Helvetica... it is a noble, smooth and popular font. Highly educated college child ..
Helvetica is another font that appears virtually everywhere -- more often in branding and signage, rather than in books and newspapers. For example, famous brands like BMW, Oral B, IBM, Target, Staples, and Panasonic all use Helvetica for their logos. The U.S. Government uses Helvetica for all its official forms. It's the default font for Brussels' entire transport system, and became the font for the NYC subway system's signs and maps in 1970.
But where did Helvetica come from? It was actually a Swiss byproduct of post-war Europe, a time when European companies were searching for ways to modernize their brand, including the look and feel of their advertisements and signage. Previously, it'd been popular to use fancy, decorative typography, but many brands had begun searching for something more neutral, clearer, and edgier.
Enter Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann, who invented the typeface that would become Helvetica in Switzerland in 1957. It was originally called "Die Neue Haas Grotesk," but in 1960, the name was changed to Helvetica (Latin for "Swiss) to make it more marketable internationally.
And it served as a solution for what companies were looking for in a modern typeface: It was entirely neutral. At its very core, Helvetica was intended "to not give any impression or have any meaning in itself," according to Web Designer Depot.
Thanks to its neutrality, Helvetica is an incredibly adaptable font and can be used for a wide range of design projects -- especially when italic, bold, and other weights are added. Starting in the 1960s, it began to gain a reputation overseas, "particularly among the design executives on Madison Avenue," according to Fast Company.
Since then, it's become one of the most widely used fonts of all time; and its clean-cut, professional, and neutral style has made it timeless.
I think the star will always be helvetica ..
In my next article I will talk about the bum comic sans tan.
Thank you for reading.
