What are Frutiger (typeface) distinctive characters and personality?

[battlefield]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

Hi!
I'm doing a little research on the typeface Frutiger.
I've read plenty about Adrian himself unfortunately for me I need information about the typeface
He doesnt mention the face Frutiger much, though I have found some information about the typeface he designed for the airport in France called; Roissy which is i think Frutiger but it doesnt say much.

I need a little information on how to distict this typeface (Frutiger) with popular typefaces like Helvetica, Univers(Adrian again), etc. etc.

Or maybe something about its personality.
I found a few little companies that use Frutiger on the corporate identity.
However i'm sure a lot of companies use Frutiger for many things.

Any help will be appreciated, thank you type lovers.

[Nick Shinn]

IMO it's the lack of distinct characters and the subtlety, dare one say blandness, of the face that provide its personality.

[Dunwich Type]

It’s not simply the blandness of the face, but the way that lack of distinction combines with the generous proportions of the forms and counterforms. Frutiger is a very airy typeface with huge counters and wide letterspacing; its black weight could pass for bold in some families. So it also lends itself to great readability in many circumstances.

[Si_Daniels]

Rather than blandness you could say neutrality. Wasn't Myriad's codename Generica?

[Nick Shinn]

Rather than blandness you could say neutrality.

But I didn't.
Frutiger is pleasantly bland, unassuming, gentle and well-mannered.
Neutral is nothing much of anything.

[Dunwich Type]

I don’t think Frutiger tries to be neutral. It gives off an unassuming warmth that’s perfect for making large organizations seem smaller and less impersonal. It’s sort of the Unitarian sans.

[ncaleffi]

Speaking of Adrian Frutiger, a big book about his work has just been published by the Swiss Foundation Type and Typography:

"Adrian Frutiger - Typefaces: The Complete Works"

I guess this must be a very good starting point for any research on the matter.

"Only when the design fails does it draw attention to itself; when it succeeds, it's invisible." (John D. Berry)

[Alessandro Segalini]

Check out the dvd The Man of Black and White, it is a great documentary.

[eliason]

It’s sort of the Unitarian sans.

That's good!

[battlefield]

Thank you guys (Nick Shinn, James Puckett, ncaleffi and Alessandro Segalini) for sharing your opinions/knowledge on Frutiger.

ncaleffi; helpful quote, i might also get the book (bit expensive tho) thanks!

Has anyone seen the Frutiger film or own the book?
Thanks

[nina]

I've seen excerpts of the film, which seems to be very interesting – I'd love to see the whole thing.

Re examples of usage: The Swiss Post has used Frutiger in its branding for as long as I can remember; in fact, every time I see Frutiger Bold, I think mail (which is how I indentify Frutiger!). Unfortunately, they don't have a lot of branded PDFs or anything online; here is their logo, which has actually just recently been tweaked a little, departing from the classic Frutiger lettershapes. I think their web site still has the old one though.

German Wikipedia lists a whole slew of companies that use Frutiger here – ranging from the German Army (Bundeswehr) to a certain failed Swiss Bank (which combines it with Walbaum in their printed matters) as well as Germany's largest (I think) trade union.
English Wikipedia also lists a few.