Helvetica

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Helvetica (or Neue Haas Grotesk) is a sans-serif font created in 1957 by Swiss designer Max Miedinger, with help from Eduard Hoffmann. The font was renamed in 1960 from Neue Haas Grotesk to Helvetica; the font was named after Helvetia, the Latin name for Switzerland.
The pair wanted to create a clean looking, neutral font which was completely different to many of the 19th Century fonts. Helvetica was what the world of typefaces needed at the time a fresh face that could convey a message in a clear and neutral manner. With an uncommonly high x-height, very densely packed letters and neo-grotesque style Helvetica became a hallmark of International Typographic Style that came from Switzerland.  However, since then the font of Helvetica has been so widely used to the point where it has become overused and generic. It has been used by many big companies as their logo font, companies such as Lufthansa, American Apparel, American Airlines and NestlĂ©. Even the New York Subway system adopted the font meaning Helvetica was not only on shopfronts but also pasted all over the street signs.

There was also a feature length film called Helvetica; about graphic design, typography and global visual culture. Created by Gary Hustwit in 2007 to coincide with 50 years of the iconic font.


https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Helvetica_Neue_typeface_weights.svg

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