Univers font typeface was designed in 1954 by Adrian Frutiger and it was originally released and conceived in 1957 by Peignot and Deberny and in 1972 its type library was acquired by Haas. Basically Univers is a like a group of three typefaces which includes the Univers fonts, the Neue Haas Grotesk which was later renames as Helvetica and Folio. All the three typefaces are based on Akzidenz-Grotesk typeface of 1898 and this makes each of them to be confused for another. All the three typefaces prominently figure Swiss styled graphic designs. To differentiate the three typefaces, its designer Frutiger decided to use numbers instead of names. Even then, many typefaces that fall under the Univers family include the use of letter and number suffixes. As per today, there are about 44 faces in the Univers font faces with about 16 numbered width, weight and position combinations. Frutiger in collaboration with Linotype decided to rework the Univers fonts. This led to the creation of Linotype Univers family which comprised of 63 fonts. On the same note, extreme weights were created like extended heavy or ultra light as well as monospaced typefaces were created. This meant that the numbering system had to be extended; it was extended to a 3 digit numbering system reflecting variations.
Uses of Univers Fonts
Univers is well known for its legibility and clear lines and this has led to a number of national and multinational companies and organizations using it. Univers fonts were largely used in the 1960s to 1970s. Currently, a modified version of this font is being used by the Swiss international Airlines, Deutsche bank, Munich Re group (also uses a modified version) as well as all over the world for signage. Between 1986 and 2004, General Electric Company also used Univers. San Francisco BART, Montreal Metro, numerous Toronto transit stations, Walt Disney World and Frankfurt airport also made use of the Univers typeface.
A number of the London boroughs use the bold condensed Univers in street signs. Royal Air force in 2006 used this for the merchandising material, Ordnance Survey use it for its maps. The Office of Fair Trading in 2006 also adapted Univers for its business typographic. In the United Kingdom, the Univers font is largely used for school exams and tests due to its clarity to avoid confusing letter I and number 1. Other bodies that at one point or another used the Univers font include the world book encyclopedia, HP, laser Jet 1100 printer, CNN international and CNN domestic, ESPN and IBM selectric Composer.
Frutiger and Linotype numbering systems comparison
The Frutiger numbering system was designed to eliminate confusion when it comes to specifying and naming of the fonts. This system made use of 2 number concatenation with the first one defining weight and the second defining position and weight. Even with this aim, many people found the system more confusing than it actually was before the invention and implementation of the numbering system. The Linotype numbering system makes use of 3 number concatenation with the first defining weight the second width and the last position.
