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Frutiger's personality and work are sensitively depicted in two documentaries that are worth watching: "Adrian Frutiger - Typographer" (1999) [0] and "The Man o

Frutiger's personality and work are sensitively depicted in two documentaries that are worth watching: "Adrian Frutiger - Typographer" (1999) [0] and "The Man of Black and White: Adrian Frutiger" (2005) [1]. "Just My Type", Simon Garfield's wildly popular book on typefaces, has a chapter titled "What is it about the Swiss?" which has a whole section dedicated to Frutiger. [2] Frutiger's design philosophy is beautifully reflected in this quote: "If you remember the shape of your spoon at lunch, it has to be the wrong shape. The spoon and the letter are tools; one to take food from the bowl, the other to take information off the page... When it is a good design, the reader has to feel comfortable because the letter is both banal and beautiful." Edit: Frutiger did a very detailed interview during the 1998 ATypI conference that was published in the graphic design journal, Eye, in 1999 [3]. Long read, but worth it to understand the man and his work. Linotype has published an excellent obituary [4]. "Adrian Frutiger Typefaces: The Complete Works" is available on amazon.com [5] and amazon.co.uk [6]. A sneak peak is on ISSUU [7]. [0] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426872/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426872/ [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0934510/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0934510/ [2] http://www.betterworldbooks.com/just-my-type-id-1592407463.aspx http://www.betterworldbooks.com/just-my-type-id-1592407463.a... [3] http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/reputations-adrian-frutiger http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/reputations-adria... [4] http://www.linotype.com/720-34866/adrianfrutigerremembered.html http://www.linotype.com/720-34866/adrianfrutigerremembered.h... [5] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3038215260/ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3038215260/ [6] http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/3038215260/ http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/3038215260/ [7] http://issuu.com/birkhauser.ch/docs/adrian-frutiger-typefaces http://issuu.com/birkhauser.ch/docs/adrian-frutiger-typeface...

akamaka 11y ago
Thanks for sharing that quote! It summarizes exactly what I've felt since I first encountered his fonts, which is that they have an amazing "neutralness" to them. The Avenir font started with Futura and smoothed out its distinctive quirks. I sometimes have to look closely before being sure a font is really Avenir, just because it lacks any imperfections that might betray it as something similar, like Gotham. His fonts might never be as famous as others because their distinctive characteristic is how impeccably unobstrustive they are.
MrJagil 11y ago
Do you know where to find them? Preferably free, if they're on an archive somewhere or similar. They seem to be in german as well, am I correct in this?
- e15ctr0n 11y ago
  "Adrian Frutiger - Typographer" (1999) was released in English, French, German and Italian. It was released in DVD format in 2004. It's listed on amazon.de [0] but seems to be out of stock at the moment. It seems to be available in libraries across Germany and Switzerland [1]. "The Man of Black and White: Adrian Frutiger" (2005) was released in Swiss German and German in DVD format. It's also listed on amazon.de [2] but seems to be out of stock at the moment. The San Francisco Public Library [3] seems to have a copy though. Sebastian Rohner of R.Films shot an interview with Adrian Frutiger at his home in Switzerland in 2007. It's available in German on YouTube [4]. [0] http://www.amazon.de/Adrian-Frutiger-Schriftengestalter/dp/B0007W9DPE http://www.amazon.de/Adrian-Frutiger-Schriftengestalter/dp/B... [1] https://www.worldcat.org/title/adrian-frutiger-schriftengestalter-ein-portrat/oclc/315110710/editions https://www.worldcat.org/title/adrian-frutiger-schriftengest... [2] http://www.amazon.de/Adrian-Frutiger-Mann-Schwarz-Weiss/dp/3722500494/ http://www.amazon.de/Adrian-Frutiger-Mann-Schwarz-Weiss/dp/3... [3] https://www.worldcat.org/title/mann-von-schwarz-und-weiss-adrian-frutiger/oclc/308433836 https://www.worldcat.org/title/mann-von-schwarz-und-weiss-ad... [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipGFasprntg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipGFasprntg
  - MrJagil 11y ago
    Thank you for being so thorough and informative though I seemingly won't get hold of these films. After reading the comment thread in the "playing with pigs" article, this is a ray of sunshine.
- ghaff 11y ago
  If you haven't seen it, there's also a documentary (in English) called Helvetica that isn't about Frutiger but certainly gets into a lot of discussion about the international typographic style more broadly.

akamaka 11y ago

Thanks for sharing that quote! It summarizes exactly what I've felt since I first encountered his fonts, which is that they have an amazing "neutralness" to them. The Avenir font started with Futura and smoothed out its distinctive quirks. I sometimes have to look closely before being sure a font is really Avenir, just because it lacks any imperfections that might betray it as something similar, like Gotham. His fonts might never be as famous as others because their distinctive characteristic is how impeccably unobstrustive they are.

MrJagil 11y ago

Do you know where to find them? Preferably free, if they're on an archive somewhere or similar. They seem to be in german as well, am I correct in this?

e15ctr0n 11y ago
"Adrian Frutiger - Typographer" (1999) was released in English, French, German and Italian. It was released in DVD format in 2004. It's listed on amazon.de [0] but seems to be out of stock at the moment. It seems to be available in libraries across Germany and Switzerland [1]. "The Man of Black and White: Adrian Frutiger" (2005) was released in Swiss German and German in DVD format. It's also listed on amazon.de [2] but seems to be out of stock at the moment. The San Francisco Public Library [3] seems to have a copy though. Sebastian Rohner of R.Films shot an interview with Adrian Frutiger at his home in Switzerland in 2007. It's available in German on YouTube [4]. [0] http://www.amazon.de/Adrian-Frutiger-Schriftengestalter/dp/B0007W9DPE http://www.amazon.de/Adrian-Frutiger-Schriftengestalter/dp/B... [1] https://www.worldcat.org/title/adrian-frutiger-schriftengestalter-ein-portrat/oclc/315110710/editions https://www.worldcat.org/title/adrian-frutiger-schriftengest... [2] http://www.amazon.de/Adrian-Frutiger-Mann-Schwarz-Weiss/dp/3722500494/ http://www.amazon.de/Adrian-Frutiger-Mann-Schwarz-Weiss/dp/3... [3] https://www.worldcat.org/title/mann-von-schwarz-und-weiss-adrian-frutiger/oclc/308433836 https://www.worldcat.org/title/mann-von-schwarz-und-weiss-ad... [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipGFasprntg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipGFasprntg
- MrJagil 11y ago
  Thank you for being so thorough and informative though I seemingly won't get hold of these films. After reading the comment thread in the "playing with pigs" article, this is a ray of sunshine.
ghaff 11y ago
If you haven't seen it, there's also a documentary (in English) called Helvetica that isn't about Frutiger but certainly gets into a lot of discussion about the international typographic style more broadly.