Helvetica:

Its significance and its impacts on our society

Several years have passed since the birth of the modernists’ typeface that had revolutionised the way typography has been depicted in the last 50 years. “What has Helvetica told you today?” (Huswit, Helvetica Trailer, 2007) is a clever metaphor as Helvetica has and is still playing a significant role in our lives; it speaks to us on a daily basis and provides us with important information. We do not realise that Helvetica is everywhere; in fact it is right it front of you. Helvetica is not a raw typeface; the job itself was a re-design of Akzidenz-Grotesk for Max Miedinge. Eduard Hoffmann commissioned it in 1957. In the Haas Type Foundry in Munchenstein, Switzerland, Eduard Hoffmann and Max Miedinger completed the typeface. Originally the typeface was going to be named ‘Neue Haas Grotesk’, but it was renamed Helvetica, which is Switzerland in Latin, because the typeface was going to be used globally. Since the typeface was going to be utilized world wide, Helvetica had to adhere to different languages and thus had to include special characters, such as the German umlaut.

Helvetica was initially released in 1961 and gradually transformed into a corporate typeface. An example of its impact would be taking a Coca Cola advertisement from the 1950’s (which was filled with illustrative graphics and cursive typography; it was telling you more about a story and a lifestyle rather than the actual product) and comparing it to one in the 1960’s. By looking at the advertising for Coca Cola in the 1960’s, one can see the clear difference. The typography is there, that is all it needs to do, but the bottle and glass of coke have to sweat to make their efforts to adhere to the properties which Helvetica depicts; modern, simple and the most effective word, refreshing.  “It’s the real thing. Coke.” The real promotion of the advertisement is coming through the typography, which is making a clear statement as to what the reader really wants.  Michael Bierut expressed this idea proficiently when explaining a redesign:

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Can you imagine how braising and thrilling that was, that must feel like you were crawling through a desert with your mouth caked with filthy dust and someone’s offering you a clear and refreshing distilled glass of icy water to clear away this horrible burden of history. It must have just been fantastic, and you know it was fantastic because it was done over and over again. (Helvetica, 2007)

This is a perfect, realistic metaphorical explanation of the impact that Helvetica has made on our lives. According to corporations, Helvetica accomplishes its job incredibly well because it gets straight ...

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