The Swiss type designer Adrian Frutiger decisively influenced the international creation of typefaces after 1950. His Univers typeface and the machine-readable font OCR-B are milestones, as is his type for the Paris airports, which evolved into the Frutiger typeface. All set new standards for signage types. In all, he created some fifty types, including Ondine, Méridien, Avenir, and Vectora.

Based on conversations with Frutiger himself and on extensive research, this publication provides a highly detailed and accurate account of the type designer's artistic development. All of his types – from the design phase to the marketing stage – are illustrated and analyzed with reference to the technology and related types.

Hitherto unpublished types that were never realized and more than one hundred logos complete the picture.