Happy 50th Birthday Helvetica Font! - Democratic Underground

supernova

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Wed May-09-07 11:32 AM
Original message

Happy 50th Birthday Helvetica Font!

:D :party: :party:

My favorite font.

Helvetica at 50

By Finlo Rohrer
BBC News Magazine

The Helvetica font is celebrating its 50th birthday. You've probably seen it a thousand times today. Why?
At this moment in boardrooms across the globe, captains of industry are leafing through sheet after sheet of typefaces. There are hundreds of choices, but many of these movers and shakers don't take a lot of leafing before plumping for Helvetica.

We live in a world where we are surrounded 24 hours a day by adverts and corporate communications, many in typefaces chosen to subliminally complement the message.

Helvetica and its rivals

Helvetica's message is this: you are going to get to your destination on time; your plane will not crash; your money is safe in our vault; we will not break the package; the paperwork has been filled in; everything is going to be OK.

more... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6638423.stm

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kay1864

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Wed May-09-07 11:36 AM
Response to Original message

1. You are so cool

:loveya:

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supernova

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Wed May-09-07 01:23 PM
Response to Reply #1

7. LOL! Why thank you

:D :hi:

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Omphaloskepsis

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Wed May-09-07 11:40 AM
Response to Original message

2. Have you seen the movie?

http://www.helveticafilm.com/

I saw it at sxsw.. It was awesome... I am a typography nerd.

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supernova

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Wed May-09-07 11:59 AM
Response to Reply #2

3. Haha. No I haven't seen it

Edited on Wed May-09-07 12:04 PM by supernova

Thanks for showing me! :D

It's interesting what we imbue typefaces with.

edit: I see it was at Full Frame here in mid-April. Kinda sorry I missed it now. I hope it comes out on DVD soon.

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kwassa

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Wed May-09-07 12:07 PM
Response to Original message

4. Confoederatio Helvetica, better known here as "Switzerland"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland

Confoederatio Helvetica, the country's official Latin name, means Helvetic Confederation. The use of Latin avoids having to favour one of the four national languages. The abbreviation (CH) is used for the same reason. The titles commonly used in French (Confédération suisse), Italian (Confederazione Svizzera) and Romansh (Confederaziun svizra) translate as "Swiss Confederation", while the German name of Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft translates literally as "Swiss Oath Fellowship" or "Swiss Commonwealth of the Covenant." The term for a native of Switzerland is Swiss (German Schweizer, singular male Schweizer, female Schweizerin; French Suisses, male Suisse, female either Suisse or Suissesse; Italian Svizzeri, male Svizzero, female Svizzera).

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supernova

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Wed May-09-07 12:27 PM
Response to Reply #4

5. So,did they

use the Helvetica font upon formation of the Swiss Confederation?

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kwassa

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Wed May-09-07 01:12 PM
Response to Reply #5

6. nah, the confederation came first.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvetica

Helvetica was created by Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas’sche Schriftgießerei (Haas type foundry) of Münchenstein, Switzerland. Haas set out to design a new sans-serif typeface that could compete with Akzidenz Grotesk in the Swiss market. Originally called Neue Haas Grotesk, the typeface's name was changed by Haas' German parent company Stempel in 1960 to Helvetica — derived from Helvetia, the Latin name for Switzerland — in order to make it more marketable internationally.

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grace0418

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Wed May-09-07 01:29 PM
Response to Original message

8. Graphic designer dorky prank...

A friend of mine used to work in an especially stuffy and attitudinous design firm and would always get really annoyed by everyone acting all super cool all the time. So she convinced everyone in her office that the correct pronunciation of Helvetica was hell-va-TEEK-ah so they would embarrass themselves. Stupid, I know, but I thought it was funny.

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supernova

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Wed May-09-07 01:38 PM
Response to Reply #8

9. LOL!

I can honestly see the cuberats doing that too. :-)

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