Helvetica at 50
Typesetting with Helvetica

By Finlo Rohrer
BBC News Magazine

The Helvetica font is celebrating its 50th birthday. You've probably seen it a thousand times today. Why?

At this moment in boardrooms across the globe, captains of industry are leafing through sheet after sheet of typefaces. There are hundreds of choices, but many of these movers and shakers don't take a lot of leafing before plumping for Helvetica.

We live in a world where we are surrounded 24 hours a day by adverts and corporate communications, many in typefaces chosen to subliminally complement the message.

Helvetica's message is this: you are going to get to your destination on time; your plane will not crash; your money is safe in our vault; we will not break the package; the paperwork has been filled in; everything is going to be OK.

[news.bbc.co.uk]

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Strength without compassion is brutality. Compassion without strength is weakness.

We must train our minds to desire what the situation demands.

I like Helvetica. I like Helvetica Neue even better. What the heck, it's a classic. You have to picture it in an old Lucky Strike or Seagrams VO advertisement, something along those lines, in the Saturday Evening Post in 1963. Nice!

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2007 12:21PM by $tevie.

I thought we celebrated this birthday a week or two ago?

Dang, you are correct. I missed the party!

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Quote
$tevie
I like Helvetica. I like Helvetica Neue even better. What the heck, it's a classic. You have to picture it in an old Lucky Strike or Seagrams VO advertisement, something along those lines, in the Saturday Evening Post in 1963. Nice!

I hate it, but thats more to do with its proliferation in Europe during the 60's and 70's, utilitarian but bland and boring. Much prefer the older (by a year) and classier Univers. Even the original, Akzidenz Grotesk is better looking, for goodness sake the Q alone makes it better.

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Now see, I prefer Helvetica's "Q". It's very subjective, of course.

I remember thinking that Univers was so "old fashioned". Of course when I started out, Avant Garde and Souvenir were considered Hot, so that's how old I am!

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2007 12:52PM by $tevie.

Quote
$tevie
Now see, I prefer Helvetica's "Q". It's very subjective, of course.

I remember thinking that Univers was so "old fashioned". Of course when I started out, Avant Garde and Souvenir were considered Hot, so that's how old I am!

Subjective, yes that is the nature of typography... but Avant Garde, ouch, LOL.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2007 12:56PM by SLM.

Avant Garde - OUCH! is right.

Now I feel old.

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Strength without compassion is brutality. Compassion without strength is weakness.

We must train our minds to desire what the situation demands.

Helvetica's, like, so "Old Europe."
Arial be the new, hip kid in town.
Or better yet, Comic Sans.
















Psyche.

I'm designing a new typeface to replace Helvetica.

I call it "Papyrus".

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Wow...
Who knew there were "font geeks"...

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Paul F.
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A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
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Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
--

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Eureka, CA

Quote
$tevie
Now see, I prefer Helvetica's "Q". It's very subjective, of course.

I remember thinking that Univers was so "old fashioned". Of course when I started out, Avant Garde and Souvenir were considered Hot, so that's how old I am!

Back when I was starting out as a studio junior I happened to secure an account with an idea for a logo for one of their ice hockey arenas, was well stoked given that this was the one account that would make or break my career at the fine young age of 17. So when the boss asked me to develop my idea I was elated. So I mocked up a stationery set and pecause the parent company had used it, I decided it would be a good idea to tie in the company by using their corporate font Eurostile... when I presented the mock-ups to the AD he looked at me and asked why on earth did I use Eurostile, I told him that I knew it was a dodgy font and my reasoning for using it, he commended me on a job well done and that we had secured the account but if I ever used that font again I would be fired. Best advice I ever got from him, LOL.

Eurostile! LOL! That's a font I haven't thought of in ages, for the reasons described above.

I too prefer Univers and Akzidenz Grotesk for my classic sans serif needs. My #1 go-to sans serif is probably Frutiger. Limited does of Futura are okay, but it's not a terribly versatile font -- a little too geometricly-shaped and that low x-height limits its readabilty for long runs of text.

/font nerd

i use all of them above, except for comic sans and regular helvetica

avante garde has a beautiful thin, very elegant

eurostlye extended has some very nice letter shapes

i use Akzidenz Grotesk all day

and univers is of our primary fonts

however, my current favorites are trade gothic and interstate (great range of fonts) -- but i recently swapped trade gothic for interstate in one of my publications, the editor hated that interstate didnt have italics...

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

Helvetica is nice, but I'm more of a Futura man myself.

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[picasaweb.google.com] [www.flickr.com]

The only reason I use Helvetica as much as I do is I often have to churn out a lot of ads, and now I have the numbers down: type "76" in the text line in the Quark measurments palette, and presto Helvetica bold, 95 gives Helvetica black etc.
When i start getting bored I'll use anything, including Eurostyle.

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And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Western Massachusetts



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2007 06:41PM by blooz.

I usually avoid Helvetica in favor of Univers and Fruitiger. Helvetica Neue is better. In the last couple of years I've been wearing out the Stone Sans family. I've always enjoyed using Eurostile, however, the opportunity for use doesn't happen very often. Anybody ever use the huge Nimbus family? I used it on a project years ago which worked out well but haven't used it since.

I thought it said

Happy 50th Velveeta!!!

Gotta go clean my contacts.

Personally I think Chicago font is more than any of us need.