Like most grotesque and neo-grotesque sans-serifs, Univers's slanted form is an oblique, in which the letterforms are slanted, with minor corrections but no other major alterations.
The design, with a working title of Monde, was developed from 1953 to a final release in 1957. However, the actual typeface names within Univers family include both number and letter suffixes. Frutiger envisioned a large family with multiple widths and weights that maintained a unified design idiom. ĭifferent weights and variations within the type family are designated by the use of numbers rather than names, a system since adopted by Frutiger for other type designs. He described Univers in 1998 as having a 'visual sensitivity between thick and thin' strokes, avoiding perfect geometry. While studying at the Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts School) in Zürich, he had begun to sketch a revived grotesque family based on 19th-century grotesques, at the time considered antiquated outside Switzerland. Frutiger disliked purely geometric designs, finding them too rigid, following a common school of thought among Swiss designers of the period.
Univers was released after a long period in which geometric typefaces such as Futura had been popular. These typefaces figure prominently in the Swiss Style of graphic design. As all are based on Akzidenz-Grotesk, these three faces are sometimes confused with each other. Univers is one of a group of neo-grotesque sans-serif typefaces, all released in 1957, that includes Folio and Neue Haas Grotesk (later renamed Helvetica). A purely geometrical form of type is unsustainable.įrutiger in 1961, explaining why his design had rejected the geometric sans-serif design trend popular from the 1920s to the 1950s. Some of these old sans serifs have had a real renaissance within the last twenty years, once the reaction of the 'New Objectivity' had been overcome. Historian James Mosley has described it as "probably the last major" release of a large family as metal type. Univers was rapidly licensed and re-released by Monotype, Linotype, American Type Founders, IBM and others for phototypesetting, for metal type and reproduction by typewriter. Deberny & Peignot had established itself as a leader in this technology, although as by the time of its launch metal type was still very popular, the design was also released in this form.
The design concept of Univers was intended to take advantage of the new technology of phototypesetting, in which fonts were stored as glass discs rather than as solid metal type and matrices for every size to be used. This matched the desire among practitioners of the "Swiss style" of typography for neutral sans-serif typefaces avoiding artistic excesses. By creating a matched range of styles and weights, Univers allowed documents to be created in one consistent typeface for all text, making it easier to artistically set documents in sans-serif type. Past sans-serif designs such as Gill Sans had much greater differences between weights, while loose families such as American Type Founders' Franklin Gothic family often were advertised under different names for each style, to emphasise that they were not completely matching. Univers was one of the first typeface families to fulfil the idea that a typeface should form a family of consistent, related designs. The original marketing for Univers deliberately referenced the periodic table to emphasise its scope. Classified as a neo-grotesque sans-serif, one based on the model of nineteenth-century German typefaces such as Akzidenz-Grotesk, it was notable for its availability from the moment of its launch in a comprehensive range of weights and widths. Univers ( French pronunciation: ) is the name of a large sans-serif typeface family designed by Adrian Frutiger and released by his employer Deberny & Peignot in 1957.
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