Project 3: Type & Hierarchy
Published in
1 min readSep 23, 2018
Typeface: Avenir
Research:
- Avenir was designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1988.
- It is an example of a sans serif font.
- In the 1920s, certain sans serif fonts began using circles as a geometric foundation. Avenir was based off this idea, but it was intended to be a more “organic” and “natural” interpretation. Specific details of Avenir were more similar to traditional, flowing fonts; for example, the “a” was multi-leveled as opposed to single-tiered, and the “t” had an organic curl at the end. In addition, the “o” is not a perfect circle, and was actually adjusted for optimal optical viewing.
- “Avenir” actually means “future” in French. Frutiger made a conscious effort to combine past font influences with futuristic ideals, as evidenced by the trendy tweaks he made on old-school geometric sans serif fonts! No longer did the font feel rigid and structured; Frutiger managed to make the font feel more natural and organic.
- Avenir is commonly used in logos. For instance, it is prominently featured in the Aol, Toyota, Nationwide, and Spotify logos, amongst others. It is a popular choice mainly for how easy it is on the eyes, as each letter is optimally adjusted for reading and viewing purposes.
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