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Avenir®

By Linotype

Adrian Frutiger
Linotype
Adrian Frutiger designed Avenir? in 1988, after years of having an interest in sans serif typefaces. In an interview with Linotype, he said he felt an obligation to design a linear sans in the tradition of Erbar and Futura, but to also make use of the experience and stylistic developments of the twentieth century. The word Avenir means 'future' in French and hints that the typeface owes some of its interpretation to Futura. But unlike Futura, Avenir is not purely geometric; it has vertical strokes that are thicker than the horizontals, an """"o"""" that is not a perfect circle, and shortened ascenders. These nuances aid in legibility and give Avenir a harmonious and sensible appearance for both texts and headlines. In 2004 Adrian Frutiger and the type director of Linotype GmbH Akira Kobayashi reworked the Avenir and created the Avenir Next for the Platinum Collection.

Avenir was originally released in 1988 with three weights, each with a roman and oblique version, all using Frutiger’s two-digit weight and width convention for names. The typeface family was later expanded to six weights, each with a roman and oblique version. Together with Akira Kobayashi, Frutiger completely reworked the Avenir family in 2004. The result is Avenir Next.

The original Avenir family is made up of designs with gradual weight changes in order to satisfy the needs of specific text applications. While the book and light weights have similar stroke widths, the book weight is well suited for body text, whereas the light was designed for captions and subhead text.

References:
Featured Font: Avenir

Dwell magazine switched to Avenir during a 2007 rebrand.

Key Bank adopted Avenir for advertising and in-bank signage. Japan Airlines, Banrisul, Scottish Water, Susquehanna International Group and Red Lion Hotels use Avenir for corporate branding.

Avenir is employed on signage at Dallas Fort Worth and Hong Kong international airports. The city of Amsterdam adopted Avenir as its corporate typeface in 2003. The Girl Scouts of America created a modified version of Avenir for its 2010 rebrand.

LG Electronics uses Avenir extensively in branding, advertising and hardware such as cell phone keypads.

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Sans Serif
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