One prominent use that springs immediately to mind:
Communication Arts has been using Univers for years.

David Thometz

Otl Aicher's identity system for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games is a quite famous example of Univers in use.

Will, if you can try to get your hands on Emil Ruder’s book Typography which is entirely set in Univers and shows how it can be used to good effect. In the PDF of Mark Simonson’s SOTA lecture on Adrian Frutiger you’ll find several samples of it, too.

Yes, Ruder was indeed one of the most prominent partisans of Univers when it was released.

Friedrich Friedl gave The Univers due respect.

You are quite right Nick, unfortunately this was not sufficient to make it a houshold name with wider awareness of its artistic importance.

Thank you for your comments thus far everyone, they are realy helpful.

Does anyone know if it was used in any public information works such as public transport signs?

A variation of Univers condensed, called Traffic, was used as a signage typeface for Muenchen Airport. The design for the signage scheme was done by Otl Aicher and Eberhard Stauss to coincide with the olympic games (I think). It's been modernised by Wangler and Abele.

I have several images.

Contact me st

typographer@gmail.com

Will, contact me, I have some nice old documents I can post you.

Once again a big thank you to everyone.

I am however still strugling to find some more day to day uses for univers, things we see around the home or on the street for exxample.

If anyone could help me with ideas for this it would be great.

Will

You won't find it in America, but apparently many of the Central European nations use Univers for everything that an American might use EDIT Helvetica for.

unfortunately this was not sufficient to make it a houshold name with wider awareness of its artistic importance.

Mike Parker of the Font Bureau, formerly of Linotype, would be a great person to contact, since he's apparently the person who made the decision in America to go with Helvetica over Univers for the Linotype. Or so he says :)

The fact that Helvetica was the cheaper typeface to license for the Linotype machine in America made the decision that effects us all today. Had Univers been cheaper, Parker would have decided to go with it because of its then obvious advantages of the number of styles. Helvetica at that point was only a few cuts compared to the family of 21 of Univers.

I think that the redesign of the identity of Poste Italiane (http://www.poste.it) is based on Univers.
But in local postal offices Univers is traslated in Arial.

Thanks, I will look into it.

Will

Rochester Institute of Technology used Univers on all the signage for buildings and parking lots.

Thats great Paul. Thank you.

Can anyone think of any domestic products, tins of beans and the like, which use it?

Will

Hi Will,
I'm pretty sure that some of the classic penguin jackets used Univers, those designed by Romek Marber... They might look cool in your book.

Thanks Umily. They would be a great addition, i will investigate them.

Wil

Late to add to the list of answers, but still...

- Apple PowerBook's keyboard
- London street sign
- Montréal Métro Signage (but they have recently changed to a humanist sans)

Mr. Univers