Helvetica, a personal approach of a typeface. Designed by Eduardo Cordeiroa

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A personal approach of a typeface

“A typeface becomes a star, one that supposedly has no character, that is neutral, almost laissez-faire, and so ubiquitous as to be virtually invisible.

An anachronism”

Helveti

Lars Muller

Helvetica

These are the qualities that have ensured a career and enduring popularity for helvetica, which easily rivals that of Bob Dylan and Coca-Cola. Now, and more than half a century after its birth, it is possible to see exactly how much this particular typeface really was a little child of its time.The times where the growing confidence in Europe after the war, along with an approaching economic boom were the results of the growing confidence of helvetica in 1950’s.

Two mans had then the courage to design a new typeface that could revolutionized the world and industry of graphic design. Is helvetica boring? Is it too neutral? Anonymous?

Well, Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann had the vision and determination to create a typeface that carries a particular character and more refreshing now than ever before.

Helvetica, as an aesthetic constant, mastered the leap in 1957 from metal type to the digital age of word processing.

According to Miedinger’s cover letter sent to Hoffmann, the helvetica or initially called New Hass Grotesk typeface was slightly more robust looking than its predecessors.

H e l v e t i c a th e n , is a m u ch m o r e le g ib le Gr o tesque s t y l e s a n s- se r if wh ich is r o u n d e d , h a s a la r ge x - h e i g h t , sh o r t a sce n d e r s a n d d e sce n d e r s, and no e c c e n t r i c i tie s.

I h a v e a c tu a lly h e a r d th a t h e lve tica is c h a r a c t e r le ss a n d b o r in g b u t in fa ct a n d p e rsonal y t h i s t y p e fa ce h a s b e co m e ve r y a cce p ta b le as a t e x t t y p e fa ce a n d is wid e ly u se d in b o o k p u b l i s h i n g , a d ve r tisin g a n d p o ste r s. He lve tica has a l a r g e f am ily o f we ig h ts, wid th s a n d ita lics w hi ch d o e s f a s c in a te s m e sig n ifica n tly. Pe r so n a ly I thi nk H e l v e t i c a is cle a n , n e a t a n d g e o m e tr ic.T h e refore I t g i v e s a sp e cia l ch a r a cte r a n d u n iq u e id e nti ty a n d a t t h e m o m e n t I ca n ’t d e sig n a n yth in g wi thout e x p e r i m e nt with th is typ e fa ce fir st. Wh a t I l i ke a b o u t h e l ve tica th e m o st is a ctu a lly th e sp aces b e t w e e n l e tte r s th a t a r e u n u su a lly n a r r o w, whi ch i n c r e s e s th e le g ib ility.

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Helvetica

efore I realise how important a typeface is when comes to graphic design, for me type was just a bunch of letters that have the main goal of inform and communicate. Nowadays for me type is in fact a form of communication but also a shape and a geometric form that can easily create interesting and captivating textures whether is it a poster or a magazine document.

Helvetica was indeed a very boring and almost an obsolete. Do I still have the same opinion these days?

My rapid response is NO, absolutly NOT. Helvetica is for me a very reliable, safe, practical, friendly and extremely tidy. It was design for everyday use and in ther world of typography, It has become synonymous with its own characteristics.

W h e t her it is use d fo r i ma g e m aki ng, wo rdma rks o r p oster s, Hel v e tica i s a p r acti cal tool fo r d e s i gner s these days a n d w e c an see i t everywh e re o u t i n ur ban ar ea s where f o r e xam ple tr afic signs h a v e been m ade using H e l v e tica for de ca d e s.

The best designers and graphic artists in the world have been using this typeface since the 1960’s and with excellent results. Josef-Muller Brockmann is one of them along with Massimo Vignelli.

I think we can then recognize Helvetica’s success. Its a sensation of the ordinary and a metaphor for the normal.

Not only in design but in any field.

Helvetica Hel vet ica

ica, the typeface for everyday use

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Helvetica

t some point, Hoffmann turned with verve to the task of publicizing Helvetica in Switzerland.

He chalked up a major success in 1960 by persuading Josef-Muller Brockmann to design a”so called typeface sampler with texts, lines and alphabets, having “correctly assumed that people in advertising often decide which typeface to use. MullerBrockmann was one of the leading graphic designers at the time, whose posters for the Zurich concert hall had met with great acclaim.

He had been the director of the Graphics Department at the School of Arts and Crafts in Zurich since 1958 and in the same year founded the avant-garde magazine New Graphic Design. At the time this typeface was in fact an enourmes asset. Dummy texts in every point size could be cut to shape with a ruler and knife and then pasted onto paper layouts.

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