EAST vs WEST

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EAST vs WEST

Throughout history, humans have found the necessity to improve

communication. Clear communication has been essential for the existence

of human kind. Hand drawn marks and shapes became the foundation of

a written communication system developed as what is known today as

typography. The creation of letterforms, size, shape, and organization has

become an art form with the purpose of relating others an idea or conveying

a thought. The art of designing letterforms started within the Greek culture

and has been developed since then by a prolific amount of key players who

have pushed many boundaries. Two important key players who have

devoted their careers and passion to this art form have been Herb Lubalin

and Adrian Frutiger. Both typographer’s accomplishments and contributions

have propelled and made typography a better medium of communication.

Their devotion and talent have distinguished these two type designers

from the rest of other type designers that were venturing within this field.

Even though typography was a common factor in their lives, both

typographers shared many differences. The historical time, nationality,

technology, and typefaces differentiate both of these masters of typography.

The historical time in which these

type designers developed became an

influential factor in the accomplishments

and contributions to the design world.

Being American, Herb Lubalin grew up

with a solid political foundation of a

multicultural community in New York

(Widmer 8). Growing up in 1920’s, known

as, The Golden Age Twenties, his family had

a financial foundation steadier than other

designers that were born a decade prior and

after. During this decade rapid urbanization

was occurring in the cities and radical

political movements were rising in Europe.

The birth of Art Deco Movement and

Surrealism changed the Art world

drastically. Lubalin is known for being a

post-modernist type designer. His most

successful work in graphic design consists

of posters and magazine designs,

packaging, and identity solutions.

ITC Avant Garde typeface revolutionized

the design world and it is still one of the

most popular typefaces used today. In

an interview, Lubalin stated, “Typography

can be as exciting as illustration and

photography. Sometimes you can sacrifice

legibility to increase impact” (Widmer 9).

American & Swiss

20th Century Type DesignersNew York City, 1920’s

American & Swiss

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” (Osterer and Stamm 12).

On the contrary, Swiss born Adrian

Frutiger dealt with W WII growing

up which was devastating to most

European countries. The war shook

the art world creating turmoil and

eventually making abstract expres-

sionism the new form of expression.

During this new era of abstract

expressionism, Frutiger became

interested in the Swiss style

focusing on readability, cleanliness

and objectivity. The Frutiger typeface

was born as a result of the influences

of the Swiss style as well as in Avenir

and Univers. The diversity of

interacting with different countries

and a prolific amount of different

European signs attracted him to

reinvent signs in a more legible

way (Osterer and Stamm 13).

This eventually led him into

redesigning many European signs

including the Charles de Gaulle

airport in Paris. He became known as

a modernist and a functionalist and

also as a post-modernist. In a speech

he stated, “If you remember the

shape of your spoon at lunch, it has

to be the wrong shape.

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Lubalin stated, “For the first two years,

I was the worst student in the school.

In the last two years, I was about the best.”

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Lubalin stated, “For the first two years,

I was the worst student in the school.

In the last two years, I was about the best.”

It is said that the background

and the origins of a person

construct the foundation

and character of one’s life.

Both of these successful

type designers come from

different backgrounds and

family nucleus. Herb Lubalin

was born in New York City on

March 17, 1918. Lubalin grew

up in Sheep Head Bay fishing

all year round since he was

close to the Atlantic Ocean.

He was the younger out of

fraternal twins who grew

up within a large, loving

family an amalgam of artist,

musicians and businessmen.

He grew up in a melting pot

community, New York, and

being that his mother’s side

of the family migrated from

Germany and his father’s

side of the family migrated

from Russia (Peckolic 8).

Having a singer mother

and a trumpet player father,

Lubalin was encouraged

throughout his childhood

to be involved with the arts.

During high school, Lubalin

gain interest in drawing

even though he was not

the best, his professors

encouraged him to develop

his feelings for design and

lettering. The depression

of the 1930’s financially

affected his family forcing

Lubalin and his brother to

apply to Law school. His

brother was accepted in

Law school, and because of

Lubalin’s poor grades in high

school, he was not. Lubalin

had no other choice but to

apply to a free program at

the prestigious Cooper

Union College where he

was accepted. Lubalin

stated, “For the first two

years, I was the worst student

in the school. In the last two

years, I was about the best”

(Peckolick 11). He felt that as

a designer it is imperative to

know the technical language

of point, picas and leading.

For the rest of his career

he collaborated for three

well-known magazines

and created the typeface

“ITC Avante Garde”.

In contrast, Adrian Frutiger was born in

Unterseen near Interlaken in Switzerland

on 24 May 1928. He grew up in a small

village on the valley floor between Lake

Brienz in the east and Lake Thun in the

west. Their home was located next to the

train tracks where Frutiger developed a

fascination with electricity and model

traction engines (Osterer and Stamm 12).

At age 13, he developed his own hand

writing style that was rounder, more fluid,

and more upright that the hand writing

system that was being used in the Basel

schools emulating writer and teacher Ernst

Eberhart’s style (Monotype 4). The field of

painting attracted him, but his father was

firmly against it because he didn’t want him

to become a starving painter. He decided to

accept an internship as a typesetting where

he worked with Ernst Jodi and got to

travel. This internship opened up a new

world of possibilities for him within

the type world. At age 21 he decided

to further his education by joining the

Kunstgewebeschule in Zurich becoming

their second student interested in

typesetting. Later in his career he moved

to France where he stayed for most of his

career. Charles de Gaulle Airport adopted

his typeface, “Frutiger,” to better the

legibility of their signs (Osterer and Stamm

12). In 1952, Frutiger became lead of the

drawing office at Deberny & Peignot in

Paris and founded his own studio with

Bruno Pfaffli and Andre Gurtler where his

first typefaces developed.

At age 21, Frutiger decides to further his education

by joining the Kunstgewebeschule in

Zurich becoming their second student

interested in typesetting.

At age 21, Frutiger decides to further his education

by joining the Kunstgewebeschule in

Zurich becoming their second student

interested in typesetting. typesetting example

r u t i g e r

photosetting inovation

T YPE & TECHNOLOGY

T YPE & TECHNOLOGY

In the history of typography,

technology plays a leading role in

transforming and changing everyday

processes and systems. Today people

enjoy and are able to have typography

at their fingertips on their computers

thanks to technology. In the process of

improving technology, typographers

faced many drastic changes to their

creative processes forcing them to

metamorphose their designs and

methods. In his career, technology

provided Lubalin with the hot metal

technique that consisted of metal

molds that were injected with molten

metal that had the shape of one or

more glyphs. The metal pieces that

were created were then inked and

pressed onto paper to create individual

words and sentences. The process help

designers print faster and it made

print work more accessible to people.

There were five well-known hot metal

enterprises Linotype, Intertype

Corporation, Typograph, and

The Monoline. In addition, the

invention of the 1960’s “photosetting”

revolutionized the print world.

Photosetting consisted of a machine

that projected the image on film for

offset printing. Later on this film had to

go through a bathing process of three

different chemicals. This advancement in

technology provided Lubalin and others

with different scales in type sizes and

allowed them to scale up type without

sacrificing sharpness. They were able

to manipulate type and have more

control of kerning.

1960’s

Technology presented Frutiger with one of the

most technological advances in history, the computer.

Digital typesetting

F

On the contrary, Frutiger was

conventional t ypographer

who became influenced by

invented scripts, stylized

handwriting, sculpture,

monumental inscriptions,

and calligraphy. Craftsman-

ship and tactile labor were

the foundations of Frutiger.

Whether using woodcut

or paper silhouettes, he

persevered and became

victorious in his designs.

He was one of the only

type designers who

experienced a prolific amount

of technological advances.

Being devoted and

passionate with type, he

embraced every change

and had an optimistic take.

Unlike Lubalin, technology

presented Frutiger with one

of the most technological

advances in history, the

computer (Osterer and

Stamm 12). Digital typeset-

ting revolutionized type

and print changing every

technique previously used.

Designers had to developed

and reinvent type, to make

it more legible in this new

pixel based world. His

typefaces have become

one of the most popular

typefaces of the 20th

and 21st century.

Frut ge ri

rWith all of the technological changes

experienced, both designer designed

numerous typefaces. In 1970’s while

working on the logo for Avant Garde

magazine, Lubalin designed the

typeface “ITC Avant Garde Gothic” that

he later developed in partnership with

Andre Gurtler, Eric Gschwind, and

Christian Mengelt. This font family

consists of 5 weights with complimentary

obliques. Later on ITC released version

called OpenType that included 33 alternate

characters and ligatures. In addition, he

designed Ronda typeface influenced by

the Bauhaus movement, Lubalin Graph a

heavily geometric typeface designed in

1974 consisting of bold geometric letter

shapes and strong slab serifs, and ITC Serif

Gothic of 1972 for the International

Typeface Corporation which was a

readable roman serif typeface with the

simplicity of a sans a gothic sans serif

mostly used for advertising, packaging,

billboards and headlines.

ITC

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1920’s Bahaus Movementgeometric san serifAvan t Ga rde MagazineDesigned 1970-1977

used on headlines and small textsITC Avant Garde Magazine

UN

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neo-grotesque san ser i f44 faces

16 numbered weights

variety of widths and posi t ion combinat ions

France de Gaul le International Airport

Paris 1970’s

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France de Gaul le International Airport

However, Frutiger had

more an abundant career

in typeface design. Starting

in 1970’s he was approached

by the public transportation

authority of Paris to examine

the Paris Metro signage.

The outcome was his

creation of the typeface

Univers that consisted of a

set of capitals and numbers

specifically for white-on-

dark-blue backgrounds in

poor light (Typophile 7).

This neo-grotesque san-serif

type family consists of 44

faces, 16 numbered weights,

width, and position combi-

nations. All variations were

designated by the use of

numbers rather than names.

This modern typeface success

caught the attention of the

French introducing it into

the Charles de Gaulle

International Airport in the

Roissy suburb of Paris. The

typeface provided legibility

from afar and from

different angles

improving communication

within the airport (Osterer

and Stamm 13).

A prolific career

The "way-finding-signage"

commission brief required

a typeface both “legible

from afar and from an

angle.” Frutiger considered

“adapting Univers,

but decided it was dated as

too “Sixties.” The resulting

typeface is thus an

amalgamation of

Univers tempered with

the organic influences of Gill

Sans, a humanist sans-serif

typeface by Eric Gill, and

Edward Johnston's type for

the London Transport, and

Roger Excoffon's Antique

Olive. Originally titled Roissy,

the typeface was renamed

Frutiger when the

Mergenthaler Linotype

Company released it for

public use in 1976” (Carter 7).

Beyond this one example,

some of Frutiger’s most

famous typefaces include

Univers, Egyptienne, Serifa,

Avenir and OCR-B. Frutiger

is one of only a few

typographers whose career

spans across hot metal,

photographic and

digital typesetting. In

Amsterdam,you can see

his typeface Avenir spread

throughout the city as well

as on BBC news.

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xIn conclusion, from the Greek culture until

the present have been faced with the

necessity of improving communication to

relate the history, communicate, and to

develop intellectually. From shapes and

marks in caves to what we know today as

typography, this communication system and

art form has overcome many struggles and

influencing factors that has slowly devel-

oped and improved it. With the creation

of letterforms, printing methods and new

technologies, typography has become a

leading character in every field. The

struggles and hard work of typographers

like Herb Lubalin and Adrian Frutiger h

ave contributed immensely to the field of

typography. Their persistence and passion

transform communication and elevated it

making it an essential part of everyday life.

Both typographers differentiate in historical

time, in nationality, technological advances

faced, and in typefaces designed.

Both left humanity a different

legacies and points of view.

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Designer: Edrick D Agostini

Typefaces: Frutiger and ITC Avant Garde

Course: Typography III

Faculty: Francheska Guerrero