Grotesque, not Grotesk.

words by Philippus Johannes Schutte

In an attempt to reduce the possibility of sounding like every other designer who has ever
written 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. The
Typeface of the ages, the ageless Typeface. A sans serif that wasn’t created to replace all
others but nonetheless continued to do (almost) just that, and revolutionized the design world
not 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 the
Haas type foundry in Switzerland. Closely based on Schelter-Grotesk and naming it Neue
Haas Grotesk, it was later renamed after the latin name for Swiss with new production of the
type in 1961 by the D. Stempel A.G. Typefoundry in Germany. This ‘second batch’ was
particularly set on invading the design world, with promotional text reading: “…offers an
excitingly different tool to the American graphic designer and typographer,” as found in an
early specimen sheet from Stempel. “Here is not simply another sans serif type but a
carefully and judiciously considered refinement of the [sans serif] letter form.”

This typeface is arguably more important to design and advertising than most. It conveys the
message clearly, recreating an environment where complication seems simple. The thing
that’s telling you what is complicated really isn’t. It triggers intense feelings of neutrality
among consumers (i.e nobody gives a fuck, they’re just words) and intense feelings of love
and hatred among designers. This font was the answer to unsatisfactory optical
imperfections 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 the
brilliant marketing scheme behind it. The typeface has been so hyped about that many
young designers only praise it because they think they’re supposed to; Gary Hustwit’s film
made sure of that. In part this works very well in terms of the current modern-antique trend
still floating around, and yet it seamlessly weaves itself into the probable futurist-aesthetic
currently resurfacing in the design world. The medium is the message, and this is a clear
one; it’s a good typeface. Proof of this is the wide usage of the font in Exit signs in public
places 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 current
New 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. The
IRT lines date to 1904; the BMT lines to 1908 (when it was the BRT, or Brooklyn Rapid
Transit); and the IND to 1932. Needless to say, signage for the MTA (Metropolitan
Transportation Authority) was a mess of hand-lettered ArtDeco, serif and sans serif
typefaces. The earliest station signs were often in ornate terra cotta forms, colored in part
because early subway designers wanted people to be able to identify their stops while they
were in a fast-moving train, but commuters often identified only the colours rather than the
words. Only in the 1960s did designers decide to take action and try their hand at graphically
arranging the jumbled subway signage. Already familiar with the rising European trend in
modernist 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 based
on). A change was underway.

But for some reason Helvetica - yes, Helvetica, don’t act surprised - only came into
prominence much, much later. And so the subway design team chose Standard as its
universal 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 the
ends of characters like the C, 2, 3 and 5. The J was a particular problem in Standard — it
wasn’t “hooky” enough. The Helvetica J, on the other hand, had quite a firm curve, which
made 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 to
Neue Helvetica 65. Although implemented in 1980, only in December 1989 when the MTA
Marketing & Corporate Communications Division (the
department in charge of its graphic standards) issued a new manual did Helvetica finally
become the official typeface for the New York City subway signage - keeping true to the
sluggish 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 symbol
of modern direction and clarity in a time where postmodernism reigned prominent, at the
time.

The Battle of HelvArial

Computers became widespread in the early 1990s. Microsoft created the GUI system and
opened up an entirely new universe to designers and consumers alike. As with all new
advances in graphic medium, the search for a core font began.

First things first: Arial was not designed for Microsoft. Yes, Microsoft is its main success
story, 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 bitmap
font laser printers. It was first supplied with Windows 3.1 (1992) and was one of the core
fonts 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-off
of Helvetica. But to satisfy this claim, one would need to ignore that Helvetica itself is a
derivative of Akzidenz Grotesk; or that both of them are evolutions of earlier Grotesques. I’ve
always felt this is more an argument of Mac vs PC rather than Helvetica vs Arial, seeing as
both 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, either
horizontal or vertical. Arial has mostly diagonal ends. The most obvious glyph differences are
recognized in the “a”, “G”, “Q”, “R”, and “1”.

aGQR1 HELVETICA

aGQR1 ARIAL

The differences are slight but very distinguishable. Helvetica has had a slow rise to fame in
the digital world, but this is hardly surprising; it was created long before personal computers
were even a reality. Quizzically, it was never endorsed by Microsoft, and recently complaints
have arisen that Helvetica Neue appears fuzzy in many internet browsers, which is
problematic considering the current trend of using it as the primary font for website styling.

If 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 to
simplicity 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 building
or public transport for home - the sign that calms you with cool certainty and confidence - will
be set in Helvetica.
EXIT