As a student in Zurich, Adrian Frutiger began work on Univers, which would eventually be released in 1957 by the Deberny & Peignot foundry in Paris. The design is a neo-grotesque, similar to its contemporary, Helvetica.

With the release of Univers, Frutiger began using numbers rather than names to designate variations of weight, width, and slope. The full Univers family consists of twenty-one typefaces, and Frutiger has used this numerical system on other designs, including Serifa and Frutiger. Linotype also has adopted this numerical system for many other faces.

All twenty-one Univers faces were designed to work together, so they can be mixed in a variety of ways. Their legibility lends itself to a large variety of applications, from text and headlines to packaging and signage.