One Font To Rule Them All

When the definitive history of the twentieth century is written, I suspect that it will be typeset in Helvetica—the definitive font of the last century. Helvetica solidly occupies typeface neutral territory, kind of a Switzerland of typography. (That seems appropriate since the Latin name for Switzerland is Helvetica.)

Like a strand of pearls that look right with almost any outfit, Helvetica is a chameleon in the type world. Helvetica can be dressed up or go casual. Fancy or plain, bold or thin, roman or italic, there is pretty much a Helvetica for every need. It is a workhorse typeface that never seems to be working all that hard.

Mike Parker, the Godfather of Hevetica passed away not long ago. Parker didn’t originally draw Helvetica (that was Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann in 1956), but he was one of the people responsible for the typeface’s popularity. He was instrumental in guiding typography as it progressed from hot metal to photo composition and finally to the digital world.

Thank you Mike.