Rice- Helvetica

History:

One can find the Helvetica typeface anywhere: on the internet, in print, in movies (Helvetica), and news. It has been known as a “grotesque sans serif”. Helvetica was first created in 1954 by Max Miedinger, released by Linotype and has stayed and successfully remained one of the most common typefaces used. The most important record of Helvetica’s creation is a simple notebook, into which Eduard Hoffmann put all the proofs that were related for the beginning of the Neue Haas Grotesk and later Helvetica. Hoffmann documented every single developmental step for each and every letter, numeral, and special character in all point sizes of the Medium, Regular, Bold, Regular Italic and Bold Italic. As in a diary, he dated each entry of typefaces, noted the opinion’s of third parties, drew desired changes, and regularly compared the results he recieved to the Akzidenz Grotesk typeface. The entries in this fifty-eight page chronicle began on November 16, 1956 and end on July 21, 1965. It serves as a priceless testimony, unprecedented in typeface history. In 1983 there was a second version of Helvetica made called Neue Helvetica by D. Stempel AG. This was a modification of the 1957 original. The 1983 version was redesigned due to the fact it gave the weights, widths and spacing inconsistency. This version simply compromised the two. This new design allowed for total liberty in design. Likewise, in 2004 the Neue Helvetica Pro was released as a more Opentype version of the two fonts. The outcome carefully redrawn lead to the production of aesthetics and all of the improvements and modifications resulting in the best form, legibility and effectiveness possible. Helvetica captured the modernist liking for using clarity and simplicity to suggest greater ideas. The fact that the typeface is clean-cut and simple means that it can be used as a neutral platform in a wide variety of settings and it is the particular context and substance of the messages that convey their meaning.

Bio:

Max Meidinger was born in 1910 in Zurich he died in 1980 still residing in Zurich. He is known a type designer, most famous for the Helvetica type family. In the late 1920's Miedinger trained as a typesetter, and eventually went to work for Edouard Hoffmann who was the director of the Haas Typefoundry. At the foundry, Miedinger worked primarily as a salesman. But in his spare time, under Hoffmann's command, he designed a sans serif typeface, Haas Grotesk. Haas partners D. Stempel AG and Linotype expanded the design into the complete Helvetica family from 1957 onward. Helvetica's success was enormous, and it was the type to put him on the map as a type designer. Linotype paid him an income for his contribution to their corporate success until his death in 1980, which was a very uncommon practice at the time.

Concept:

Since Helvetica is seen widely around the world in ads, signs and icons; I see Helvetica as typeface that has taken over the world. Therefore, my idea for the type specimen on Helvetica, is to title it “Taking Over Zee World” and make all of the cuts and weights different cinereous and different cartoon villains.

(Posted this blog in Arial for kicks and giggles)