Helvetica Turns Fifty!

8th May 2007..

 

One of the most popular typefaces in the world, Helvetica, is 50 this week. And to celebrate, a film purely dedicated to this (sometimes overused) font has been made by director Gary Hustwit featuring many famous designers from all over the world.

Created by Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas type foundry of M�nchenstein, Switzerland, Haas set out to design a new sans-serif typeface that could compete with Akzidenz Grotesk in the Swiss market. Originally called Neue Haas Grotesk, the typeface’s name was changed by Haas’ German parent company Stempel in 1960 to Helvetica – derived from Helvetia, the latin name for Switzerland – in order to make it more marketable internationally.

Unfortunately, the film isn’t on general release at the moment but you can have a sneak preview by clicking here.