Helvetica - Why is it SO Popular?

The other day I was thinking about what font to use for a some Photoshop work I was doing, and whilst searching through the many different fonts I had, the one that jumped out at me was Helvetica I don’t quite know what it was about the font that stood out so much to me, was it the simplicity, the beauty or something else, this got me thinking and so I did some research…

First let’s look at some of Helvetica’s history,

Who Developed It?

Helvetica was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann in Münchenstein, Switzerland.

The font was originally called Neue Haas Grotesk based on a typeface called Schelter-Grotesk, the main aim of Helvetica as a typeface was to create something that was quite neutral and could be used on a wide variety of signage.

The Name was changed to Helvetica in 1960 which was derived from Confoederatio Helvetica which is the Latin name for Switzerland, this was an idea to make it more marketable internationally.

Where Is It Being Used?

To put it simply… Everywhere!

It is a widely used typeface which has been designed for the following alphabets/scripts Latin, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Urdu, Khmer and Vietnamese.

It is being used in big companies such as AT&T, Microsoft, Panasonic and NASA also use the typeface on the side of their space shuttles!

When you’re walking down the street next, stop and look around to see how many places are using Helvetica as a typeface for their company, or simply try and spot some Helvetica near you, I bet it won’t be long until you can see some!

So Why Is It So Popular?

There are many reasons why Helvetica could be classed as popular, because it is simple yet it still manages to keep the beauty and keeps design looking good, and it never seems to get old, after 51 years it is still as loved as ever.