Born in 1928 in Unterseen, Switzerland, and died in 2015, Adrian Frutiger trained as a typesetter, then at the School of Applied Arts in Zurich. In 1952, he joined the Deberny et Peignot foundry in Paris, where he spent much of his career.
Vision
Frutiger saw typography as a service to the reader: a good typeface should disappear behind the text. He also thought more broadly about signs and symbols, in his book Signs and Symbols.
Works
His work includes Univers, Méridien, Serifa, OCR-B, Frutiger, Avenir and Linotype Didot, as well as the alphabet for the Paris metro signage.
Legacy
He is one of the most important type designers of the 20th century. Univers introduced the idea of a type family designed as a complete system, and Frutiger remains a reference for signage.