An Examination of Typographic Dissection
Breaking Univers
Jasper Jon Crocker
Table of Contents
Reductive Process 9
Iconic Dissection 10
Ambiguous Dissection 20
Shape Dissection 28
Univers Minus 33
The Excess 34
The Weights 38
Introduction 5
Exploration 45
Cut 48
Cover 52
Blur 56
Corrupt 62
Pattern 66
Conclusion 70
Univers is a simple font of subtlety and flawless execution. This elegant
san-serif boasts a massive family and has weathered the test of
time. Despite its success, it is far from perfect. The beauty of life is that
everything is subjective and nothing can be objectively called perfect.
Instead of taking this as an insurmountable or trivializing fact, it can
be freeing to your creativity. No matter how objective, well respected,
or developed something may be, there is always a place for
experimentation and growth. Everything is either growing or dying.
This is how the world works and this is how design works. Nothing
remains static forever. Typefaces are continually redrawn, styles and
innovations grow and fade, designers are iconized and forgotten.
This book was made out of love for Adrian Frutiger’s Univers. By process
of dissection, I considered the font’s fundamental makeup and use it as
a foundation for discovery. This book takes an analytical approach
when dealing with studies and processes. Through reductive and
additive methods, I break the font down to its fundamentals and build
up through creative studies. The mind is a flexible and responsive tool
with the phenomenal ability to take great departures of abstraction.
I present my view of language; a beautiful, perhaps novel, understanding
of our most indelible form of communication: typography.
“Typography has one plain duty before
it and that is to convey information in
writing. No argument or consideration
can absolve typography from this duty.
A printed work which cannot be read
becomes a product without purpose.”
Emil Ruder
Reduction is the study of true form. It is only when
we remove everything that surrounds our subject that
we begin to understand what we are truly examining.
The signature of each letter is revealed. In each form, the
slightest hint of a curve or the particular height of a point,
is all that is necessary convey the letter. Univers 55 can
be reduced in many ways, some of which leave legibility
intact and others which subvert and obfuscate meaning.
This Section will go deep into reducing the forms by three
different methods which I have categorized as Iconic,
Ambiguous and Shape dissection.
1 The RedUCT Ive PRoCeSS
9
Each letter of the Univers typeface
can be reduced to a certain point
and remain legible. I pushed each
letter to the verge of abstraction
both vertically and horizontally from
all sides, looking for the most legible
partition of each letter. Where I
needed to leave part of a stroke, I
left enough to retain consistent line
weight. Through numerous studies
considering how best to dissect the
forms, I found a number of patterns
and considerations for the legibility
of each letter. I have put half the
alphabet into three very distinctive
families. The thirteen remaining
characters are talked about on their
own or in pairs. Each letter here is
considered in respect to readability
out of context. Studies can be far
more reductive when the context of
words is there to add consistency.
I examine context in later sections.
ICoNIC d ISSeCT IoN
The Bowl Family
Reductions of b, d, p & q look similar
to each other. These four letters are
essentially just mirrors of one vector
form. The bowl family holds on to
its legibility if the taper and joint to
the stem are retained, suggesting
the projected trajectory of the bowl.
If reduced vertically, their forms will
instantly blend in with each other.
Their definition comes from the
interaction between the bowl and
the ascender or descender.
The Shoulder Family
I classify m, n, h & u as the shoulder
family. These letters work on the
opposite axis from the bowl family,
keeping legibility with horizontal
retention. The shoulder and taper are
iconic of these forms. In conjunction
with the direction of the bowl and the
number of counters, the legibility of
each letter becomes very clear, even
when out of context.
The Toppers and Tails
The third set is iconized by toppers
and tails. Each has a distinctive
terminal, unique to that particular
letter. Technically, the topper of the
r could be mistaken for the joint
of a letter m or n, however, in and
out of context, its first read is r.
The f is technically unique without
the crossbar, but only someone
who knew the shapes of Univers
intimately would be able to conclude
that this form was indeed an f.
c is distinguished by a gap;
by an absence, not a form.
Unique Apertures
The letter a and the e have a similar
aperture halfway up the x-height.
These two are some of the most
easily distinguished letters in the
alphabet. They also happen to be
two of the most common letters
which is far from a coincidence.
only verticals
These are the verticals. The letter l
(el) has no real iconic part since half
the alphabet uses the vertical as a
backbone. Its solidarity is its only
distinguishing factor. Since the letter
i is essentially the letter l (el) with a
chunk missing, the gap is necessary
for the form’s legibility.
The diagonals
The diagonal angles of the letters
v and w are enough to understand
their meaning. Our brain is able to
connect points and follow paths very
well and has no problem seeing the
trajectory of these lines. The top or
the bottom of each of these letters
signifies them clearly.
The hardest Circles
c is the hardest letter to reduce and
retain legibility. Its only unique form
is its aperture. The conclusion of the
curve is the letter’s best signifier.
The solution is to make the aperture
look characteristic of the letter and
not like a stroke, cut for the sake of
reduction. The letter o requires its
top for legibility and the more it is
reduced, the more readability fades.
14
Unique and Common
s is always an s. Almost any part of
the form can signify the letter. The
suggestion of two stories of curves
iconizes it quickly. It is an extremely
unique letter in the alphabet and
as a common letter seen in writing,
it is quickly recognized.
Unique and Uncommon
The x is a picky letter. It only needs a
small portion to be a unique shape,
but our mind doesn’t recognize with
less than a hint at all four angles. The
image of the cross is what makes it
an x, not its legs and arms.
The outsider
z is the only letter in Univers that
has two horizontal crossbars and
the only one with a crossbar on
the bottom of the x-height. Despite
its unique and unused properties,
it easily becomes illegible to the
human mind, perhaps because of
how rarely it appears in writing. It
is strained by any reduction.
15
Testing Possibilities
Here I reduced the letters as much
as I could without losing legibility
or stroke consistency. In general,
typography is read by scanning the
tops of the letters. Most text could
be cropped in half horizontally and
your mind could read it successfully.
However, many letters are unique
by their bottom halves or sides. It is
only context that would make their
tops read clearly.
16
Increasing Reduction
Legibility diminishes as the content
of the form disappears. Even so,
our mind is able to read things that
are, for all intensive purposes, not
there. Slowly removing more and
more of each letter leaves me with
the point of abstraction, when the
letter loses meaning. This point of
abstraction varies on an individual
basis. Most people find that legibility
of the letters drops off somewhere
between the words ‘jumped’ & ‘lazy.’
Iconic to Ambiguous
Don’t get frustrated with the legibility
of this line. You are not suppose
to be able to read it. The means of
dissection slowly changes as the
sentence progresses. I started by
drawing from the iconic pieces of
this section and then move towards
ambiguous forms that I discuss in
the next section.
17
The Second Layer
Iconic dissection needs no second
layer to convey meaning. Each
letter holds it meaning successfully.
This makes any additions simply
embellishment. This secondary layer
can choose to enhance or diminish
the legibility based on its interactions
with the reduced forms. Since the
mind is intent on navigating meaning,
it will recognize the superfluous
nature of the second level and try to
ignore its contributions.
Ambiguous forms are the reductions
which could be mistaken for a great
number of different letters. The
ambiguous letter forms are useful
for many illustrative typographic
experiments. No form of dissection
pushes illegibility so far. The shapes
are a hungry foundation, waiting for
additional layers of enhancement to
divulge meaning. It is necessary to
work additively with these shapes if
legibility is the intended goal of the
process. Otherwise your viewer will
AmBIgUoUS d ISSeCT IoN
be left pondering the meaningless
forms. Ambiguous dissection works
on the opposite assumptions from
Iconic dissection. In my breakdown,
I grouped the similar forms, reducing
the letters to bowls and verticals
that appear consistently throughout
Univers. The families of shapes
that have emerged are similar letter
groups found in the Iconic section.
The Bowls
b, d, g, p & q each have similar
bowls that, when the letters are
disconnected from their ascenders
and descenders, completely
lose legibility and they become
interchangeable.
The verticals
Most of Univers has verticals of
varying length. Taking the top
off of m, n, f & i leaves you with
indistinguishable forms. The
verticals are the framework –
backbone, if you will – of the font.
The lowercase a of Univers is surprisingly
unique. It has the only bowl that is smaller
vertically than the x-height.
Two Tees
The t & f share the same form with
delineation only in their toppers and
tails. The curvature of the bottom
of the t references the traditional
form of the handwritten letter
and distinguishes both the top and
bottom of the t from the f.
Joints
h, m, n & r have joints of great
similarity. When reduced, each
of them can look like the r. Even
among these forms, the r is still
distinguished by the severity of
the taper and a flare in the top
of the stem.
Loops
Like I mentioned in the Iconic
section, the s is a truly unique
letter. If you remove its middle,
however, it can look similar to
the form of the o and e.
24
diagonals
v & w are made up of the same
diagonals. By removing the forward
leaning diagonals, meaning and
distinction are lost. Removing the
backwards leaning diagonals has
the same effect.
The ending
The final three letters of the Univers
alphabet are surprisingly unique.
The quirky diagonals of the x & y
make them distinguished but not
recognizable. Their idiosyncrasies
make them peculiar in relationship
to the rest of the typeface which is
made of fluid lines.
25
The Second Layer
Ambiguous dissection requires
a secondary layer of information
in order for legibility to emerge.
Depending on how the additions
form and play with the pieces of
Univers they can either transform
it into something quite legible or
obliterate meaning entirely. The
ambiguous shapes act as a shell
upon which the typographer can
imbue meaning. Subtle hints can
easily reveal what the letters have
lost. Consider the u above. The
angled line does not resemble the
curve that was once there yet it
unites the verticals and binds them
into one unified shape that is rather
unmistakable. Even knowing what
it says, the first half of ambiguous is
very hard to see, yet with just a few
hairline strokes, the letters emerge
without any struggle.
With shape dissection the letters
are changed entirely. Through iconic
dissection the letters popped out.
With ambiguous dissection the
letters were unified into generalized
forms. Now the forms are broken
into new shapes, reductive pieces of
their former selves. When a letter’s
shape is unrecognizable we look at
it differently from that of ambiguous
ShAPe d ISSeCT IoN
form. It becomes a new object to be
analyzed and considered without
prior assumptions of what the form
may be intended to represent.
These remaining shapes become
hieroglyphic in nature. They take
on a life of their own as an other
worldly adulteration of language.
Shapes of Strokes
With shape based dissection, the
letters are changed entirely. Isolating
strokes and subverting the joints
and connections of the form can
leave reductive forms that seem
unconnected to expected letters.
Pattern and Texture
Despite inevitable overlap between
shape and ambiguous dissection,
these forms stand free of meaning.
For textural purposes this style is an
excellent means of dissection. In
the previous two styles, the reader
would spend time struggling to
see meaning in the shapes. Here,
value can result from the elegance
of the forms rather than seeking a
message that will never be revealed.
Based on my analysis of dissection I put what I had learned
of each letter’s signifier into building a working reduction
of the Univers Family. Univers Minus is my best reduction of
the typeface that still retains legibility. Taking away more
than half of each letter, I had to solve a myriad of problems.
My final result is four weights and styles of the typeface.
This is meant to impress the remarkable nature of the legible
forms. I did not even expect my results to work quite so well
as they did. So here you are, Univers Minus.
2 CReATINg UNIveRS mINUS
33
34
Removing excess
In examination of each form I had
to determine which parts were
truly necessary for legibility. Unlike
my discussion of Iconic form, I
was blessed with value of context.
Some forms lose a majority of
their substance and certain letters
can fall short of singular legibility.
In context even the most difficult
letters like c & z can prove little
hinderance to a word’s success.
Difficulties
The bowl family proved to be the
most difficult. It is only through the
relationship between the bowl and
the stem that they are differentiated
from each other. I had to create a
system that would allude to the
ascender or descender yet also not
sacrifice the full shape of the bowl.
35
Univers minus 55
This is my final reduction of Univers
Minus in its regular weight of 55.
By design, I was determined that I
would not distort the letters to meet
my needs. No bowl is compressed
or intersection moved. However, in
order to keep each letter as a unified
shape, I had to bring the two halves
of the letter w together. Without
the change, the shapes would read
as two of the letter v and would
have more space within itself than
between any two letters, making it
appear as a word break. The letter a
turned out to be particularly curious.
Here, once again, I was forced to
break the consistency of process
to achieve consistency of form. The
letter a is the only letter which goes
to the ascender height that does not
in the original font.
As always, c is the letter with the
least legibility. Looking like a reduced
piece borrowed from fifteen other
letters, it relies heavily on context in
order to not be misunderstood,
Besides these letters and the bowl
family, the alphabet reduced quite
naturally. Most of the letters read
immediately, even alone. Only one
letter causes trouble as a result of
its commonality and ambiguous
reduction. The letter o has only one
logical way to reduction and that is
to leave as much of it, from the top
down, as possible. Put the letter o
between d & g and you may read
‘day’ instead of ‘dog.’
Univers minus 45
This lightweight is marginally more
legible than 55. Its thin lines leave
the letters with more counter space
and optically longer lines.
40
Univers minus 47
The condensed weight held no real
trouble, though any weight which puts
more emphasis on verticality is bound
to have some impact on legibility.
41
Univers minus 73
My means of reduction translated
naturally into a black weight of
Univers. Letters like g, x & y thrived
in their loss of counters. Legibility
remains solid if it has not increased.
3 exPLoRAT IoN The following section is a collection of the studies and
type treatments that I have been working on in conjunction
with my dissections. They address means of creating and
subverting legibility and test a myriad of potential treatments.
My focus was on pushing the line between legibility and
illegibility, finding that sweet spot where the reader is
surprised at the ease with which their mind comprehends
meaning. Some studies meet this goal better than others but
all work from the base of Univers 55. Many of these studies
have influenced my dissections and were completed before
sections 1 & 2. Consider this the exploratory foundation
for my deductions.
45
With these studies I left behind
all the restrictions of Section 1 on
dissection. As I have said before,
much of successful reduction relies
on hinting at the forms you
have removed. Here I have used
the negative space to retain the
letter’s integrity. I found that in
many cases, conclusions
of verticals were enough to relay
meaning. Our mind makes the
connections between slices, like
connecting the dots.
CUT
48
49
I considered what happens when
you replace large portions of letter
forms with consistent obstructions.
Removing counters leaves the
simple yet untarnished silhouettes
of the font's expected form.
CoveR
52
Building with triangles posed a
difficult challenge. The font retains
legibility because of consistency.
Our mind quickly adapts to the new
system and begins to understand
what to expect. Alone, the letters
are too abstract to be understood,
yet context makes it clear. Even
forms that are simply a triangle - c,
o & v - become clear. Systems are
key to the success of any typeface
and this is just as true when lettering.
Here I replaced a majority of each
letter with circles. The legibility
remains extremely clear even when
a circle replaces a straight line.
Consider the m & n. They are both
remarkably legible. Our mind sees
the black form holistically and
excludes whatever isn’t expected.
Blurring letters allows for a wide
variety of forms not seen in more
rigid means of study. More than
focusing on the legibility of letters
and pushing contextual need, I spent
time working on the elegance of
distorting and accentuating curves
and verticals. The more successful
studies came out of a unified merger
of blurred form and vector shape.
BLUR
Using smoke as a tool resulted in
some very beautiful outcomes. I
expected my words would be at the
mercy of the smoke forms but with
only minor adjustments, I was
able to hint at the missing forms and
make the type quite legible.
Corrupting Univers was as much
about engaging the letter forms with
unexpected processes as it was
about reducing legibility. These
studies took into account what the
reader expects to see and what will
surprise with novelty of form.
Implied by the word, my corruption
studies looked to data corruption for
inspiration. Creating texture as the
letters sway between solid form
and abstraction.
CoRRUPT
62
I spent a lot of time in this study
working with my ambiguous
dissections, seeing how little I
needed to add for meaning to shine
through. Abolish only reads as a
result of a few well placed circles.
Consider the s. The shape is new
and unique yet through the word’s
context the s is clearly visible.
63
By digitally scanning calligraphy
and creating swatches from the
words, I made textural elements that
naturally distress the solidity of
the letters. By placing the pattern
within the restrictions of the letters’
original outlines, the original
shapes are organically subtracted
from, leaving a range of legibility
that is easily manipulated.
PATTeRN
Since the secondary layer is made
of letters itself, peculiar forms
start to peak through, hinting at
its source material. This balance
between levels can be used to
enhance meaning and develop a
built in hierarchy inside the form.
Through this process I have come away with a fundemantal
understanding and much greater appreciation for written
language. I hope that my studies can be helpful to your own
considerations of typography and I highly reccomend you try
testing my conclusions. As I began: everything is subjective.
Language is as mutable and unreliant as culture and is
subject to change at whim. We think, speak and live through
language, grammer and typography. Master it as a tool,
don't let it master you.
BReAkINg UNIveRS JASPeR JoN CRoCkeRSenior Capstone Project 2012
www.breakingunivers.com
Maryland Institute College of Art
Bachelor of Fine Arts
Graphic Design Department
www.jasperjon.com