Helvetica forever: Story of a Typeface

by Victor Malsy (Editor), Victor Malsy (Editor)

Designed in 1957, the Helvetica font is an icon of Swiss graphic design, which was a model of sober, functional communication throughout the world in the 1950s and 60s. The balanced and neutral appearance of Helvetica forgoes a high degree of expressivity – a quality for which it is both criticized and admired. This polarization has helped to gain it unparalleled notoriety. Helvetica is far and away the most widely used of all typefaces; according to a survey by the Berliner Fontshop-Archiv, it tops the list of the hundred best fonts of all time. This publication retraces Helvetica’s fifty-year history, compares it to the well-known sans serif fonts of the twentieth century, and examines the phenomenon of its unparalleled spread. Numerous illustrations show a multitude of ways the font has been used in five decades from a wide variety of fields – from signal design to party flyers.

Genres: Design

159 pages, Hardcover

First published February 27, 2009

Reviews

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helvetica has overexposure syndrome. First Helvetica was too corporate. Now, after a much talked about documentary and in depth studies like this one, it's too revered.

But this isn't just a sparkly vampire fad, it's one hell of a font. And this book is a well-executed tribute to it. The book has its moments of shameless idolatry, but on the whole it is an intriguing examination of the design process. The many documents and samples bring the time period, the world of Gothika fonts, and type foundrys to life. The list of imitators, applications, and contemporaries make Helvetica's true beauty, well, sparkle.