Helvetica

History

Helvetica was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann at the Haassche Schriftgiesserei (Haas type foundry) of Mnchenstein, Switzerland. Haas set out to design a new sans-serif typeface that could compete with Akzidenz-Grotesk in the Swiss market. Originally called Die Neue Haas Grotesk, it was created based on Schelter-Grotesk. The aim of the new design was to create a neutral typeface that had great clarity, had no intrinsic meaning in its form, and could be used on a wide variety of signage. When Linotype adopted the Neue Haas Grotesk (which was never planned to be a full range of mechanical and hot-metal typefaces) its design was reworked. After the success of Univers, Arthur Ritzel of Stempel redesigned Neue Haas Grotesk into a larger family.

In 1960, the typefaces name was changed by Haas German parent company Stempel to Helvetica (derived from Confoederatio Helvetica, the Latin name for Switzerland) in order to make it more marketable internationally. It was initially suggested that the type be called Helvetsia which is the original Latin name for Switzerland. This was ignored by Eduard Hoffmann as he decided it wouldnt be appropriate to name a type after a country. He then decided on Helvetica as this meant Swiss as opposed to Switzerland.

Helvetica Light
Helvetica Light was designed by Stempels artistic director Erich Schultz-Anker, in conjunction with Arthur Ritzel.

Helvetica Narrow

Helvetica Narrow is a version where its width is between Helvetica Compressed and Helvetica Condensed. However, the width is scaled in a way that is optically consistent with the widest width fonts. The font was developed when printer ROM space was very scarce, so it was created by mathematically squashing Helvetica by 18% (to 82% of the original width), resulting in distorted letterforms and thin vertical strokes next to thicker horizontals. OpenType version was not produced by Adobe under the distortion reasoning, and recommended Helvetica Condensed instead. However, in Linotypes OpenType version of Helvetica Narrow, the distortions found in the Adobe fonts are non-existent.

Variations

Helvetica Compressed

Designed by Matthew Carter, they are narrow variants that are tighter than the Helvetica Condensed. It shares some design elements with Helvetica Inserat, but using curved tail in Q, downward pointing branch in r, tilde bottom . The family consists of Helvetica Compressed, Helvetica Extra Compressed, Helvetica Ultra Compressed fonts.

Helvetica Inserat
Helvetica Inserat is a version designed in 1957 primarily for use in the advertising industry. Sharing similar metric as Helvetica Black Condensed, the design gives the glyphs a more squared appearance, similar to Impact and Haettenschweiler. Strike with strokes in $, are replaced by non-strikethrough version. 4 is opened at top. Cyrillic characters were added in 1970s at D. Stempel AG, then critiqued and redesigned in 1992 under the advice of Jovica Veljovic.

Neue Helvetica
Neue Helvetica is a reworking of the typeface with a more structurally unified set of heights and widths. It was developed at D. Stempel AG, Linotypes daughter company. The studio manager was Wolfgang Schimpf, and his assistant was Reinhard Haus; the manager of the project was Ren Kerfante. Erik Spiekermann was the design consultant and designed the literature for the launch in 1983. Other changes include improved legibility, heavier punctuation marks, and increased spacing in the numbers.

Max Miedinger

Max Miedinger (December 24, 1910 in Zurich, Switzerland - March 8, 1980, Zurich, Switzerland) was a Swiss typeface designer. He was famous for creating Helvetica in 1957. Marketed as a symbol of cutting-edge Swiss technology, Helvetica went global at once. Between 1926 and 1930, Max was trained as a typesetter in Zurich, after which he attended evening classes at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich. Later, he became a typographer for Globus department stores advertising studio in Zurich, and became a customer counselor and typeface sales representative for the Haassche Schriftgieerei in Mnchenstein near Basle, until 1956, where he became a freelance graphic artist in Zurich.

Helvetica Rounded
Helvetica Rounded is a version containing rounded stroke terminators. Only bold, bold oblique, black, black oblique, bold condensed, bold outline fonts were made, with outline font not issued in digital form by Linotype.

Usage

Helvetica is among the most widely used sansserif typefaces. Versions exist for the following alphabets/scripts: Latin, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Urdu, Khmer and Vietnamese. Chinese faces have been developed to complement Helvetica. Helvetica is a popular choice for commercial wordmarks, including those for 3M, American Airlines, American Apparel, AT&T, BMW, Jeep, JCPenney, Lufthansa, Microsoft, Orange, Toyota, Panasonic, Motorola, Kawasaki and Verizon Wireless. Apple Inc. has used Helvetica widely in Mac OS X, the iPhone OS, and the iPod. Helvetica is widely used by the U.S. government; for example, federal income tax forms are set in Helvetica, and NASA uses the type on the Space Shuttle orbiter. Helvetica is also used in the United States television rating system.

Canadas federal government uses Helvetica as its identifying typeface, with three variants being used in its corporate identity program, and encourages its use in all federal agencies and websites. In 2007, director Gary Hustwit released a documentary, Helvetica, to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the typeface. From April 2007 to March 2008, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City displayed an exhibit called 50 Years of Helvetica, which celebrated the many uses of the font.

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Samples

Helvetica Bold Transit Signs

New York Citys Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) uses Helvetica for many of its subway signs. But Helvetica was not adopted as the official font for signage until 1989. The standard font from 1970 until 1989 was Standard Medium, an Akzidenz Grotesk-like sansserif, as defined by Unimarks New York City Transit Authority Graphic Standards Manual. The MTA system is still rife with a proliferation of Helvetica-like fonts, including Arial, in addition to some old remaining signs in Medium Standard, and a few anomalous signs in Helvetica Narrow. The Chicago Transit Authority uses Helvetica on its signage for the Chicago L.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M NOPQRSTUVWXYZ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz Helvetica Oblique A B C D E F G H I J K L M NOPQRSTUVWXYZ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

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Helvetica Bold Oblique