Gerard Unger (22 January 1942 – 23 November 2018) was a Dutch

graphic Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of the data, as in design and manufa ...

and

type designer Type design is the art and process of designing typefaces. This involves drawing each letterform using a consistent style. The basic concepts and design variables are described below. A typeface differs from other modes of graphic production su ...

. He studied at the

Gerrit Rietveld Academie The Gerrit Rietveld Academie, also known as Rietveld School of Art & Design and Rietveld Academy, is an art academy in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was founded in 1924 and offers programs in fine arts and design. History The Instituut voor Kuns ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

from 1963 to 1967, and subsequently worked at Total Design, Prad and

Joh. Enschedé Royal Joh. Enschedé () is a printer of security documents, stamps and banknotes based in Haarlem, Netherlands - it specialises in print, media and security. The company hosted the Museum Enschedé until 1990 and has branches in Amsterdam, Brus ...

. In 1975, he established himself as an independent developer. A long-time guest lecturer at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

, he mentored many modern typeface designers. He lived and worked in

Bussum Bussum () is a commuter town and former municipality in the Gooi region in the south east of the province of North Holland in the Netherlands near Hilversum. Since 2016, Bussum has been part of the new municipality of Gooise Meren. Bussum had a ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Work

Unger developed many typefaces over the years, of which several specially developed for

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

s (usually typefaces with a large x-height and large inner counters), such as

Swift Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIF ...

, Gulliver, Coranto and Vesta. He also developed designs for

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

coin A coin is a small object, usually round and flat, used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by ...

book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in ...

s and

stamps Stamp or Stamps or Stamping may refer to: Official documents and related impressions * Postage stamp, used to indicate prepayment of fees for public mail * Ration stamp, indicating the right to rationed goods * Revenue stamp, used on documents to ...

. A large number of Unger's typefaces are available from Linotype and the Dutch Type Library; his more recent faces are also available through the foundry Type Together. He released new work on his own website from 1995. Unger designed typefaces for the signage systems of both the Dutch highways (ANWB-fonts) and the

Amsterdam metro The Amsterdam Metro () is a rapid transit system serving Amsterdam, Netherlands, and extending to the surrounding List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipalities of Diemen and Ouder-Amstel. Until 2019, it also served the municipality o ...

. His newspaper face Gulliver (1993) is familiar to millions of readers, as it is the typeface used by several European newspapers, including the ''

Stuttgarter Zeitung The () is a German language, German-language daily newspaper (except Sundays) edited in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, with a run of about 200,000 sold copies daily. History and profile It was first edited on 18 September 1945, just ...

''. It was formerly used by ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

'' over the course of a decade. His typeface Coranto is the typeface for ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'' and the

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

ian newspaper '' Valor''. Metrostation wibautstraat

In addition to his work in type design, he was active in the field of education. Unger taught at the

for over 30 years, and from 1994, he was a visiting professor at the

at the Department of

Typography Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...

and

Graphic Communication Graphic communication as the name suggests is communication using graphic elements. These elements include symbols such as glyphs and icons, images such as drawings and photographs, and can include the passive contributions of substrate, colour ...

. From 2006 to 2012, he was a lecturer in typography at the Department of Fine Arts of the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange as a Protestant institution, it holds the distinction of being the oldest university in the Neth ...

. His most important publication was ''Terwijl je leest'' (1997) (in English ''While You're Reading''). It later appeared in various languages, and in 2006 it was completely revised and reprinted. In 2004, he delivered the Tiele-lecture (of the Dr. P.A. Tiele Stichting) under the title ''Veranderend lezen, lezend veranderen'' (rough translation: Transformed Reading). In September 2013, he received a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degree on a new typeface called ''Alverata'', which he developed while researching medieval lettering.

Death

Gerard Unger died at his home in

on 23 November 2018, approximately five months after his wife's death.

Gerard Unger Scholarship

Shortly after his death, the type foundry TypeTogether, publisher of many of Unger's typefaces, announced that their Typeface Publishing Incentive Program would be renamed the Gerard Unger Scholarship in his honor. The yearly scholarship gives a student or recent graduate the opportunity to receive feedback and mentorship, as well as a monetary grant, as they complete a typeface designed during their studies.

Awards

Unger received various awards, including the H.N. Werkman prize (1984) the Maurits Enschedé prize (1991) and in 2009 the

SOTA Typography Award Sota, Soota, Souta or SOTA may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Šota, a Serbian and Albanian dance * Sota (EP), ''Sota'' (EP), a 1999 EP by Horna * Sota (playing card), the equivalent of the Jack or Knave in Spanish-suited playing cards * Summi ...

. In 2008 he received an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

from the

university of Hasselt Hasselt University ( Dutch: ''Universiteit Hasselt or UHasselt'') is a public research university with campuses in Hasselt and Diepenbeek, Belgium. It has more than 7,500 students and 1,800 academic, administrative and technical staff (2023). Th ...

, Belgium and in 2009 from

Estonian Academy of Arts The Estonian Academy of Arts (Estonian language, Estonian: ''Eesti Kunstiakadeemia'', EKA) is the only public university in Estonia providing higher education in art, design, architecture, Media (communication), media, art history and conservation ...

. In 2012 he was awarded the "Piet Zwart Lifetime Achievement Award" by the Association of Dutch Designers BNO. In 2017 he was awarded the TDC Medal by the Type Directors Club.

Typefaces designed by Unger

Demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * Plural for Demo (computer programming ...

(1976/2001 eue Demos2015 emos Next *

Praxis Praxis may refer to: Philosophy and religion *Praxis (process), the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, practised, embodied, or realised * Praxis model, a way of doing theology * Praxis (Byzantine Rite), the practice of fai ...

(1977/2001 eue Praxis2017 raxis Next * Hollander (1983) *

Flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

(1984) *

(1985/1995 eue Swift * Amerigo (1986) *

Argo In Greek mythology, the ''Argo'' ( ; ) was the ship of Jason and the Argonauts. The ship was built with divine aid, and some ancient sources describe her as the first ship to sail the seas. The ''Argo'' carried the Argonauts on their quest fo ...

(1991) * Gulliver (1993) * ANWB-fonts (1997) *

Capitolium A ''Capitolium'' (Latin) was an ancient Roman temple dedicated to the Capitoline Triad of gods Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. A ''capitolium'' was built on a prominent area in many cities in Italy and the Roman provinces, particularly during the ...

(1998/2011 apitolium 2 *

Paradox A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true or apparently true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictor ...

(1999) * Coranto (2000/2011 oranto 2 * Vesta (2001/2011) * Big Vesta (2003/2011) * Capitolium News (2006/2011) * Capitolium Headline (2011) * Coranto Headline (2011) * Alverata (2013) * Sanserata (2016)

Literature

* Gerard Unger, ''Letters'', Uitgeverij De Buitenkant, Amsterdam, (1994) () * Gerard Unger, ''Veranderend lezen, lezend veranderen'', Walburg Pers,

Zutphen Zutphen () is a city and municipality located in the province of Gelderland, Netherlands. It lies some northeast of Arnhem, on the eastern bank of the river IJssel at the point where it is joined by the Berkel. First mentioned in the 11th centur ...

(2004) () * Gerard Unger, ''While You're Reading'', Mark Batty Publisher, New York, (2006) () * Gerard Unger, ''Typography as Vehicle of Science'', Uitgeverij de Buitenkant, Amsterdam (2007), (), inaugural lecture at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

* Jos A.A.M. Biemans & Gerard Unger, ''Eeuwenlang letters : lettervormen in de Koninklijke Bibliotheek'', Bekking & Blitz, Amersfoort (2012) * Gerard Unger, ''Alverata : hedendaagse Europese letters met wortels in de middeleeuwen'', Uitgeverij de Buitenkant, Amsterdam (2013), (), academic dissertation at Leiden University * Gerard Unger, ''Theory of Type Design'', NAi010 Publishers, Rotterdam, (2018) ()

References

External links

*
Font Designer - Gerard UngerExclusive Interview with Gerard Unger
{{DEFAULTSORT:Unger, Gerard 1942 births 2018 deaths Dutch graphic designers Dutch typographers and type designers Gerrit Rietveld Academie alumni Academic staff of Leiden University Academic staff of Gerrit Rietveld Academie People from Arnhem