Max Miedinger

Max Miedinger ( born December 24, 1910 in Zurich, † March 8, 1980 ibid ) was Swiss graphic designer and typographer. He is best known for designing the typeface Helvetica.

He made at the Zurich Buchdruckerei Bollmann 1926-1930 a typesetter teaching, then went to the School of Applied Arts in Zurich. From 1936 to 1946 he worked as a graphic artist for the department store chain Globus. Then he moved to Haas'sche type foundry in Munich near Basel, where he worked as a customer service representative and sellers to 1956.

From 1956 he worked as a freelance graphic designer and got in the same year by the Director of the Haas type foundry commissioned to design a new sans serif. 1957 delivered Miedinger the Neue Haas Grotesk in a semi-bold section, 1958 followed the lean, 1959, the bold section. The script was successful fast and 1960 sold as Helvetica and internationally since copied many times.

Best-known fonts

• Pro Arte (1954 )
• Helvetica (1956-1960)
• Horizontal (1965 )