Adrian Frutiger

Adrian Frutiger, one of the most influential typeface designers of the 20th century, created Univers in 1954, released in 1957. Univers is a sans-serif typeface that served to update the almost 50 year old Akzidenz Grotesk. What made Univers such an important milestone is that it was the first megafamily typeface. Rather than coming in the usual three fonts—regular, italic and bold—it came in no fewer than 21 different weights, each labeled by a different number. This variety resulted in unprecedented flexibility for designers, who were now able to design an entire project using various fonts of a single typeface, rather than having to use a variety of typefaces in order to get all of the weights they wanted. This move turned designers’ attention to the possibilities of single typefaces in a completely new way. The path to Helvetica and Swiss Design dominance was set. (Swiss Design 99Designs)

Univers via Meggs'

Bigman, Alex. “What Exactly Is Swiss Design, Anyway?” 99designs, 99designs, 24 Jan. 2020, 99designs.com/blog/design-history-movements/swiss-design/.

Meggs' History of Graphic Design, 5th edition, Wiley, Chapter 18: The International Typographic Style, p 372–389.