Adrian Frutiger was born on May 24th, 1928 and lived in Unterseen, Canton of Bern. When he was a kid, he had an interest in stylized handwriting and he was supported in going into print. He started an apprenticeship at sixteen years old where he worked as a compositor for four years.
After being an apprentice, he attended the Kunstgewerbeschule (College of Technical Arts) in Zurich for three years. Adrian Frutiger illustrated the essay Schrift / Écriture / Lettering: the development of European letter types carved in wood. This Essay got him a job for the French foundry Deberny Et Peignot.
It was at the foundry where he made some typefaces. His first commerical typeface Président was released in 1954. In the early 1970s he created the Paris Metro signage which was designed to be visible under poor lighting. He went on to work for more people, win awards, and create a variety of other type faces such as, Avenir, Versailles and Vectora.