I Can’t Sleep - Helvetica | Relaxing Bedtime Reading for Sleep

Episode Date: June 18, 2020

Unwind with this calm bedtime reading on Helvetica, a peaceful way to ease insomnia and drift into rest. Benjamin’s soothing voice explores the history and design of this iconic typeface, from its origins in Switzerland to its influence on modern typography and branding worldwide. His gentle cadence transforms design history into soft, fact-filled narration that relaxes the mind. This is not whispering or hypnosis—just calm storytelling and education designed to reduce stress, ease anxiety, and help with sleepless nights. Press play, close your eyes, and let the story of Helvetica carry you into dreams. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Helvetica, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Helvetica. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch.

I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause. With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, and become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast, where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled Helvetica.

Helvetica, or Nua Has Grotesque, is a widely used sans-serif typeface, developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Minninger, with input from Edward Hoffman. Helvetica is a neo-grotesque design, one influenced by the famous 19th century typeface, Auxed. and Grotesque and other German and Swiss designs. Its use became a hallmark of the international typographic style that emerged from the work of Swiss designers in the 1950s and 60s, becoming one of the most popular typefaces of the 20th century. Over the years, a wide range of variants have been released in different weights, widths, and sizes, as well as matching designs for a range of non-Latin alphabets. Notable features of Helvetica as originally designed include a high X-hite, a termination of strokes on horizontal or vertical lines,

and an unusually tight spacing between letters, which combined to give it a dense, solid appearance. Developed by the Haas-type foundry of Munchenstein, Switzerland, its release was planned to match a trend, a resurgence of interest in turn-of-the-century grotesque sans-serve among European graphic designers that also saw the release of Universe by Adrian Frutiger the same year. Hoffman was the president of the Haas-type foundry, while Meininger was a freelance graphic designer who had formerly worked as a Haas salesman and designer. Mininger and Hoffman set out to create a neutral typeface it had great clarity, no intrinsic meaning in its form, and could be used on a wide variety of signage.

Originally named Noahas Grotesque, Newhouse Grotesque, it was rapidly licensed by Linotype and renamed Elvetica in 1960, which in Latin means Swiss, capitalizing on Switzerland's reputation as a center of ultra-modern graphic design. A feature-length film directed by Gary Hustwit was released in 2007 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the typeface's introduction in 1957. The main influence on Helvetica was Oxidens Grotesque from Bertold. Hoffman's scrapbook of proofs of the design shows careful comparison of test proofs with snippets of Oxidens grotesque. its R, with a curved tail, resembles shelter grotesque. Another turn-of-the-century sun seraph sold by Haas. Wolfgang Homola comments that in Helvetica,

the weight of the stems of the capitals and the lower case is better balanced than its influences. Attracting considerable attention on its release as Nua Has Grotesque, Stemple and Linneltipe adopted Nua Hasgrotesque. test for release in hot metal composition, a standard typesetting method at the time for body text, and on the international market. In 1960, its name was changed by Haas's German parent company, Stemple, to Helvetica in order to make it more marketable internationally. It comes from the Latin name for the pre-Roman tribes of what became Switzerland. Intending to match the success of universe, Arthur Ritzel of Stemple redesigned Nuhahas Grotesque into a larger family.

The design was popular. Paul Shaw suggests that Helvetica began to muscle out accidents grotesque in New York City from around summer 1965 when Amsterdam Continental, which imported European typefaces, stopped pushing Accidents Grotesque in its marketing and began to focus on Helvetica instead. It was also made available for phototype setting systems, as well as in other formats such as Letterset dry transfers and plastic letters, and many phototype setting imitations and knockoffs were rapidly created by competing phototype setting companies. In the late 1970s and 1980s, Linotype licensed Helvetica to Xerox, Adobe, and Apple, guaranteeing its importance in digital printing,

by making it one of the core fonts of the postscript page description language. This has led to a version being included on Macintosh computers and a metrically compatible clone, Ariel, on Windows computers. The rights of Helvetica are now held by monotype imaging, which acquired lunotype. The NUHA's Grotesque digitization, discussed below, was co-released with Font Bureau. characteristics tall x height which makes it easier to read a distance tight spacing between letters an oblique rather than italic style a common feature of almost all grotesque and neo grotesque typefaces wide capitals of uniform width particularly obvious in the wide e and f square looking s bracketed top flag of

1. Rounded off square tail of R. Concave curved stem of 7. Two-storied A with curves of bull and stem, a standard neogotesque feature and single-story G. Like many neo-grotesque designs, Helvetica has narrow apertures, which limits its legibility on screen and its small print sizes. It also has no visible difference between uppercase I and lowercase L, although the number one is quite identifiable with its flag at top left. Its type display-oriented spacing may also pose problems for legibility. Other fonts intended for legibility at small sizes such as Verdana, meta, Trebyshe, or a monospace font such as Courier,

which makes all letters quite wide may be more appropriate than Helvetica. Helvetica is among the most widely used sans-serif typef faces. Versions exist for Latin, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Urdu, Khmer, and Vietnamese alphabets. Chinese faces have been developed to complement Hevetica. Haverica is a common choice for commercial wordmarks, including those. for 3M, including Scotch tape. Adult Swim, American Apparel, BASF, Behance, Blaupunkt, BMW,

diaspora, ECM, Funimation, General Motors, JCPenny, Jeep, Kaiser, Permanente, Kawasaki, Null, Kroger, Lufthansa, Motorola, Nestle, Oath, Inc., Panasonic, Parmelod, Philippian Airlines, Sears, Seiko Epson, Skype, Target, Texaco, Tupperware, Viceland, and Verizon. Apple used Helvetica as the system typeface of iOS until 2015. Helvetica has been widely used by the U.S. government. For example, federal income tax forms are set in Helvetica, and NASA used the type on the space shuttle orbiter.

Helvetica is also used in the United States television rating system. The Canadian government also uses Helvetica at its identifying typeface. The Canadian government also uses Helvetica as its identifying typeface, with three variants being used in its corporate identity program and encourages its use in all federal agencies and websites. In the European Union, Helvetica is legally required to be used for health warnings on tobacco products, such as cigarettes. Helvetica is commonly used in transportation settings. New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, MTA, adopted Helvetica for use in signage in 1919.

From 1970 to 1989, the standard font was standard medium, an American release of Occadens Grotesque, as defined by Unimark's New York City Transit Authority Graphic Standards Manual. The MTA system is still rife with the proliferation of Helvetica-like fonts, including aerial, in addition to some old signs in medium standard, and a few anonymous signs in Helvetica narrow. Helvetica is also used in the Washington Metro, the Chicago L, Philadelphia's SEPTA, and the Madrid Metro. Amtrak used the typeface on the Pointless Arrow logo, and it was adopted by Danish Railway Company DSB for a time period. In addition, the former state-owned operator of the British Railway system developed its own Helvetica-based rail alphabet font, which was also adopted by the National Health Service and the British Airports Authority. The Helvetica 77 variation is used in street and house signage in Riga and other municipalities in Latvia, although common road signage in the country uses a version of D-I-N-1451.

The typeface was displaced from some users in the 1990s to the increased availability of other fonts on digital desktop publishing systems. and criticism from type designers, including Eric Speakerman and Martin Majure, both of whom have criticized the design for its omnipresence and overuse. Majure has described Helvetica as rather cheap for its failure to move on from the model of Occidence grotesque. Road signs in Japan and South Korea formerly used Havetica. IBM used Helvetica Nua as its corporate typeface until 2017, spending over $1 million annually on licensing fees. It switched in 2017 to the custom IBM Plex family,

concluding that a custom open-source typeface would be more distinctive and practical, as it could be freely distributed and installed without rights issues. Media coverage An early essay on Helvetica's public image as a font used by business and government was written in 1976 by Leslie Slavin, a writer on air. advertising at the Village Voice. It was later published in her book The Sponsored Life. In 2007, Linotype GMBH held the Helvetica Now poster contest to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the typeface. Winners were announced in the January 2008 issue of the Linne Letter. In 2007,

director Gary Hutzwitt released a documentary film, Helvetica, Plexi Film DVD, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the typeface. In the film, graphic designer Wim Cowell said Helvetica was a real step from the 19th century typeface. We were impressed by that because it was more neutral and neutralism was a word that we loved, it should be neutral. It shouldn't have a meaning in itself. The meaning is in the content of the text and not in the typeface.

The documentary also presented other designers who associated Helverica with authority. and corporate dominance, and whose rebellion from Helvetica's ubiquity created new styles. From April 2007 to March 2008, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City displayed an exhibit called 50 years of Helvetica. In 2011, the Disney Hub Barcelona displayed an exhibit called Helvetica, and new typeface? The exhibition included a timeline of Helvetica over the last 50 years, its antecedents and its subsequent influence included in the local area. In 2011, one of Google's April Fool's Day jokes centered on the use of Helvetica. If a user attempted to search for the term Helvetica using the search engine,

the results would be displayed in the font, Comic Sans. Variants A large number of variants of Helvetica were rapidly released to expand on its popularity, including new weights and languages. Linotype confessed by the time of a 1976 advertorial that things had become somewhat confused. The series was not planned as a whole from its conception. The series is not as uniform as universe. Helvetica Light

Helvetica Light was designed by Stemple's artistic director Eric Schutz-Anker, in conjunction with Arthur Ritzel. Helvetica Inserat Helvetica Inserat, German for advertisement, is a version designed primarily for use in the advertising industry. This is a narrow variant that is tighter than Helvetica black condensed. It gives the glyphs an even larger X height and a more squared appearance, similar to Schmelford grotesque. Adobe's release notes dated to 1966 and state that it originated with Chimple. Elvetica Compressed, 1966.

Designed by Matthew Carter and Hans Juerg Hunziger for Cold Type. It shares some design elements with Helvetica Inserat, but uses a curved tail in Q, downward pointing branch in R and tilda bottom pound. Carter has said that in practice it was designed to be similar to Schmalfit grotesque. and to compete in this role with British designs Impact and Compacta, as this style was popular at the time. Carter, who also later designed Helvetica Greek, had designed a modernized version of Accidents Grotesque

for signage at Heathrow in 1961, and commented later, if we'd known about Helvetica, I'm sure we would have used it, since it's a much better typeface than the one I drew. But the typesetting trade was very, conservative then, and new type designs traveled slowly. The family consists of Helvetica Compressed, Helvetica Extra Compressed, and Helvetica Ultra

Compressed Ponds. It has been digitized, for instance, in the Adobe Helvetica release. Helvetica Rounded, 1978. Helvetica Rounded is a version containing rounded stroke terminators, released for bold weights. Lytokype's release notes stated to 1978. Helvetica narrow. Helvetica narrow is a version where its width is between Helvetica compressed and Helvetica condensed. The font was developed when printer ROM space was very scarce,

so it was created by mathematically squashing Helvetica to 82% of the original width, resulting in distorted letter forms, with vertical strokes narrowed but horizontals and changed. Because of the distortion problems, Adobe dropped Helvetica narrow in its release of Helvetica in open-type format. Recommended users choose Helvetica condensed instead. Helvetica textbook Helvetica textbook is an alternate design of the typeface, which uses schoolbook stylistic alternates to increase distinguishability,

a serifed capital I and J to increase distinguishability, a cue with a flick upwards and other differences. The A, T, and U are replaced with designs similar to those in geometric sans-serifs, such as those found in Futura and Accidents Grotesque, Schulteuch. Fontchap's FF Schulbook is similar. Language Variants Matthew Carter designed a Helvetica Greek, 1971. A Cyrillic version was designed in-house, and

the 1970s at D. Stemple AG, then critiqued and redesigned in 1992 under the advice of Joveka Villagevic, although a pirated version had already been created in 1963 by Russian designers Maxim Zukov and Yuri Kurbatov. Noya Havetika, 1983 Helvetica Noya is a reworking of the typeface with a more structurally unified set of heights and wits. Other changes include improved legibility, heavier punctuation marks, and increased spacing in the numbers. Noia Helvetica uses a numerical design classification scheme like universe. The font family is made up of 51 fonts, including nine weights in three widths, eight in normal widths, nine in condensed, and eight in extended width variance. As well as an outlined font based on

Helvetica 75 bold outline. No textbook or rounded fonts are available. Linotype distributes Noia Helvetica on CD. Helvetica Noia also becomes invariance for Central European and Cyrillic text. It was developed by De Stemble A.G, a Linotype subsidiary. The studio manager was Wolfgang Schimph and his assistant was Reinhardt House. The manager of the project was Renee Carefante. Eric Schieckerman was the design consultant and designed the literature for the launch in 1983. Figures were widened and some condensed weights changed from having nearly flat-sided verticals to a more continuous curve throughout the entire height. Designer Christian Schwartz, who would later release his own digitization of the original Helvetica

designs, expressed disappointment with this and other digital release. releases of Helvetica. Digital Helvetica has always been one-size-fits-all, which leads to unfortunate compromises. The spacing has ended up much looser than Wittinger's wonderfully tight original at display sizes, but much too tight for comfortable reading at text sizes. iOS used first Helvetica, then Helvetica Noia, as its system font. All releases of MacOS prior to to OS 10 Yosemite used Lucida Grande as the system font. The version of Helvetica Noia used as the system fond in OS10, 10.10, is specially optimized. Apple's intention is to provide a consistent experience for people who use both iOS and OS10.

Apple released Helvetica Noia with San Francisco in iOS 9 and OS10, OS10 Alcapitan.