Helvetica, 1953 or 1957?
Hi,
A little question about the exact date of creation of Neue Haas Grotesk/Helvetica:
Alan Marshall and Lewis Blackwell both wrote that Max Miedinger designed Helvetica between 1951 and 1953, but this year is the 50th anniversary of the typeface, and indeed every website I look at indicate that it was designed in 1957.
So, would anybody have the right answer, and a reliable proof of it?
Thanks
Alice
25.Aug.2007 7.48am
“Helvetica is the name of a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss graphic designer Max Miedinger.” from wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvetica
25.Aug.2007 8.24am
I don’t think any disputes the 1957 date as the commerical relaease of the typeface.
25.Aug.2007 10.08am
I think the process of designing Neue Haas Grotesk (Helvetica) started in 1953, some of the first drawings and proofs made at Haas have that year on them. But the commercial release of the typeface was definitely in June, 1957.
26.Aug.2007 4.59am
…and I believe that the first release of type under the “Helvetica” name was 1961 by Stempel/Linotype, correct?
27.Aug.2007 9.01am
Somewhat (un)related... U.S. News and World Report “best of” 1957
http://idolator.com/tunes/project-x/project-x-fires-up-the-delorean-2935...
27.Aug.2007 6.50pm
And somewhat more related, the U.S. News and World Report sidebar story in that issue about Helvetica:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070805/13helvetica.htm