Graphic designer, former student and teacher, Gerard Unger passed away

Gerard Unger

1942 - 2018

Graphic designer, former student and teacher at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Gerard Unger passed away on Friday 23 November at an age of 76.

Gerard Unger was not really prominent as a designer. However his body of work was and still is. NRC: "He considered being invisible a compliment. His letter designs needed to be transparant: readers needed to look through the letters and only focus on the content of the words since the letters were so comprehensible."

He created the most economical font which is still used in all kinds of newspapers all over the world, such as USA TODAY, de Volkskrant and Trouw. He is responsible for the typography in the metro in Amsterdam and he created an alphabet for Verkade of chocolate letters which were not easy to break. He also designed the typography for the ANWB traffic signs. One of these traffic signs was part of the Anniversary Show 'Gerrit turns 50, Willem only 28'.

Gerard Unger studied at the Kunstnijverheidsschool (precursor of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie) from 1963-1967. He taught more than a decade at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie until 2007.