Quick Facts
Biography
Max Miedinger (24 December 1910 in Zurich, Switzerland – 8 March 1980, Zurich, Switzerland) was a Swiss typeface designer. He was famous for creating the Neue Haas Grotesk typeface in 1957 that was renamed Helvetica in 1960. Marketed as a symbol of cutting-edge Swiss technology, Helvetica achieved immediate global success.
Between 1926 and 1930 Miedinger trained as a typesetter in Zurich, after which he attended evening classes at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zurich.
Career
At 26 he went to work as a typographer in the advertising department of Globus, a renowned chain of department stores. After ten years at Globus, Miedinger gained employment with Haas Type Foundry as a representative. In 1954, he created his first typeface design for Haas, Pro Arte, a condensed slab serif.
In 1956 Miedinger became a freelance graphic designer. Shortly after he collaborated with Edouard Hoffmann at Haas on the typeface Neue Haas Grotesk, which would later be called Helvetica.
Designs
- Helvetica (also known as Neue Haas Grotesk)
- Pro Arte, a condensed slab serif. Undigitised.
- Horizontal, a wide capitals design similar to Microgramma. Digitised as Miedinger.
- Helvetica Monospace
- Helvetica Inserat