Center of the Univers
Univers is a realist/neo-grotesque sans-serif face designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1956. It features even stroke weights and a large x-height for easy readability. It’s similar to Helvetica, both primarily inspired by Akzidenz Grotesk, and hallmarks of the International Typographic Style. Wikipedia offers an excellent comparison chart of the differences between Univers, Akzidenz Grotesk and Helvetica.
It was the first typeface to differentiate weights by number. Because of Univers’ legibility at a distance it’s frequently used in transit and road signage, but is versatile enough for small sizes such as body copy. (And the Star Wars opening credits.)
At Typophile you can view a heated discussion of Helvetica vs. Univers. The pro Univers camp can be summed up well by this participant:
Univers is a further departure from the original 19th-century models. Helvetica is essentially a 19th-century grot cleaned up and sanitised for modern consumption. It’s very monoline, the letters are very unified in shape and width. Univers takes the model and adjusts the widths, stroke contrast, curves and aperture to be more clean, soft, simple, and truly modern. If you compare Univers with AG or other older grotesques, it looks visibly newer. Unlike Helvetica, Univers has letters of more classic roman proportions; compare R, A, S, E, B and D between Helvetica and Univers to see this proportion modulation. Helvetica is nearly monospaced in its width consistency.
Typophiles who prefer Univers believe it’s more evolved and well thought out. If you like Univers, you might also enjoy Zurich (though some consider this to be as to Univers as Arial is to Helvetica,) Neuzeit Grotesk and Maxima. For further reading, check out Adrian Frutiger’s podium discussion of Univers.
I would have gone with “Masters of the Univers,” but then again I am a boy of the ’80s
Oh man why didn’t I think of that? I was just thinking about He Man the other day, I watched that stupid Andy Samberg movie, Hot Rod and throughout the movie people say “By the power of greyskull!!”