Gerard Unger
| Gerard Unger | |
|---|---|
| Born | 22 January 1942 Arnhem |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Field | Typographer, Graphic designer |
| Training | Gerrit Rietveld Academie |
| Awards | H.N. Werkmanprijs 1984 Maurits Enschedé prize 1991 SOTA Typography Award 2009 |
Gerard Unger (born January 22, 1942, Arnhem) is a graphic and type designer. He studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam from 1963-67, and subsequently worked at Total Design, Prad and Joh. Enschedé. In 1975, he established himself as an independent developer. He lives and works in in Bussum, North Holland.
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[edit] Work
Unger has developed many typefaces over the years, of which several specially developed for newspapers (usually typefaces with a large x-height and large inner counters), such as Swift, Gulliver, Coranto and Vesta. He also develops designs for magazines, coins, books, logos and stamps.
A large number of Unger's typefaces are available from Linotype and the Dutch Type Library. He has released new work on his own website since 1995. Unger has designed typefaces for the signage systems of both the Dutch highways (ANWB-fonts) and the Amsterdam metro. His newspaper face Gulliver (1993) is familiar to millions of readers, as it is the typeface used in both USA Today and several European newspapers, including the Stuttgarter Zeitung. Whilst his typeface Coranto is the typeface for The Scotsman and Brazilian newspaper Valor.
In addition to his work in type design, he is active in the field of education. Unger has taught at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie for over 30 years, and since 1994, he is a visiting professor at the University of Reading at the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication. He has been the first lecturer since 1 September 2006 at the Department of Fine Arts of the University of Leiden.
His most important publication is Terwijl je leest (1997) (the English translation is called While You're Reading). It later appeared in different languages, and in 2006 it was completely revised and reprinted. In 2004, he changed reading by speaking the Tiele-lecture (of the Dr. P.A. Tiele Stichting) under the title ′Veranderend lezen′ (rough translation: Transformed Reading).
[edit] Typefaces designed by Unger
- Demos (1976/2001)
- Flora (1984)
- Swift (1985/1995)
- Amerigo (1986)
- Argo (1991)
- Gulliver (1993)
- ANWB-fonts (1997)
- Capitolium (1998)
- Paradox (1999)
- Coranto (2000)
- Vesta (2001)
- Capitolium News (2006)
[edit] Awards
Unger has received various awards, including the H.N. Werkman prize (1984) the Maurits Enschedé prize (1991) and in 2009 the SOTA Typography Award.[1]
[edit] Literature
- Gerard Unger, Letters, Uitgeverij De Buitenkant, Amsterdam, (1995) (ISBN 978-9070386696)
- Gerard Unger, Veranderend lezen, lezend veranderen, Walburg Pers, Zutphen (2004) (ISBN 9057303256)
- Gerard Unger, While You're Reading, Mark Batty Publisher, New York, (2006) (ISBN 978-0976224518)
- Gerard Unger, Typography as Vehicle of Science, Uitgeverij de Buitenkant, Amsterdam (2007) (ISBN 978 90 76452 67 8)
[edit] References
- ^ "Typecon Talk about the presentation of the 2009 SOTA Typography Award". Typecon.com. 2009-07-18. http://www.typecon.com/talk.php?id=330. Retrieved 2012-01-16.
