Helvetica

Developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann, Helvetica is a widely used sans-serif typeface. Originally called Neue Haas Grotesk, it was designed to be a neutral typeface which could be widely used, had great clarity and no intrinsic meaning. The name of the typeface was changed to Helvetica in 1960 by Haas' German parent company Stempel. Its original name would have been Helvetia, the original Latin name for Switzerland. It was decided that it would not be appropriate to name a type face after a country. The final name, Helvetica means Swiss, instead of Switzerland. There have been a few modifications to the Helvetica typeface since it was created. These included Helvetica Lite, Helvetica Compressed, a narrower and tighter version of Helvetica, Helvetica Textbook, Helvetica Inserat, a squarer version of the text, Helvetica Rounded, with rounded stroke terminators, Helvetica Narrow, with more optically consistent width, Neue Helvetica, with more structurally unified height and width, Neue Helvetica W1G, and Helvetica World. Helvetica is widely used today. It is set as the default typeface on many computers. It appears on billboards, posters, magazines, signs and just about any other text. It has become so common that it can just blend in without being noticed for its style. Because the letters are so neutral, they can appear anywhere and be able to fit in. Every letter bears the same weight as the next. There is no style of the letters so it is the word itself that bears a meaning, not the style of the letters. 

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