Adrian Frutiger has died • Hacker News Board

Re: Adrian Frutiger has died

#51

Post by gpvos » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 12:14 PM UTC

theoh wrote: post #40

theoh wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't give you chapter and verse on this, but when the first autobahns were built, they were composed of straight sections and constant curvature bends. This was perceived by engineers to be the rational way. Landscape designers (who were also involved) eventually convinced the engineers to adopt more sinuous curves, which of course also create transitions (clothoid or Cornu spiral sections) which made the roads ea…

Found a reference: Driving Germany: The Landscape of the German Autobahn. p.130 onwards.

https://books.google.nl/books?id=Kq_Ys4BlA6cC&lpg=PP1&hl=nl&... (starts on p. 129 really)

Re: Adrian Frutiger has died

#52

Post by gpvos » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 12:20 PM UTC

johansch wrote: post #43

davidw wrote: post #10

It's interesting to compare typefaces of road signs across Europe. Frutiger is pretty nice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frutiger_(typeface) I like (am used to?) the Italian one too: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfabeto_Normale (derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_(typeface) ) I don't much care for the Austrian/German ones though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_1451 - apparently it was designed…

Sweden: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tratex

Not the most beautiful font, but I love the handwriting-style lowercase a.

Re: Adrian Frutiger has died

#53

Post by gpvos » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 12:22 PM UTC

bbarn wrote: post #27

davidw wrote: post #10

It's interesting to compare typefaces of road signs across Europe. Frutiger is pretty nice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frutiger_(typeface) I like (am used to?) the Italian one too: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfabeto_Normale (derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_(typeface) ) I don't much care for the Austrian/German ones though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_1451 - apparently it was designed…

I wonder how much the DIN font is optimized for longer german words. While I don't like it as much as the others, Frutiger would be much wider than it, which in practical terms might be bad.

For long place names, they often use a narrower variant, which is a bit ugly when mixed with normal width on signage.

Re: Adrian Frutiger has died

#54

Post by e15ctr0n » Wed, Sep 16, 2015, 7:23 PM UTC

amyjess wrote: post #35

quink wrote: post #30

Gill Sans and Zapf's Optima were the first big humanist fonts, but they are really best used sparsely. Zapf died earlier this year, by the way. But with Adrian Frutiger's Frutiger the whole world was blown open. Helvetica had a predecessor fairly like it in Akzidenz Grotesk, but Frutiger was something else entirely. Grotesques had been around for decades prior to Helvetica. Frutiger was a revolution. I and everybody…

> Zapf died earlier this year, by the way. Somehow, I missed that news. Damn, the world of typography lost two of its biggest visionaries this summer alone. I always preferred Zapf's fonts to Frutiger's by a wide margin (I always favor serif fonts over sans serifs), but they were both brilliant men, and typography won't be the same without either.

>> Zapf died earlier this year, by the way.

> Somehow, I missed that news.

I did submit the news to HN, but it received no attention, alas.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9692624