Helvetica turns 50

From Slate's slideshow "The Helvetica Hegemony": "letterforms were smooth and well-proportioned, with a pleasing roundness that feels friendly yet sleek and efficient, like an amiable, perfectly groomed flight attendant in business class."

Lovely.


"Ultimately, Helvetica is a cipher—and this is the key to its success. It can be authoritative or ironic, sober or idealistic, corporate or cozy. It's the tofu of typefaces: bland in itself but ready to absorb whatever flavors you add to it. It's clean, legible, and well-designed, but its real power lies in its uncanny mutability."

If you're into typography, the Art Institute's Typing for Tomorrow: Modernism and Typography is open through July 31. I can't wait to see it.