Avenir

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Category	Sans-serif
Classification	Geometric sans-serif Humanist sans-serif
Designer(s)	Adrian Frutiger
Foundry	Linotype GmbH
Date released	1988

Avenir is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1988, and released by Linotype GmbH, now a subsidiary of Monotype Corporation.

The name Avenir is French for “future,” and takes inspiration from early geometric sans-serif typefaces Erbar (1922) designed by Jakob Erbar, and Futura (1927) designed by Paul Renner. Frutiger intended Avenir to be a more organic, humanist interpretation of these highly geometric types. While similarities can be seen with Futura, the two-story lowercase a is more like Erbar, and also recalls Frutiger’s earlier namesake typeface Frutiger.

Avenir was originally released in 1988 with three weights, each with a roman and oblique version, and used Frutiger’s two-digit weight and width convention for names: 45 (book); 46 (book oblique); 55 (text weight); 56 (text weight oblique); and, 75 (bold) and 76 (bold oblique). The typeface family was later expanded to six weights, each with a roman and oblique version.

Avenir Next

In 2004, Frutiger, together with Linotype in-house type designer Akira Kobayashi, reworked the Avenir family to address on-screen display issues. The result was titled Avenir Next. The typeface family was increased to 24 fonts: 6 weights, each with a roman and italic version, in 2 widths: normal and condensed. Frutiger's numbering system was abandoned in favor of more conventional weight names. The glyph set was expanded to include small caps, old style figures, subscripts and superscripts, ligatures.

Janna

Janna is an Arabic variant designed by Nadine Chahine, based on the original Avenir. Janna, which means “heaven” in Arabic, was first designed in 2004 as a signage face for the American University of Beirut. The Arabic glyphs are based on the previously released Frutiger Arabic, but were made more angular.

Two roman fonts, in regular and bold weights, were produced. It supports ISO Adobe 2, Latin Extended, Arabic, Persian, and Urdu characters, and tabular numerals for the supported languages.

Usage

• LG Electronics currently uses Avenir as the primary button typeface for most of their cellular phones.
• Avenir was immediately successful in print publishing. An improvement of hinting in Avenir Next has made for improved on-screen display, even in smaller point sizes.
• The city of Amsterdam uses Avenir as principal typeface in its corporate identity. The font was chosen when design bureau Eden Design & Communication won a city wide competition. Eden contracted Thonik for the new design.^[1]
• BBC Two has also begun to use Avenir as its main corporate font in its logo and identity, another shift away from the once universal use of the Gill Sans font across all of the BBC's output.
• Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Hong Kong International Airport uses Avenir extensively as a part of its way-finding signage and brand identity.
• Key Bank has begun using Avenir in its advertising and signage.
• Avenir 45 Book is used internally and externally throughout the Spokane, WA based Red Lion Hotel Corporation.
• Philadelphia based SIG (Susquehanna International Group) uses Avenir as its main font for corporate identity and branding.
• Scottish Water uses Avenir as its main font for external communications and corporate branding.
• USA based electronics recycler Newport Computer Services has begun using Avenir as part of its logo and advertising.
• Avenir was used by the Japan Airlines group quite extensively, including the words “Japan Airlines” painted on the sides of aircraft.
• Banrisul, uses Avenir in its branding and advertising.
• Dwell magazine began using Avenir, along with the Greta typeface, in a 2007 redesign of its publication.
• In 2008, Wake Forest University adopted Avenir as its primary sans serif typeface as part of its project to update the university's visual identity, noting that the font "...conveys the balance, simplicity and strength of our University." ^[2]
• Avenir is used as a font for the Eurovision Song Contest in all brand communication materials. ^[3]
• J. J. Abrams' 2011 film Super 8 (film) uses Avenir for its titles.
• The AT&T logo as of late 2005 uses Avenir. The font is also use in the company's advertising.
• Carleton University in Ottawa uses Avenir alongside Egyptienne as a primary font in its visual identity.
• The College of Charleston uses Avenir Next as its primary san-serif type face as described in its brand manual.
• Jason Derulo's debut album of the same name uses Avenir Black on the track listing.
• Avenir is used for the subway signage of the French city Rennes.

References

• Blackwell, Lewis. 20th Century Type. Yale University Press: 2004. ISBN 0-300-10073-6.
• Fiedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History. Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. ISBN 1-57912-023-7.
• Macmillan, Neil. An A–Z of Type Designers. Yale University Press: 2006. ISBN 0-300-11151-7.

External links

• Type Gallery - Avenir
• Overview on Avenir Next features
• Avenir at typophile
• Avenir vs. Avenir Next
• Linotype presents Avenir Next, a classic font by Adrian Frutiger, thereby expanding the Platinum Collection with a further typography highlight.
• New Arabic Typefaces for Multilingual Communication Today
• Janna Font Family - by Nadine Chahine
• Avenir Next Brochure
• Avenir on Fonts.com