Typography Homework 9/8

John Baskerville was an English engraver born in 1706. He was engraving tombstones at seventeen and by twenty he was teaching, writing, bookkeeping, and running an engraving business. At thirty-two he took up jappaning, which is a laquering process, that made him rich. He was a mentor to Matthew Boulton, who built Watt's steam engines and also a good friend of Benjamin Franklin. After working four years with typography and printing, Baskerville produced the first Baskerville font. He brought fine printing to new heights. He was then hired by Cambridge University as a printer, and that's where he printed his masterpiece. He made the most beautiful Bible, although he was, ironically, an atheist. He lived with his partner, Sarah, out of wedlock, and when he died he didn't want to be buried in a consecrated ground. But eventually he ended up there..

http://uh.edu/engines/epi1761.htm

What makes Baskerville unique is that it is very elegant, as well as being classified between a new and old style typeface. It is a very legible, simplistic, and refined serif typeface.

Adrian Frutiger is a type designer who has produced many well known typefaces. He was born in 1928 in Switzerland and worked as a printer's apprentice at 16. He went to the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts. Frutiger then moved to Paris and started working at Derberny and typefoundry. Frutiger was also starting to design his own typefaces. He also made a number of books throughout his life. He is still alive and works on woodcuts. In 2003, a Swiss watchmaker Ventura commissioned him to do some work on a new watch face. Some of his types include: President, Phoebus, Ondine, Meridien, Egyptienne, Univers, Apollo, Serifa, OCR-B, Iridium, Frutiger, Glypha, Icone, Breughel, Versailles, Avenir, and Vectora. Frutiger also developed the numbering system by using a grid.

http://www.typophile.com/node/12118

Univers is a unique san-serif typeface because it is in a group with neo-grotesque typefaces. Frutiger wanted this typeface to have different weights and have many variations, all the while still looking very uniform.