Fonts, such as Calibri and Times New Roman, are used daily and are easily identified by the majority of people. Although these fonts play an integral part in design, the artists behind the fonts are seldom recognized for their accomplishments. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the typographer, Max Miedinger. Miedinger is best known for producing the typeface, Helvetica, but his name is not nearly as recognized as Helvetica.
Max Miedinger was born in Zurich, Germany in 1910. When Max was just sixteen years old, he began apprenticing under Swiss printer, Jacques Bollman. In addition to his apprenticeship, Miedinger attended night classes at the School of Arts and Crafts in Zurich. This training enabled him to create his first typeface, Pro Arte, in 1954. Two years later, Miedinger decided to become a freelance graphic artist. Edouard Hoffman urged Miedinger to create a typeface that expressed the nature of his company, Haas Type Foundry. It was through this assignment that he formed the world-famous font, now known as Helvetica. Max created numerous other fonts throughout his career, such as Horizontal Miedinger, but none compared to Helvetica. He decided to develop Helvetica further by slightly altering the design. Out of this process, Helvetica Monospace and Helvetica Inserat were born.
Unfortunately, Max did not gain much attention for his work. Although his font was used all over the world, his name was not typically associated with Helvetica. Even so, he should be extremely proud of himself for creating a typeface loved by millions.
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