Ooooooh…it's so wide…
In 1957, Max Miedinger designed Neue Haas Grotesk, later renamed to Helvetica. A lot of versions and take-offs have come and gone. But Canada Type has dug up a little-known original of Max’s and recreated it—apparently drawing from old phototype. This comes from the blurb on YouWorkForThem:
Miedinger designed two more typefaces that seem to have been lost to the dust of film type history. One is called Pro Arte (1954), a very condensed Playbill-like slab serif that is similar to many of its genre. The other, made in 1964, is much more interesting. Its original name was Horizontal. Here it is, lest it becomes a Haas-been, presented to you in digital form by Canada Type under the name of its original designer, Miedinger, the Helvetica King.
The original film face was a simple set of bold, panoramically wide caps and figures that give off a first impression of being an ultra wide Gothic incarnation of Microgramma. Upon a second look, they are clearly more than that. This face is a quirky, very non-Akzidental take on the vernacular, mostly an exercise in geometric modularity, but also includes some unconventional solutions to typical problems (like thinning the midline strokes across the board to minimize clogging in three-story forms).
This digital version introduces a new lighter weight alongside the bold original.
And it’s cheap: only $19.95 for both weights at MyFonts. Nice.
Explore posts in the same categories: Old Skool, Type
