Publisher: Canada TypeHelvetica's 50-year anniversary events in 2007 were overwhelming and infectious. We saw the film. Two times. We bought the t-shirts and the buttons. We removed the homage books and re-read the hate short articles. We mourned the fading non-color of an old black t-shirt happily exclaiming that "HELVETICA IS NOT AN ADOBE TYPEFACE". We participated in long discussions talking about the benefits of the Swiss classic, that the majority of spiritual of typographic dreamboats, outlasting its builder and tenants to go on alone and fill the world with the essential fact of its best logarithm. We swooned once again over its subtleties (" Ah, that mermaid of an R!"). We reworked decades-old arguments about "Hakzidenz," "enhancement in mind" and "less is more." We dutifully cursed every among Helvetica's knockoffs. We breathed deeply and closed our eyes on ideal Shakti Gawain-style visualizations of David Carson hack 'n' slashing Arial-- utilizing a Swiss Army knife, no less-- with all the infernal post-brutality of his innovative disruption and disturbed imagination. We then sailed without hesitation into the absurdities of analyzing Helvetica's role in globalization and upcoming world blandness (China be careful! Helvetica will attack you as quietly and transparently as a sheet of rice paper!). And at the end of an ideal celebratory day, we positively verified √ la Shakti, and solemnly whispered the energy of our affirmation unto the universal mind: "We value Helvetica for getting us this far. We are now prepared for release and wait for the arrival of the next head snatcher."
.The great buzz of Swisspalooza ‘‘ 07 triggered a take a look at Max Miedinger, the designer of Neue Haas Grotesk (later relabelled to Helvetica). Remarkably, what little biographical info readily available about Miedinger indicates that he was a typography consultant and type sales associate for the Haas foundry till 1956, after which time he was a freelance graphic designer-- instead of the full-time type designer most Helvetica lovers presume him to have been. It was under that freelance capability that he was commissioned to develop the regular and strong weights of Neue Haas Grotesk typeface. His role in creating Helvetica was never truly trumpeted until long after the typeface attained global popularity. And, again surprisingly, Miedinger created two more typefaces that seem to have been lost to the dust of movie type history. One is called Pro Arte (1954 ), a very condensed Playbill-like piece serif that resembles a lot of its category. The other, made in 1964, is a lot more interesting. Its original name was Horizontal. Here it is, lest it becomes a Haas-been, presented to you in digital type by Canada Type under the name of its initial designer, Miedinger, the Helvetica King.
.The initial film face was a basic set of strong, panoramically large caps and figures that give off a very first impression of being an ultra large Gothic incarnation of Microgramma. Upon a second look, they are plainly more than that. This face is a wacky, really non-Akzidental take on the vernacular, mostly an exercise in geometric modularity, however also consists of some unconventional solutions to common issues (like thinning the midline strokes throughout the board to reduce clogging in three-storey types).
.This digital variation introduces 4 brand-new weights, ranging from Thin to Medium, alongside the bold original. The Miedinger plan comes in all popular font formats, and supports Western, Central and Eastern European languages, as well as Esperanto, Maltese, Turkish and Celtic/Welsh. A few counter-less alternates are included in the fonts.
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