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CONTEMPORARY TYPOGRAPHY

4December 2009

£3.50

History of Helvetica

Helvetica Vs Arial

Helvetica Vs Helvetica Neue

Love & Hate

05 - INTRODUCTION TO HELVETICA

06 - HISTORY OF HELVETICA

07 - HELVETICA VS ARIAL

08 - HELVETICA VS HELVETICA NEUE

10 - HELVETICA IN ADVERTISING

11 - HELVETICA - STYLE & DESIGN

12 - HELVETICA IN INDUSTRY

13 - HELVETICA - LOVE & HATE

14 - CONCLUSION

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Hello! Welcome to the latest issue of BlackWhite Magazine, your first choice editorial for all the latest cutting edge contemporary typography, fashion, culture and urban arts news and events. In this special issue of BlackWhite, titled; BlackWhiteRed, we focus on the ever-so-popular typeface, Helvetica and how it has a massive impact on the Design industry, and how not everyone is a lover of Helvetica. We also have personal views on what’s been branded ‘the world’s greatest ever typeface’ from world-famous Graphic Designer David Carson. We also take a quick look into how Helvetica has a big impact in the Advertising industry.

Enjoy!

Scott CrossEditor

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Helvetica is a sans-serif typeface that was created in 1957 by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffman. Miedinger was a Swiss typeface designer that became well-known for his creation of Helvetica, he worked on the Globus design team in Switzerland from 1936-1946 as a typographer. In 1947 he was a type salesman for Hass, the Type Foundry,

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HELVETICA SPECIALHELVETICA - AN INTRODUCTION TO...

taking orders for different fonts and typefaces, a year later, Hoffman approached him to produce the drawings for Helvetica.However, up until 1960 the name Helvetica didn’t exist for his typeface, it was originally named Neue Haas Grotesk, then in 1961 it was changed to Helvetica by the Stempel Foundry, named after Confoederatio Helvetia, which is the latin

name for Switzerland. They did this so that the name Helvetica would be more marketable world-wide so that people would understand the meaning behind the name Helvetica and for people to realise and appreciate the cultural background of where this smooth, crisp and clean typeface arose from.

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Helvetica is possibly one of the most well-known type faces around today, so many designers use it in business and advertising that it has become a typeface that you can’t help but see day-in-day-out. According to Allen Haley; “This popular Sans Serif typeface has such a clean look that it can be used for every imaginable typesetting situation”. So

why is Helvetica so popular and why do alot of designers choose it over thousands of other typefaces that are available?In this issue we look into a select few of the many different fonts and typefaces that surround Helvetica and also the wide range of typefaces that are extremely close in detail to Helvetica yet always having that edge on them

in this ever growing design industry. We also look into past and present advertisements and logos, and how Helvetica can convey a certain meaning, message and feeling just through type whether it be with or without the use of

images.

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Helvetica was found to be at the the height of popularity around the 50’s and 60’s when it was first created by Miedinger in the Swiss Design Movement. Around this time Helvetica was acquired by the Hass Type Foundry by the American Type Foundry, Linotype. Helvetica derived from the typeface, Akzidenz-Grotesk which is a realist sans-serif typeface created in 1896 by The H.Berthold AG Type Foundry, originally titled Accidenz-Grotesk.Whilst at the Haas Type Foundry, Edouard Hoffman decided that Akzidenz-Grotesk needed a newer, more up to date version of itself and even though there had been numerous designs and redesigns, he went

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ahead and set Max Miedinger the mission to create a newer version of Akzidenz-Grotesk. Together, with Hoffman producing the concept and Miedinger doing the drawings, they came up with Neue Haas-Grotesk in 1957, a whole 61 years after Akzidenz-Grotesk was produced.In 1960 the name Neue Haas-Grotesk was scraped in replace for a more internationally marketable name by Stempel which was the Haas Type foundry’s ‘daughter’ company, because they felt that they would be unable to market a typeface that had another Type Foundry’s name attached, even though they owned that Foundry, they decided to name

it, Helvetica. To start with, only the originally, or ‘roman’, Helvetica typeface was released, it took another 4 years before italics were offered by Haas, since then new designs and weights have been created. Akzidenz-Grotesk and Helvetica are extremely similar in style and shape, so much so that it is extremely difficult to tell the difference between the two typefaces, in fact the only noticeable difference is the that on the lowercase ‘t’, the kick at the bottom is slightly more smoother and not as sharp or as forceful, other than that, you can really see why Miedinger was inspired by this typeface when creating Helvetica.

HELVETICA - THE HISTORY OF...

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Helvetica also looks extremely similar in style to the sans-serif typeface Ariel which was created in 1982 by designers Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders primarily for Microsoft as it came as part of the computer font package with all Microsoft Windows computers, followed my Mac OSX and many post-script computer printers. As you can see below, Arial is almost identical in both weight and proportion to Helvetica, which makes us ask the question again, why do designers carry on selecting Helvetica as their choice of typeface? It is extremely easy to say that Helvetica and Arial are practically the same typeface as they look almost identical, however as you can see below there are slight variations on

HELVETICA VS ARIAL

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the miniscule ‘t’, just like it was with Akzidenz-Grotesk, however it is the opposite end of the letter, the ascender on the Arial ‘t’ slants down slightly the the left as opposed to the Helvetica lowercase ‘t’. Another big difference, if not the most significant difference between the two, is the majuscule letter ‘R’, as you can see on the Helvetica version of it, the leg of the ‘R’ doesn’t drop at such a smooth angle as it does on the Ariel typeface. Because of Arial being the selected package font for Microsoft, it is used my almost everyone that has a Microsoft Windows computer for almost every job that they do simple because they have no sense of style and literally don’t know any better. “Arial has now taken over Helvetica as the standard font in practically everything done

by those who don’t know better. However small these differences are, they all count towards making Helvetica stand out from the rest, making it the choice for thousands of advertisements and logos around the globe; “If you have no intuitive sense of design, then call yourself an ‘information architect’ and only use Helvetica” - David CarsonNot only can designers use Helvetica to it’s full advantage. The quote by leading Graphic Designer David Carson, shows the diversity or this typeface, it can be used by absolutely anybody, for absolutely any purpose and will always have the same positive, simple, clean and crisp effective that is expected and achieved by using Helvetica.

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So why is Helvetica loved so much? Do people hate it too? The answer, yes. “Not everyone is a Helvetica lover. Type ‘I hate Helvetica’ into Google and there are forums for people who rage at the mindless “corporate chic” of this dominant font. They see it as a vehicle for social conformity through consumerism, shifting product with a great big steam-roller of neutrality.” (BBC - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6638423.stm) We can understand why various amounts of people were too dislike Helvetica, it is everywhere and because it is a beautiful typeface when it is used badly, it is painful to see, especially when Helvetica can make

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HELVETICA SPECIALHELVETICA - LOVE & HATE

up a stunning piece of signage or artwork, it has become so common and over-used that people, mainly designers and type enthusiasts, can’t help but get frustrated at a bad-usage or it. A good example of this is the warning signs on the front and back of cigarette packets, such a negative use of Helvetica even when it is being used for the good. I don’t think Helvetica can be blamed for this though, it’s surely the people that use it in a non-design sense fashion that are ruining what Helvetica stands for, clean, crisp, smooth and versatile, however, like most things, there is a limit to how many times it can be used.

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Helvetica Neue is a redrawn version of Helvetica, done in 1983 by Max Miedinger and the Linotype Foundry staff, it was redrawn so that the uniformity between the different weights of Helvetica were much more versatile and generally a big improvement on Helvetica itself, to produce a more modernised version

of Helvetica with a wider-range of weights available was the main aim of the redrawing of Helvetica. As you can see there really is no great difference other than the weights and proportions of the 2 typefaces. Offering a different variety of Helvetica typefaces can only make Helvetica stronger as it can now be used

HELVETICA VS HELVETICA NEUE

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more than ever because of Helvetica Neue and everything it has to offer. In 2004, the Linotype Foundry released a CD containing all 51 fonts of Helvetica Neue which supported 48 different Roman languages.

Since the creation of Helvetica it has been used for various projects and campaigns, because of it’s crisp, clean and clear style. Ask the majority of people what Helvetica is and they would not be able to tell you even though they see it so many times in the day on signage, advertisements, television, everywhere, which, in way, adds to Helvetica’s powerful prowess in the way in which it can have such an impact and influence on a persons decision, people tend not too see this; “The perfection of Helvetica is it;s spacing capabilities-it leads to perfection in shape and form, but like a beautiful person, it often lacks personality” - Keith Goddard - Helvetica - Homage to a Typeface.If you look at the advertisement, designed by Empire Design Company in 1996 for the film Trainspotting, it’s entirely produced using 2 key things, colour and Helvetica and nothing else. Nothing else is needed that’s why, Helvetica says it all because it’s so bold and clean-cut, yes, the information provided in the poster is

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of prior importance but without Helvetica it’s nothing. If you were to imagine using a serif typeface for this poster it simply wouldn’t be as effective visually nor would it have the same effect on people as this purely typographical poster has, because Helvetica has a tone of voice than can communicate with every age group of people, both sexes, every type of person, because it is so versatile and can be pretty much used for all occasions.The powerful ending phrases on the poster also say alot in Helvetica, ‘Choose your future. Choose life’ much like the advertisement for Coca Cola which states, ‘It’s the real thing. Coke;’ it instantly makes you think and do whatever it says, Helvetica has that tone of voice about it, forceful and in-your-face and i think that because of the kerning of the phrases makes the type look ‘blocky’ almost, it does come across as forceful and it makes you do what the advertisement says, “It’s the real thing. period. Coke. period. In Helvetica. Period. Any questions? Course not. Period.”

Michael Beirut, Helvetica: A documentary film.When you look back at past Coca Cola advertisements, when Helvetica wasn’t invented you can clearly see that without the use of Helvetica like in fig.2 the designer has had to use more text, and a larger image of what Coca Cola apparently influences you to do, I think that with the 1950’s Coca Cola advertisements, the designer has been forced to produce something in the style of what now looks like a page from a story book rather than a powerful advertisement like the advertisement shows, the balance between text and image is next to perfect, one big slogan with one big pack-shot, yes it is an ‘ice-cold Coca Cola’ but the image shows that and Helvetica helps and tops off getting the bold, solid message across, whereas in the other 2 advertisements they’ve had to explain this using more text, boring you with the amount of text they offload onto the page.

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“There’s a very thin line between simple and clean and powerful, and simple and clean and boring” David Carson, Helvetica - A documentary film. I think that the quote above from world-renowned Graphic Designer, David Carson, on Helvetica and how it is used, makes perfect sense. If a designer was to use Arial on an advertisement that was going to be shown to thousands of people in visually-exhilarating cities all around the world, regardless of the advertisements aim or purpose, I don’t think people would actually notice nor care about the font used, but if you were to see this advertisement to someone who knows typefaces it would make all the difference.

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Helvetica is used everywhere, from little signs, to huge billboard advertisements, on buses, up the sides of skyscrapers, on shop fronts, planes, trains, on a chocolate bar wrapper, everywhere, that it really is hard not notice it and also because it’s a really neutral and ‘safe’ typeface to use, you can’t wrong with it because it’s clean and contemporary and I think that that is why Helvetica is so big and is the best font ever invented” - Opinion: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/30/arts/design2.phpHelvetica has a massive impact on the way the viewer reads something, it adds a whole new tone of voice to a piece of text, it’s so smooth

and fresh and it always has been, most things age with time and eventually become out of date, old fashioned and that has happened with typefaces, serif typefaces are primarily associated with more old-style fashioned design, has Helvetica aged with time? No, it is still as fresh, clean and crisp as ever, now that wasn’t the aim when creating Helvetica, Hoffman and Miedinger set out to bring Accidenz-Grotesk up-to-date yet what they’ve actually come up with is an award winning typeface that smashed the world of design and changed it completely, not just the world of design but our day-to- day lives. Opinion: http://theguardian.co.uk

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Hundreds of companies choose Helvetica as their choice of typeface for their logos, and I think that that is one of the most important decisions a company could make when starting out or having a redesign/rebranding because whichever typeface you were to choose, it would convey a meaning or message to the customer. One of the biggest companies to choose Helvetica is probably

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American Airlines, one the largest international Aerospace companies in the world, meaning thousands upon thousands of people see this logo every day, some could argue that the logo isn’t of great importance when choosing an airline, or just a company for that matter, but to the company, having the right logo with the right tone of voice is a big deal. Helvetica works really nicely in the American

Airlines logo because it looks so crisp and clean and contemporary, and because the company is orientated around air-travel and being perfectionists, because they don’t have a choice really, Helvetica is the perfect choice of typeface. As mentioned earlier, Helvetica doesn’t seem to age as time goes on so all logos that are primarily textual based that use Helvetica, can’t seem to age either.

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Currys, BMW, AGFA, 3M, British Gas, Energizer, Caterpillar, Oral-B, Evian, Knoll, Greyhound, Nestle and Staples to name but a few. So what do the aforementioned companies all have in common? They all rely on Helvetica to portray a certain message and feeling to people every single day in their logos. I think it’s really important to mention that, yes,

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these companies could have used a different type of font, but they have all chosen Helvetica and that has nothing to do with the type of company, nothing to do with they sell or what they are all about, it’s purely down to the type of message that Helvetica can convey, it’s an exciting and powerful font and people don’t realise this, you could argue that Helvetica

doesn’t have an impact on whether someone was to buy from a company that has used Helvetica in their logo or advertisements, but without Helvetica in the logo, there would be no powerfulness or forcefulness, nor would there be a clear and crisp design to go with it.

Another big company that uses Helvetica in their logo is Orange. As one of the world’s leading phone companies and mobile phone providers, it is of prior importance that the typeface they use is of pure perfection because there logo is simply text based, nothing else. Because mobile phones are a contemporary kind of device, I think that it is important that

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they have a typeface to reflect this, and by using Helvetica as their choice of typeface they get this message across extremely well, that they are a clean-cut, immaculate and finely tuned company, just like their logo. It is simple and effective, although this could be said about all logos that involve Helvetica. Orange also go beyond using Helvetica as

their choice of typeface for just their logo, they also use it for their advertisements, simply text based once more as they are confident that Helvetica will portray the message of simplicity and elegance that is expected and delivered by using Helvetica.

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To conclude this special issue of Twenty 9, based up on and around Helvetica, We feel we have successfully found the answers that Iyou all wanted to knows on Helvetica. Helvetica is the most used sans-serif typeface ever, it really is that simple, because we live in a world where we are surrounded 24 hours a day by

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advertisements and visual culture, it’s hard not to notice Helvetica whether you appreciate typography or not. The main attribute that Helvetica has is it’s versatility, it can be used for everything, not almost everything, literally everything, whether it be good or bad, Helvetica can single handedly make a bad logo

or advertisement come good. Like every other typeface, it has it’s enemies and/or partners however, Helvetica always comes out on top. In the end it can be safely said that Helvetica is the king of typefaces.

HELVETICA SPECIALCONCLUSION

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