Helvetica turns 50

Max Miedinger.

Eduard Hoffmann.

Rock stars they are not. Nevertheless, in 1957 these Swiss typeface designers created a sans-serif that shaped our world. In high school, I used press-on type sheets labeled "Helvetica" (and thought, WTF does that mean?) for random projects. In my Advanced Typography college courses, we were given multiple heirarchy-building projects that used every weight and nuance of Helvetica imaginable. Helvetica got me my first design job.

And now there's a movie about it!

Even so, it's not my favorite typeface. Most electronic versions of it, especially on PCs, have awful kerning and spacing issues, like the programmer just didn't feel the love. I am still all about giving the props to the designers! However we butcher Helvetica 50 years later is not their fault.