which are still used by many designers today. One of his most influential fonts, Univers, had twenty-one fonts of different line weights and variations within the type family all arranged on the "Univers grid."

"The Univers Grid" showed Univers arranged according to line weight and kerning, which was an effective tool for organizing the different versions of the font. This system helped designers understand how to use the different typefaces within Univers. The grid that Frutiger created for his typefaces continues to resonate with designers today. It is not only a tool for understanding a typeface, but also makes it easier for designers to combine different weights within the type family by laying them out in an organized way. By creating