Anna-Lena Würth Many of Adrian Frutiger’s best-known works were created during his time in Arcueil, in the southern suburbs of Paris. For decades, Frutiger had his studio there in collaboration with Bruno Pfäffli. When the house in which the old studio was located was sold in 2019, a number of treasures were found under the roof: original documents and drawings by Frutiger dating from 1964 to 1975.
For my research project at ANRT (Atelier National de Recherche Typographique), I had the amazing opportunity to work with those documents, which provided deeper insights into the history of type design in the second half of the 20th century. In the presentation, I will showcase previously unseen prints and microfilms of the typeface Univers for typeball typewriters and phototypesetting. This will be followed by an overview of the design process through which Univers inspired me to design Multivers—a variable typeface that merges the two technical implementations of phototypesetting and typeball typewriter technology into a combined design synthesis. The font focuses on the new discoveries resulting from processing the archive. With its variability in three axes it offers a deeper understanding of how different typesetting technologies shaped typedesign from concept to final realization.
In his work, Frutiger exploited everything technically possible to incorporate the latest technological advances into his designs. Always up to date, he revised Univers and adapted it to the times. Multivers looks back on this pioneering approach and puts it in a new context. It reflects the perspective of Univers and expands it through the technical possibilities of the variable font format.