Career
profile – Max Miedinger
1. Desiderata
Edouard
Hoffman commissioned Max Miedinger to create a font to increase their sales and
he created the font Neue Haas Grotesk, which was later renamed Helvetica. The
font was created to increase sales of the sans serif typefaces. He carefully
designed these fonts by hands and was exchanged with Hoffman on a regular basis
until they were happy. Max Miedinger was successful and did not just increase
their sales of the sans serif typefaces of the company but had a major
influence in design. And it most used
typeface in the world.
2. Vision and Agenda
The
vison was set by the company, to achieve more sales as it decreased with their
sans serif fonts. It was to create a clean, yet simple font that can increase
their sales but also be a font that could change design, which it did. Max
Miedinger made this happen by creating Helvetica.
3. Stance
Max
Miedinger is highly respected for his typeface that he created. He is seen as
one of the most influential typography designers of all times. His type face
design is not just flawless, timeless and simple but also the most used
typeface throughout the world. it was used by the most famous designers and
gave it, its emblem.
4. Purpose, philosophy and principles
His
initial purpose was to create a font to increase the sales of the company as
they were having a decrease on sales, that could have led to a loss in the
business. But Max Miedinger assisted by creating the font Neue Haas Grotesk and
was later renamed Helvetica. It was inspired by the desire to refine and
upgrade fonts, and had a larger x-height than the universe series of fonts. He
himself was a huge influence on the history of Graphic Design and is a role
model to most typographic designers. He knew what he wanted to create
5. Influences, precedents and role models
The
main reason why Helvetica exist today was because of Edouard Hoffman. He
commissioned Max Miedinger to create the font and it was later licenced by
other big companies and famous typographers and graphic designers. The Swiss
designers always created sans serif font as it was clean and legible. The
influence of Helvetica started way back, in 1886. William Caslon IV, and released
‘TWO LINE ENGLISH EGYPTION’ and it contained just capital letters. Vincent
Figgens released the first sans serif typeface and was called: ‘Two-line Great
Primer Sans-serif’ in 1832. Also consisting of capital letters. William
Thorowgod designed the first lowercase sans serif type face. At the end of the
19th century, sans serif fonts was quite popular and was used either
in a bold, italic or regular style. It was influenced by the Akzidenz-Grotesk
typeface in the 19th century.
6. Biography: life story: partnerships,
relationships
Max
Miedinger was born on the 24th December 1910, in Zurich Switzerland
and died the 8th March, in Zurich Switzerland. He was most famous
for creating the typeface Helvetica. Which was originally known as Neue Haas
Grotesk. In 1926 to 1930, he trained as an apprentice typesetter in the book
printing office. In 1930, he then went to the school of arts, named Abendkurse
in Zurich. Six years later, at the age of 36, he became a typographer in the
advertising studio of the Globus department store chain. In 1946 he became a
representative for the Haas’che Schrifilgieberei in Basel, Switzerland. In 1956
he became a freelance graphic designer in Zurinch. Helvetica was created in
1957 and was commissioned by Edouard Hoffman, director of the Haas type.
7. Stylistic innovations: concepts, methods,
procedures, designs, artefacts and products.
All
the fonts that Max Miedinger designed was Helvetica, Pro Arte, Horisental,
Swiss 921, Swiss 721, Monospace 821 and Miedinger. Helvetica was created to
“upgrade” fonts. In 1957, Neue Haas Grotesk was successfully favoured by many
graphic designers. The name was said that it isn’t ideal for an international
linotype market and a sales manager suggested the name – Helvetia. But they
weren’t convinced. They then came up with a name called Helvetica, meaning,
“the Swiss”.Helvetica was also one of the first fonts to be digital as it was
one of the most used and popular fonts but all designer fonts were limited due
to the analog systems. So the typeface appeared differently and lacked certain
features, like its smoothness and the way the curves were shown. In 2004,
Christian Schwartz was commissioned to digitise Helvetica, and it was completed
in 2010. This was known as project restoration. Christian Schwartz divided it
into two groups, one group having the thicker and heavier typefaces for heading
and the thin and light ones for body text. To put type together wasn’t that
easy before the digital era. Fonts were put together on cast iron. and with a
strip of leading to give the right spacing between sentences. They had to make
the letters in different sizes and do them manually. Helvetica only became successful
digitally in 2010.
8. Archetypes and archetypal life themes
depicted.
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Figure 2.) Example of Helvetica
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9. Character and convictions
Edouard
Hoffman definitely contributed to Max’s conviction to typography. He created a
conviction of simplicity and a font that can be easy to recognise yet having
value. It was originally bold and was much easier to read. Max and Edouard can
say they created a conviction of creating the most beautiful font. Edouard and
Max exchanged drawings of the typeface and worked on it to achieve the
‘hamburger’ which isn’t a real hamburger but rather the word. The word
hamburger has
10. Leadership styles and competencies
Little
is said about the world renown typographer, Max Miedinger but he definitely
lead the typography world and still is. His font that was produce was extremely
successful that is was rapidly bought from other companies. It was used in
advertising, logos, and corporate identities and change the face of design. It
is largey used today not just on posters but along the American subways, on
busses, logos and it also isn’t free. Max Miedinger and Edouard Hoffman saved
the company from losing sales on the sans serif typefaces and also made the
worlds most used font.
