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Grotesque, not Grotesk.
words by Philippus Johannes Schutte
In an attempt to reduce the possibility of sounding like every other designer who has everwritten about this typeface, I won’t mention its name. Not even once.Maybe I’ll let it slip. Near the end or in the middle, we’ll see…You probably know what it is already.
The Facts and Opinion 
It’s Swiss; it is clean, it is effective, it is deliberately neutral, minimalistic and it is modern. TheTypeface of the ages, the ageless Typeface. A sans serif that wasn’t created to replace allothers but nonetheless continued to do (almost) just that, and revolutionized the design worldnot once but twice since it’s creation some odd 50 years ago.The typeface was designed in 1956-1957 by Edouard Hoffman and Max Miedinger for theHaas type foundry in Switzerland. Closely based on Schelter-Grotesk and naming it NeueHaas Grotesk, it was later renamed after the latin name for Swiss with new production of thetype in 1961 by the D. Stempel A.G. Typefoundry in Germany. This ‘second batch’ wasparticularly set on invading the design world, with promotional text reading: “…offers anexcitingly different tool to the American graphic designer and typographer,” as found in anearly specimen sheet from Stempel. “Here is not simply another sans serif type but acarefully and judiciously considered refinement of the [sans serif] letter form.”This typeface is arguably more important to design and advertising than most. It conveys themessage clearly, recreating an environment where complication seems simple. The thingthat’s telling you what is complicated really isn’t. It triggers intense feelings of neutralityamong consumers (i.e nobody gives a fuck, they’re just words) and intense feelings of loveand hatred among designers. This font was the answer to unsatisfactory opticalimperfections found in earlier sans serifs or grotesques, as well as all the kitschy, fancy,decorative typography that covered corporate materials and advertisements.A large part of the attraction is that it’s readable, versatile and modest. Well, that and thebrilliant marketing scheme behind it. The typeface has been so hyped about that manyyoung designers only praise it because they think they’re supposed to; Gary Hustwit’s
 
filmmade sure of that. In part this works very well in terms of the current modern-antique trendstill floating around, and yet it seamlessly weaves itself into the probable futurist-aestheticcurrently resurfacing in the design world. The medium is the message, and this is a clearone; it’s a good typeface. Proof of this is the wide usage of the font in
 
Exit signs in publicplaces such as cinemas, theaters, galleries, and public transport systems.
The Transport Typeface 
If the message is clear, it can tell you anything; it can organize chaos.In New York city, the subway system is a labyrinth. This is because it is an amalgamation of
 
three separate systems, two of which incorporated earlier urban railway lines. The currentNew York subway system was formed in 1940 when the IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit),the BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit) and the IND (Independent) lines were merged. TheIRT lines date to 1904; the BMT lines to 1908 (when it was the BRT, or Brooklyn RapidTransit); and the IND to 1932. Needless to say, signage for the MTA (MetropolitanTransportation Authority) was a mess of hand-lettered ArtDeco, serif and sans seriftypefaces. The earliest station signs were often in ornate terra cotta forms, colored in partbecause early subway designers wanted people to be able to identify their stops while theywere in a fast-moving train, but commuters often identified only the colours rather than thewords. Only in the 1960s did designers decide to take action and try their hand at graphicallyarranging the jumbled subway signage. Already familiar with the rising European trend inmodernist typography of the time, designers started to get hold of fonts such as Noorda,Univers and Standard (or Akzidenz - Grotesk, which was partly what this typeface was basedon). A change was underway.But for some reason Helvetica - yes, Helvetica, don’t act surprised - only came intoprominence much, much later. And so the subway design team chose Standard as itsuniversal typeface in 1966, not Helvetica.The differences between Standard and Helvetica, both sans-serif faces that lack little strokes(or “serifs”) that terminate the principal strokes of a letter, are subtle,most noticeable in theends of characters like the C, 2, 3 and 5. The J was a particular problem in Standard — itwasn’t “hooky” enough. The Helvetica J, on the other hand, had quite a firm curve, whichmade it the J of choice for updated subway maps and trains. Standard was still used, but the‘J’ was replaced by Helvetica, signaling the first of many typeface ‘mutants’ in the subway.The swap from Standard to Helvetica only came about much later than most sources state:The switchover was codified in 1980 via a revised edition of the 1970
Graphics Standards Manual 
.
 
The swap was from Standard Medium to Helvetica Medium - or more accurately toNeue Helvetica 65. Although implemented in 1980, only in December 1989 when the MTAMarketing & Corporate Communications Division (thedepartment in charge of its graphic standards) issued a new manual did Helvetica finallybecome the official typeface for the New York City subway signage - keeping true to thesluggish response time for change in the subway design.It can tell you which trains go where, which trains go when, and of course, how to get there.The choice for both the New York Subway and the Madrid Railway, it has become a symbolof modern direction and clarity in a time where postmodernism reigned prominent, at thetime.
The Battle of HelvArial 
Computers became widespread in the early 1990s. Microsoft created the GUI system andopened up an entirely new universe to designers and consumers alike. As with all newadvances in graphic medium, the search for a core font began.First things first: Arial was not designed for Microsoft. Yes, Microsoft is its main successstory, but Arial was designed for Monotype in 1982 by Robin Nicholas and Patricia
 
Saunders, and was originally
Sonoran San Serif.
It was made to be used by IBM’s bitmapfont laser printers. It was first supplied with Windows 3.1 (1992) and was one of the corefonts in all subsequent versions of Windows until Vista.Helvetica users love to bash Arial. The most popular criticism is that Arial is a clone or rip-offof Helvetica. But to satisfy this claim, one would need to ignore that Helvetica itself is aderivative of
Akzidenz Grotesk 
; or that both of them are evolutions of earlier Grotesques. I’vealways felt this is more an argument of Mac vs PC rather than Helvetica vs Arial, seeing asboth are associated with their respected operating systems:Macs are sleek, simplistic and have a natural modernist design feel.
Helvetica.
PCs are functional and versatile, not really associating itself with hardware.
Arial.
The prominent difference between the two are the strokes: Helvetica has a flat end, eitherhorizontal or vertical. Arial has mostly diagonal ends. The most obvious glyph differences arerecognized in the “a”, “G”, “Q”, “R”, and “1”.
a
G Q R 1
HELVETICA
a
G Q R 1
ARIAL
The differences are slight but very distinguishable. Helvetica has had a slow rise to fame inthe digital world, but this is hardly surprising; it was created long before personal computerswere even a reality. Quizzically, it was never endorsed by Microsoft, and recently complaintshave arisen that Helvetica Neue appears fuzzy in many internet browsers, which isproblematic considering the current trend of using it as the primary font for website styling.
I
f you want to criticize Arial (it certainly has its faults) then do so.Not because everyone else does, do so with your own critical eye.A little difference goes a long way.
The Final Word 
Helvetica certainly has reason for its hype. In a technologically confusing era, we turn tosimplicity in style and reading to direct our daily lives.Rest assured that the bold font on the exit sign opposite you as you leave the office buildingor public transport for home - the sign that calms you with cool certainty and confidence - willbe set in Helvetica.
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