In 1968, Adrian Frutiger was commissioned to develop a sign and directional system for the new Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Though everyone thought he would want to use his successful Univers font family, Frutiger decided instead to make a new sans serif typeface that would be suitable for the specific legibility requirements of airport signage: easy recognition from the distances and angles of driving and walking. The resulting font was in accord with the modern architecture of the airport. In 1976, he expanded and completed the family for D. Stempel AG in conjunction with Linotype, and it was named Frutiger. The Frutiger™ family is neither strictly geometric nor humanistic in construction; its forms are designed so that each individual character is quickly and easily recognized. Such distinctness makes it good for signage and display work. Although it was originally intended for the large scale of an airport, the full family has a warmth and subtlety that have, in recent years, made it popular for the smaller scale of body text in magazines and booklets. The family has 14 weights and 14 companion fonts with Central European characters and accents. Another 14 Cyrillic companion fonts are available as well. See also the new revised version Frutiger Next from the Linotype Platinum Collection. Featured in: Best Fonts for Logos

My motivation for designing the Lalibela family (which is based on Bodoni) was to pay homage to Ethiopic script. The script has been around for about 3 000 years, but I took artistic licence to deviate from the original model and add personal touches. I chose Bodoni as a historical model because of its display value and not its text size use because the extreme contrast made it difficult to read at small sizes. A Modern typeface characterized by consistently horizontal stress, flat and un-bracketed serifs, and a high contrast between thin and thick strokes, were the final step in typography two-hundred-year journey away from calligraphy. The austerity, simplicity and greater contrast style was perfected.Contrary to all the refinements in Bodoni, I have revisited calligraphy with the font Lalibela that mimics Ethiopic Script. It was drawn with a much larger x height and less geometric than Bodoni for its primary use as a display font. For example, a lot of italic serifs were added to the roman face as well as 16 additional ligatures to obtain more a feel of calligraphy. I made the serifs thicker and bracket one side with straight steps obtaining a reduced contrast to withstand breaking up at smaller sizes.An additional variant, "Lalibela Alternate" was designed to provide an interesting mixing possibilities with the Bold face for more expressive headlines.

Inspired by the sound of acoustic guitars, delicacy of harps and elegance of the engrossers script, String is a trendy monoline font which will for sure make unique layouts for your pieces of design. Combining String with String Hole in the same word is a good idea when a more playful rhythm is needed. The font works particularly well when standing on photographs, so be ready to use it in magazines with food, landscapes or super models. I like thinking of String as a distilled version of Erotica. A more “pure” relative of hers. When I designed Erotica, I was so in love with the spencerian style that I knew it'd be hard to just abandon it. With that in mind, this time my aim was to take the subtlety of it to the limit. So, in order to do that I had to find out what was actually the secret of its beauty. I found that the essence of Erotica, in other words, its ductus was the most responsible. The result is a font made of hairlines with a lot of emphasis on the pureness of the form and, (with a lot of inspiration in music) the sensation of continuity between its letters as if they were written with a string. Try String and its flowing melody.

Follow us to the future. It is in your face. It is fashionable. It is friendly. It is fly, far-out, funkadelic, fun. But first of all, the future is fast and full. Named after the most famous Canadian rock group of all, Rush is a typeface that wants your full attention. It is square like a bodybuilder's jaw, round like a football player's muscles, and tight like an abdomen after a thousand sit-ups. It gives you plenty of attitude. It commands your respect and lets you know that if you've been thinking of giving up on macho in this brave new world, think again. It tells you that everything has an underlying engine, that every engine hums clockwise, that adrenaline is the name of the game, and if you don't like it, get your sensitive self back to your silly scripts. Rush comes in two fully interchangeable variations: Rush One and Rush Two. While Rush Two is the somewhat predictable, determined pedal-to-the-metal contemporary brute, Rush One is sharper, smarter and more sophisticated in the way it affects a design. While Rush Two's message is a straight-forward one of strength and speed belonging in an overall design, Rush One calls attention to itself first then turns on the wonder about everything surrounding it. Expertly mixing shapes from both fonts in the same word or line can achieve just that perfect form a design needs for its message. Such flexibility and distinction in character design and degree of message relay makes Rush the perfect font package for any design that has anything to do with speed, strength, and proud pursuit of adrenaline.

One menorah that I have long found particularly appealing was named The Tree of Life Menorah, a replica of which I gave as a gift one holiday to a kindly old couple who were neighbors and became friends. It had a simple, organic elegance that I see in the best of Art Nouveau sculpture. To me personally, Judeism is a celebration of life, like the triumph of the flower that blossoms in the crack of the city sidewalk. Just as Hanukkah celebrates the rededication of the temple and the miracle of the oil, it celebrates the victorious quest for freedom of the Hebrew people led by Judah Maccabee. Hanukkah represents determination and courage and faith — and it represents the presence of God in the lives of His people. It is interesting to note that the founding of the Albanian nation in the early twentieth century grew out of the resistance of the Albanian people to the imposition of Greek language and culture in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The typeface, HADASSAH, designed by Henri Friedlander (1904-1996), is my favorite Hebrew typeface. Thirty years in the crafting, I believe it is unsurpassed for its shear beauty, combining a subtle modulation of stroke with a simplicity and clarity of form. No doubt, that is why it has become so popular. For me, the Sîyn/Shîyn characters are especially satisfying. For a Hanukkah message in Hebrew, I would choose HADASSAH LIGHT for a headline and print it as large as I could. If, however, you are looking for a friendly, warm face for a seasonal message in a roman-letter based language, may I suggest BETHLEHEM EPHRATH. It will be as comfortable as a bulky, hand-knit sweater on a frosty afternoon and reflects the solid, encompassing, family orientation of this holiday. It was on the way to Ephrath that Jacob’s beloved wife Rachel gave birth to Benjamin and then died from her labor. It was to Ephrath that Naomi and Ruth returned and in Ephrath that we have the wonderful, heart-warming story of the marriage between Ruth and her Redeemer-Kinsman, Boaz. And it was to Ephrath that prophet, Samuel, went to find a new king and there in Ephrath that the prophet annointed a small shepherd boy named David. The Proverbs tell us to seek wisdom. Never underestimate the impact you have on others. Words of kindness can change people’s lives. The Talmud says that the highest form of wisdom is kindness. Be wise this holiday season. The font BETHLEHEM EPHRATH is based on the typeface Accent with the permission of URW++ of Hamburg, Germany. Like most display fonts, it is most effective at 18 points and larger. Like most script fonts, it is most effective when set with both upper and lower case. Although this font is readable in all caps (many scripts are not), that does not make it a good idea. Do so only with caution.