Gerard Unger
Gerard Unger was a graphic designer, typographer and type designer. He studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. He was freelance since 1972. Board member of the Association Typographique Internationale and member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale. Part time professor at the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication of The University of Reading, UK, and part time teacher at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam.
Since 1974 he was involved in digital type design. Some of his type designs are: (1984), Swift (1996), Amerigo BT (1986), Oranda (1987), Argo (1991), Gulliver (1993), Capitolium (1998), Paradox (1999), Coranto (1999), and Vesta (2001). Of these, both Swift and Gulliver are used internationally in newspapers, magazines and other printed matter. He has designed the typeface for the new Dutch roads signs, commissioned by the anwb and in cooperation with n|p|k industrial design, Leiden.
He also designed corporate identities, magazines, newspapers and books. He writes regularly about his profession and has often lectured abroad. In 1997 his book about reading Terwijl je leest has been published (in Dutch). In 1998 he designed, heading a group of six designers, and again in cooperation with n|p|k industrial design, Leiden, the orientation and information system for Rome in 2000, with at its core the type design Capitolium. This type design continues the 2000 year old and unique Roman tradition of public lettering.
He was awarded the Dutch national H.N. Werkmanprize in 1984 for the way he reconciled type design and technological changes, and in 1991 the Maurits Enschedé-Prize for all his type designs.
He died at his home in Bussum in 2018.
[Gerard Unger, November 2018]
