1/30/2024 0 Comments Neue haas grotesk Text Pro typekitBut maybe I’m just too used to that curly leg. (And gimmicky is meant as a bad word, when we talk Helvetica.) Not so “gimmicky” as in the normal Helvetica’s. All those straight lines and 90 degree angles. The same goes for Neue Helvetica, but, to a lesser extent, to Helvetica. Nice to see some (minimal off course) quirkiness like the height differences between ‘e’ and ‘s’.īut (and that’s actually in the same line of thougt) I have to say, that I think the ‘t’ seems a bit to mechanical and rigid. They probably went with “Die Neue Haas …” because “Die Sogar Neuer Helvetica” sounded a bit sensational! And then again we have the problem with the long names.īut regarding the font itself: I like it. His most recent typefaces are Equity and Concourse. He is the creator of Butterick’s Practical Typography. Matthew Butterick is a typographer, writer, and lawyer in Los Angeles. The old king is dead long live the new king. But no, it is the rightful heir to the Helvetica throne. “Neue Haas Grotesk” makes it sound like a second cousin of Akzidenz Grotesk that’s just stumbled in from the hinterlands. So if I have to look at Helvetica another 50 years, I’d rather look at the best version of it.Īnd that brings me to my sole criticism of the face – its ungainly name, which I’m regrettably certain will limit its visibility and hence its uptake. (As someone who’s worked with cold-metal Helvetica, I can vouch for the fact that it’s never looked better.) Second, love it or hate it, Helvetica will be part of our visual culture for the foreseeable future. Christian has restored the layers of subtlety and balance that have gone missing. First, we’ve been looking at digital Helvetica for so long that we’ve forgotten it embodies decades of compromises. To those who would scoff and say, “Why do we need more Helvetica?” Grant me two points. Why? It successfully bridges all the tensions that great typefaces are made of: conceptual yet concrete, rigorous yet loose, respectful yet daring, fashionable yet practical. It is a flat-out wonderful work of type design. That’s how I feel about Neue Haas Grotesk. Christian Schwartz has gone deep into a typeface we all think we know – fucking Helvetica! – and come back with something beautiful and fresh. Art critic Jerry Saltz said of a recent exhibition that the artist had “done what an artist ought to: open the floor beneath my feet, and take me places I didn’t know were there.”
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