Helvetica Forever E Cover
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Lars Müller and Victor Malsy (eds.)

Helvetica forever

Story of a Typeface

Designed in 1957, the Helvetica font is an icon of swiss graphic design, which was a model of sober, functional communication throughout the world in the 1950s and 60s. The balanced and neutral appearance of Helvetica forgoes a high degree of expressivity – a quality for which it is both criticized and admired. This polarization has helped to gain it unparalleled notoriety. This publication retraces Helvetica’s fifty-year history, compares it to the well-known sans serif fonts of the twentieth century, and examines the phenomenon of its unparalleled spread. The documentation is based on the achievements and archive of Alfred Hoffmann, the former director of the Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei (type foundry), where, in conjunction with Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann, Helvetica was developed. Numerous illustrations show a multitude of ways the font has been used in five decades from a wide variety of fields – from signal design to party flyers.

Designed in 1957, the Helvetica font is an icon of swiss graphic design, which was a model of sober, functional communication throughout the world in the 1950s and 60s. The balanced and neutral appearance of Helvetica forgoes a high degree of expressivity – a quality for which it is both criticized and admired. This polarization has helped to gain it unparalleled notoriety. This publication retraces Helvetica’s fifty-year history, compares it to the well-known sans serif fonts of the twentieth century, and examines the phenomenon of its unparalleled spread. The documentation is based on the achievements and archive of Alfred Hoffmann, the former director of the Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei (type foundry), where, in conjunction with Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann, Helvetica was developed. Numerous illustrations show a multitude of ways the font has been used in five decades from a wide variety of fields – from signal design to party flyers.

This book is also available in German

Edited by Lars Müller and Victor Malsy

With contributions by Axel Langer and Indra Kupferschmid

Design: Victor Malsy and Lars Müller with Integral Lars Müller

19 x 26 cm / 17,5 x 24 cm, 7 ½ x 10 ¼ in

160 pages, 150 illustrations

hardback

2009, 978-3-03778-121-0, English
Swiss Design Design History
CHF 35.00
Out of print

Victor Malsy

Victor Malsy, born 1957 in Froschhausen (Germany). After training as a technical draftsman and nurse, he studied graphic design at the University of the Arts in Bremen. Since 1991, directs his studio, the Büro für Kommunikation und Gestaltung. Professor of communication design from 2000 to 2024 in the design department of the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf, with a focus on typography and book design and the history of graphic design.

Lars Müller

Lars Müller Bücherstapel Hoch

Lars Müller was born in Oslo in 1955 and has been based in Switzerland since 1963. After becoming a graphic designer in Zurich and extended travels, he started a one-year assistant position with designer Wim Crouwel in Amsterdam. Having founded his own studio, Integral Lars Müller, in Baden (Switzerland) in 1982, Müller established a long-lasting friendship with his mentor Josef Müller-Brockmann. In 1983, Müller published his first book and, as Lars Müller Publishers, has produced some 800 titles to date.

Lars Müller is a passionate educator and has taught at various universities in Switzerland, Europe, the USA and Japan. Müller frequently serves on academic and competition juries. From 2009 to 2015 he was a member of the jury of Design Preis Schweiz and from 2013 to 2015 the international president of AGI Alliance Graphique Internationale.