| Date: 1957
Designer:
Max Miedinger/Eduard Hoffmann
Foundry:
Haas Foundry
Location:
Münchenstein, Switzerland
Current equivalent:
Linotype Helvetica, Linotype Helvetica Neue series
See also:
Haas Grotesk, Geneva, Helios, Newton, Megaron, Vega, BT Swiss 721, Nimbus Sans, Arial
Technologies:
Metal (foundry)
Metal (machine)
Photosetting
Postscript
Opentype |
| | Design history:
As Erik Spiekermann says, this is the typeface designed to show no emotion; later extended into a family of about 50 variants by the addition of extra weights and styles, often by other hands. Max Miedinger was initially asked by Eduard Hoffmann to revamp the old Haas Grotesk in 1951, and it was released under that name in Switzerland. When the Haas Foundry became a subsidiary of Stempel/Linotype in Germany, it was renamed Helvetia. This type was subsequently cross-licensed and sold extensively in overseas markets, becoming a standard in the process, and copied under differing names by almost all of the typesetting equipment suppliers. Now widely distributed as a default font with computer operating systems. | |  |
