A creative digital officer at McGarry Bowen has stated that the Helvetica font is recognizable by anyone who has used Facebook and other social media platforms and therefore looks welcoming to all and sundry. There are lots of theories which try to explain why Helvetica is the typeface of choice for many huge brands and designers. Big corporations, independent firms from all over the world have made this font a part of our daily lives as well as culture. Its bold, clean, and modern look makes it a favorite among designers and this has made this acclaimed VIP of fonts enjoy worldwide acceptance and presence. The creation of the Helvetica font was influenced by the Akzidenz-Grotesk typeface, created in 1898 by Berthold. In 2007, a feature-length film which was directed by Gary Hustwit was released in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Helvetica typeface. Therefore, the name “Helvetica, ” i.e., Latin for Swiss became the acceptable name for the sans serif typeface. At first, it was put forward that the typeface should be named Helvetia, i.e., Latin for Switzerland, but creative professionals were not in support of this designation as they deemed it improper to name the font after a country.
The reason behind this change was to market the font on an international scale. The name Die Haas Grotesk was converted to Helvetica by the marketing director at Stempel in 1960. The idea behind the neutrality of the Helvetica font was that they are not meant to give any meaning. Helvetica was based meticulously on Schelter-Grotesk and created as a neutral typeface with no specific meaning in itself. Haas’sche Schriftgiessrei was controlled by Stempel, a type foundry that was also in the control of Linotype. It was created at the Hass type foundry (known as Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei) of Münchenstein, Switzerland. Formerly known as Die Neue Haas Grotesk, Helvetica is a sans-serif typeface which was developed by Max Miedinger, a Swiss typeface designer with contribution from Eduard Hoffman in 1957. One of the most ubiquitous fonts that famous brands use is the Helvetica font. Soon enough, the font gets associated with the brand in no time. While many would expect such big brands to set about creating their customized typography given the resources that are at their disposal (some brands like Yahoo! and Heineken have opted for this), a majority of these brands prefer using an existing font and modify it to suit their taste and vision.
This is why big brands are careful and extremely particular about the fonts they choose. The fonts you choose for both your content and logo portray who you are as a brand.