Helvetica’s 50-year anniversary celebrations in 2007 were overwhelming and contagious. We saw the movie. Twice. We bought the shirts and the buttons. We dug out the homage books and re-read the hate articles. We mourned the fading non-color of an old black shirt proudly exclaiming that “HELVETICA IS NOT AN ADOBE FONT”. We took part in long conversations discussing the merits of the Swiss classic, that most sacred of typographic dreamboats, outlasting its builder and tenants to go on alone and saturate the world with the fundamental truth of its perfect logarithm. We swooned again over its subtleties (“Ah, that mermaid of an R!”). We rehashed decades-old debates about “Hakzidenz,” “improvement in mind” and “less is more.” We dutifully cursed every single one of Helvetica’s knockoffs. We breathed deeply and closed our eyes on perfect Shakti Gawain-style visualizations of David Carson hack'n'slashing Arial — using a Swiss Army knife, no less — with all the infernal post-brutality of his creative disturbance and disturbed creativity. We then sailed without hesitation into the absurdities of analyzing Helvetica’s role in globalization and upcoming world blandness (China beware! Helvetica will invade you as silently and transparently as a sheet of rice paper!). And at the end of a perfect celebratory day, we positively affirmed à la Shakti, and solemnly whispered the energy of our affirmation unto the universal mind: “We appreciate Helvetica for getting us this far. We are now ready for release and await the arrival of the next head snatcher.” The great hype of Swisspalooza '07 prompted a look at Max Miedinger, the designer of Neue Haas Grotesk (later renamed to Helvetica). Surprisingly, what little biographical information available about Miedinger indicates that he was a typography consultant and type sales rep for the Haas foundry until 1956, after which time he was a freelance graphic designer — rather than the full-time type designer most Helvetica enthusiasts presume him to have been. It was under that freelance capacity that he was commissioned to design the regular and bold weights of Neue Haas Grotesk typeface. His role in designing Helvetica was never really trumpeted until long after the typeface attained global popularity. And, again surprisingly, Miedinger designed two more typefaces that seem to have been lost to the dust of film type history. One is called Pro Arte (1954), a very condensed Playbill-like slab serif that is similar to many of its genre. The other, made in 1964, is much more interesting. Its original name was Horizontal. Here it is, lest it becomes a Haas-been, presented to you in digital form by Canada Type under the name of its original designer, Miedinger, the Helvetica King. The original film face was a simple set of bold, panoramically wide caps and figures that give off a first impression of being an ultra wide Gothic incarnation of Microgramma. Upon a second look, they are clearly more than that. This face is a quirky, very non-Akzidental take on the vernacular, mostly an exercise in geometric modularity, but also includes some unconventional solutions to typical problems (like thinning the midline strokes across the board to minimize clogging in three-storey forms). This digital version introduces four new weights, ranging from Thin to Medium, alongside the bold original. The Miedinger package comes in all popular font formats, and supports Western, Central and Eastern European languages, as well as Esperanto, Maltese, Turkish and Celtic/Welsh. A few counter-less alternates are included in the fonts.

Railyard Stencil JNL is a stencil variant of Decal JNL that was set aside for a long time in a forgotten work folder. It's broad strokes and sharp serifs emulate the vintage look of old railway cars and other earlier forms of transportation.

Scripty is a hand drawn, calligraphy longhand handwritten font. With careful spacing, the letters can be used together to create words that look like theyπve been written with an old≠fashioned fountain pen, or used alone as embellishment to more plebean text.

This font was inspired by an old photographic film package I found. Over time, the vertical slits in the letters have become more complex and acquired slanted sections. The font is suitable for accidences: headlines, posters... maybe you can suggest something interesting ;)

Syntax was developed by Hans Eduard Meier in 1968 and presented by the font foundry D. Stempel AG. Its figures are based on Old Face characters but have a distinctive, modern design. The inclination to the right lends the font a dynamic feel.

Animated types like this one have been around for fifty or more years. They certainly add a sense of liveliness to a headline. This one trades upon the "wrong way weights" of the old French Clarendon. Think of it as Barnum with Bounce.

Hors is name of Arian God, also it is an ancient name of Mercury. Hors is display font font family with 6 styles, including filled, outline, shadowed and others. Hors is a handmade type. Here are more than 500 glyphs and opentype features.

Summerhaven JNL and Summerhaven Italic JNL were partially inspired by sign lettering spotted in an old black and white movie. These fonts are somewhat reminiscent of the Art Deco style, and their casual look can be applied to both formal and informal messages.

Eingrantch Monospaced is a monospaced sans serif based typeface, inspired by an old Continental typewriter in sans serif version. Available in 7 weights from thin to black. Well suited for modern logotypes, branding, editorial design as well as web and screen design.

Kareemah is humanist typography, composed of roman and italics with 16 styles and 8 weights (800 glyphs) including ligatures, alternates, small caps,old style figures, fractions, superiors, inferiors and more. Perfectly legible and clean for long, simple texts in headlines. "Specimen Kareemah PDF"

A set of old die-cut cardboard letters and numbers used by teachers directly on bulletin boards or for tracing was the inspiration for Classroom JNL. In turn, these letters take their cue from typefaces such as Franklin and earlier wood type designs.

Fleurons are embellishments and here is my second round. I again looked at some old ones and made some new, more modern ones. These go very well with my scripts Nadine and Ellida! Yours once more in a beautiful mood, Gert Wiescher

Ventana (Spanish for window) is an old-fashioned handwritten typeface. It was created using Chinese ink and a bamboo pen. The result is a rather classy, stylish font. Ventana is highly legible and comes with all the diacritics you'd probably ever want.

Plumero is the wild, playful side of calligraphy. The disciplined elegance of old lettering is replaced with the fresh, joyful swashes of youth. Attractive and care-free, Plumero catches the eye and leaves its viewer with an indelible impression of its unmistakable signature.

Introducing Moister, inspired by beer labels in the old days. This collection comes with several styles: script, block, and expanded. It is possible to combine and options to create label designs, headlines, logotypes, signage, posters, greeting cards, letterheads, t-shirts and much more.

Fleurons are embellishments and here is my fifth set. I again found some nice old ones and made them completely new. These very elaborate ones go extremely well together with my scripts Nadine and Ellida!!! Yours in an elaborate mood, Gert Wiescher

Compliment is a script design which is obviously based on H. Matheis' typeface designed for Ludwig & Mayer in 1965.Ralph M. Unger redrew and digitized this font in 2004. His work is based on artwork taken from old East German font catalogues.

The name and design inspiration for Theater Bar JNL comes from an image of an old bar with an overhead neon sign in very stylized sans serif lettering (most likely from the 1940s) and is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Oksana Sans Wide is designed for short and big texts. It has six weights from Thin to Heavy. Supports Western, Central, Baltic Latin and European Cyrillic code pages. Old-style digits, some ligatures, alternative characters and Ukrainian hryvnia sign are also included.

Tiler JNL is a novelty font with geometric styling. Its use can be as diverse as an ad for wall or floor tile to conveying a modular feel within a futuristic setting to signage on the wall of an old-time subway station.

Oksana Greek has only basic Latin and monotonic Greek characters from multilingual Oksana. It has six weights with real italics, and Alt faces with Old Style figures, ampersand, alternative characters -a-g-k-y- and Greek -Ε-Ξ-β-ε-θ-φ-.

Brandold is based on the repetition of one shape, the equilateral triangle. Using these triangles as pixels I built a medieval-like font that looks new, but follows an old aesthetic. I chose to make this font because I hadn’t seen anything similar.

16th and 17th century formal handwriting forms the basis for Tinderbox, an antique script. Preserving the rough impression of a quill pen on parchment, Tinderbox evokes old manuscripts, ecclesiastical texts, gothic inscriptions, faded tattoos and horror literature; spooky calligraphy for the digital age.

Headlock is a handmade serif. My 6 year old son just had his first real Judo exam and the one thing he excels at is the headlock. Headlock comes with double letter ligatures and all the diacritics you need, plus basic Cyrillic!

Oksana Cyrillic has only basic Latin and european Cyrillic characters from multilingual Oksana. It has six weights with real italics, and Alt faces with Old Style figures, ampersand, alternative characters -a-g-k-y- and Cyrillic -а-в-д-з-у-ў-.

Inspired from ancient Celtic lettering such like insular-half-uncial. New interpretation of Celtic letters bring a whole new feel to old letterings. At the same time, the font has handwritten-style glyphs as if they were handwritten same as the ancient letters.

This font was inspired on graffiti texts, sentences of street walls. The intention it's to give an style of old school words spreaded on some walls around the world. This can be cool for an design of a poster, headlines and so on.

A handful of these spiky, sprightly letters made up the twittering title page of 'Message Of The Birds', a song by one Flora Warner, found in stacks of crumbling scores on an old upright piano in the basement of a favorite London bookstore.

Mjollnir is the name given to the hammer carried by the Norse god of thunder, Thor. Crafted by dwarves and destined to be used in the final battle of Ragnarok, this font has a compliment of European characters fit for a Viking!

Meal Ticket JNL follows the same basic letter shapes as Jeff Levine's Flatbush Beanery JNL, but with a much lighter look and feel. This is another perfect typeface for recreating the sign lettering and menus of old-time diners, drive-ins and restaurants.

Ornata A is the first of a series of old ornaments that I am trying to save from oblivion. I am not just scanning these, I am completely redesigning the ornaments from scratch, thereby eliminating imperfections. Your digitizing type-designer, Gert Wiescher

A modern text design with a medium x-height and short ascenders. The axis of the curves is inclined to the left in the Old Style tradition. New Prairie was kerned for text point sizes but requires subjective display kerning and compensation.

Scribe is an elaborate typeface somewhere in between Bodoni and an English script. It has interwoven capitals and joining lowercase letters. I have tried to make something new that has this old, settled touch. I think I like it. Yours sincerely, Gert Wiescher

The image of an old enamel sign advertising poultry inspired Poultry and Fish JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions. Horizontal cut-through lines within the Art Deco-era hand lettering adds to the uniqueness of this type design.

Shay Man is a font design for poster and title tag line. The font is only uppercase in two weights. Shay man is a typicaly straight angular font taking inspiration from the old post brutal design. Use it for making awesome artworks. Enjoy.

“Albion’s White Christmas” can only be described as a snowy blackletter. In the tradition of old childrens' comics, yuletide magazine mastheads and vintage Christmas cards, it is a snow draped blackletter ideal for the winter holidays and letting in the spirit of Christmas.

Trade Printer JNL is another font design inspired by an old rubber stamp sign printing set. In this case, the lettering has a classic "wood type" look, reminiscent of the letterheads, billheads and fliers made by local printers of the 1880s-1920s.

Designal is a Félix Rufín design based on the DIN theme. The goal was to create a suitable unicase, an old dream of typographers. The icons collection —more than 400— is a result of Rufín’s obsession with label design. OpenType, 8 styles.

Wavy Rounded is a stylized sans serif display typeface by Japanese designer Hajime Kawakami. Some of the characters possess quirky features that randomly create fun visual “waves”. There is a handful of alternate characters including an old style figure set. Catch the Wave.