What do Off-White, NASA and Panasonic have in common? Besides being leaders in their respective fields, all of these companies are known for using the world’s most popular font.
Helvetica - the brainchild of Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann - originally named Die Neue Haas Grotesk, is a Swiss font designed in 1957 to be a neutral typeface with no particular meaning. Helvetica is now known as the Kleenex of sans-serif fonts, due to its legibility and minimalist appearance. It even has its own cinema debut in the 2007 documentary by Gary Hustwit.
Characteristics of Helvetica
The font design largely stems from the fact that it is Sans Serif, meaning it lacks extended tails called serifs at the end strokes. The font’s simplicity and lack of deeper meaning allows it to be applied to just about any situation, from airplanes to sneakers and to social media posts.
Some basic characteristics includes
Its x-height, which refers to the height of its lowercase x.
Originally made with tight apertures and spacing, which seems to be a challenge to read at small sizes. Hence, the invention of Helvetica Now, which we’ll get to in a bit.
The font quickly became famous and the preferred font of the advertising world, which used it to promote the most diverse products, from Volkswagen cars to Coca-Cola.
It even made its way to the New York City maps, signage and subway. Thanks to its availability, it is becoming a universal typeface to meet the typographic and linguistic demands of large international brands, corporations and publishing houses, with versions that support Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and even Hebrew.
Challenges in today’s digital world
With its success and global coverage comes rivals and look-alikes. Theinhardt, Roboto and Arial. The reason? A license to one of the world’s most used fonts ain’t cheap. All of these “dupes” were made with goal to avoid paying for a pricey Helvetica license, which can add up to a million dollars for the case of IBM. Big companies are forced to create their own fonts for better adaptability to their products. But you might have not noticed. In 2013, Apple created San Francisco, a typeface identical to Helvetica except with looser spacing and thinner letters, to fit the small screen on the first Apple watch. In 2016, CNN opted for CNN Sans. And you guessed it, based on Helvetica again. It is made for better customization on TVs, websites, apps, lower thirds, and more.
Before screens, Helvetica was mostly designed for print, which means its spacing was cramped and ill-suited for use in small sizes. As the world transitioned to mobile, in 2019, Monotype - the company that owns Helvetica, aimed to adjust the font dilemma by creating Helvetica Now - a new version of the typeface designed to function flawlessly on small screens. To embrace this digital marketing world even more, a week ago, Monotype introduced Helvetica Now Variable, offering over a million new styles in one state-of-the-art font file, optimizing sizing and stylistic alternatives.
Invasion to the world of Fashion
Once again the neutral meaning behind Helvetica has made the typeface an objective means of communication, this time in the renovation of luxury fashion brands.
Examples: Burberry, Balmain, Saint Laurent, just to name a few.
Why opt for simplicity over intricacy? For many luxury fashion houses, sans serif fonts like Helvetica are a chance to mark a new chapter in history.
“Brands need to make a splash to be noticed, a seeming rejection of heritage in a rebrand can cut through the noise.” - Llewyn, Pentagram's senior designer.
It is also a way to cater to a younger-minded, more diverse market with Gen Z and streetwear being the central focus. The way to go is straightforward & recognizable design with bold, clean fonts Luxury brands might have just joined in the hype, but streetwear brands like Off-White or Supreme have long adopted clean typefaces for their identity.
So did these brands, for decades. Helvetica has become the common denominator of very different brands, each representing a distinct style and imaginary.
In an increasingly homogenous world, Helvetica has proven its efficiency as the king of typefaces, with improvements to renew itself over the years. Now we know the reasons why typography can have the power to conquer the world. Helvetica is an inevitable part of our lives.