Helvetica: Love it or Hate it?

A brief history: – sourced from Wikipedia 2010.

Helvetica was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei (Haas type foundry) of Münchenstein, 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.

The typeface’s 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 wouldn’t be appropriate to name a type after a country. He then decided on ‘Helvetica’ as this meant ‘Swiss’ as opposed to ‘Switzerland’.

Helvetica is sans serif typeface and has to be one of the most popular typefaces of all time. Everyday whether you know it or not you are faced with the typeface, adverts, corporate communications, signage, ablum sleeves, the list goes on. Its that well designed that it has become apart of our visual culture that you would of seen it without even noticing it. But that’s a bad thing right? Well may be not. Because of its considered perfect design, when reading the letter forms, you hardly notice them, only their meaning. Each of its letter forms are crisp, clean and sharply legible, yet complemented and humanized by round, soft strokes. It has an unobtrusive geometry that almost suggests it was designed not to stand out, but because of its beautiful form it does and complements the visual message. It simply says, “you will save money”, “you are safe”, “we’re here to help you”, “we are approachable”. And its because of this that many type designers have  gone on record saying that they cannot improve on it.

But with all its praise and accomplishments over the years, Helvetica has and still does get its bad press. Because of its considered ‘over use’, it has become the safe choice in many designers opinions. Its considered to be bland, unambitious and unadventurous. However like it or hate it,  Helvetica is a piece of classic design. Being a Graphic Agency one of our most important targets amongst other things, is meeting and fullfilling the brief. Helvetica had simply done this from its first concept of being the new sans-serif to compete with Akzidenz-Grotesk at the time, to its current standing in today’s society. A piece of work in which has been claimed by many type designers to be un-improvable, perfect in its design.

We use Neue Helvetica (produced in 1983) which is a reworking of the typeface with a more structurally unified set of heights and widths, for our branding. We love the fact that there’s no hidden meaning in our messaging, its simple, clear and honest. We feel that it may be an over used graphic form, however its the way you use it, the kerning, leading, the way in which you can give meaning to the words with out using tricks of bold colours and over sized letter forms. It not just using it, its how you use that makes Helvetica to us such a beautiful typeface and is definitely in our top typefaces.

If you would like to know more about Helvetica we would highly recommend a purchase or rental of the documentary film titled “Helvetica” by Gary Hustwit. Its a great documentary that goes deep enough in to both side’s of the argument and is also full of interesting facts for both those in the industry and out. Go to the link posted below to find out more about this film.

More about the film

Helvetica Tralier

Where to buy Helvetica

There has been great designs that use Helvetica over the 52 years the typeface has been around. One of my personal favorites and one which I think is really interesting was the exhibition ‘50’ presented by Blanka and Candy, celebrating 50 years of Helvetica at Design Museum, London 19 July. Blanka and Candy had invited 50 leading designers and graphic artists to produce 50 images. Each artist has produced a 50 cm x 50 cm print in a limited number of 50. Each print is produced using Epson Archival Giclee Inkjet technology. The results are experimental and conceptual in presentation and are great testaments to the typeface and its influence over the years. The prints are still available online from blanka.co.uk for £50 each. Below are a few of our favorites.

From top left: 1961 The Designers Republic "Gagarin Star Club Positive Space". 1963 Antoine+Manuel "I Have A Dream". 1974 James Jarvis "Autobahn". 1985 NB: Studio "A Is For Apple". 1995 Neue "Choose Helvetica". 2006 Rob Ryan "30.7 Million".

See more of the collection click on the link below:

Candy Collective 50/50

Love it or hate it? That’s the question………..