3-23-08

Helvetica: is written on everything.
except this blog. because it's not an available font?

so I watched the movie on Helvetica. an I had no idea it's become such a commonly used font. I mean every where that you would look, it's used. but I did enjoy listening to everything the designers had to say about the font; most specifically the guy (don't remember his name) that was SO strict about using helvetica. How he said there is no other font that is anywhere near as successful as helvetica. that helvetica has no flaws. but to some degree i could agree with him. it is a very successful font.


Helvetica was developed by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann in 1957 for the Haas Type Foundry in Münchenstein, Switzerland. In the late 1950s, the European design world saw a revival of older sans-serif typefaces such as the German face Akzidenz Grotesk. Haas' director Hoffmann commissioned Miedinger, a former employee and freelance designer, to draw an updated sans-serif typeface to add to their line. The result was called Neue Haas Grotesk, but its name was later changed to Helvetica, derived from Helvetia, the Latin name for Switzerland, when Haas' German parent companies Stempel and Linotype began marketing the font internationally in 1961.