As Rhatigan put it: “Overall, it’s a little quieter, a little more open - a little less famous, perhaps, but a lot more versatile.” Earlier this year, Christian Mengelt of Team ’77 made Unica77 for Lineto, replicating the original designs of Haas Unica, but Neue Haas Unica reconsiders the typeface for digital use while maintaing its 1950s pedigree.Arial and Helvetica are the default font stack for most browsers and for most of the websites. Maybe the typeface has lost some of the distinctive character of Helvetica, which still makes blaring headlines, but it’s more gentle on the eyes. Then there are other details that distinguish it from Helvetica, like the “K” linking its feet on the vertical line rather than on the stem, less height on the lower case “t,” and a reduction in the swooped curve on the 7. The letters are better rounded and less like the heavy block shapes reminiscent of the mid-century letterpress style, the spacing between letters is more generous for easier screen reading, and it has a larger variety of fonts from heavy to thin, as well as language support for Greek and Cyrillic.
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“Toshi’s big challenge, though, was to figure out how to achieve the same crispness of detail and preserve the flavor of the original Unica in a new, digital version - especially one that could work well for the web and on all kinds of devices,” Rhatigan stated.Ī comparison between the beginning of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself: 35” in Helvetica and Neue Haas Unica Thin (image by the author for Hyperallergic)Īt a glance, it might not seem very different from Helvetica, but look closer and it’s a decidedly clearer typeface. Those production drawings revealed the incredible care in the details of each letter, which had to be sharp for film and camera reproduction. Monotyope acquired Linotype in 2006, and eventually the relics of the typeface-turned-urban-legend were found.
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“So while Unica was never truly lost, it also never got the full exposure it deserved.” “Although a digital version of Unica was produced elsewhere, this too was eventually taken off the market,” Rhatigan explained.
Haas later merged with Linotype, and phototypesetting would be replaced by computers in just a few years. Inspired by elements from Univers, another sans-serif, Team ’77 christened the typeface with a portmanteau of Helvetica and Univers to make “Unica.” As Gürtler put it, the new typeface was “sharper than Helvetica, warmer than Univers, cleaner than Akzidenz.” Going back to 1977, the original Haas Unica designers - André Gürtler, Christian Mengelt, and Erich Gschwind, together known as Team ’77 - were commissioned by the Haas Type Foundry to create a Helvetica-like typeface for phototypesetting, which used film negatives to set type. Neue Haas Unica character set (courtesy Monotype) Now Neue Haas Unica, despite its initial launch botched by its timing with new computing, may end up an ideal digital typeface. Helvetica has far from faded into obsolescence despite changes in technology - there’s a whole 2007 documentary about this - but it has gradually gone out of favor. For example, Twitter switched from Helvetica Neue to Gotham last year. Based on late 19th-century German grotesques, at smaller sizes the typeface loses legibility. “The end result was a beautiful new family tailored for the medium, but it didn’t quite have enough time to make its mark before the landscape changed.”ĭesigned as a metal typeface back in 1957 by Swiss designer Max Miedinger, Helvetica was widely used in the 1960s and ’70s. “Team ’77 prepared a wonderful, detailed analysis of the original design for Unica, and how it compared to other typefaces, including Helvetica and Univers,” Rhatigan told Hyperallergic. The typeface’s new version reimagines for digital use the work of original designers Team ’77. A pencil drawing for film for Haas Unica (courtesy Monotype) (click to enlarge)ĭesigned by Monotype’s Toshi Omagari, the updated Haas Unica is based on drawings, transparencies, and film masters discovered in the former Linotype Company office in Germany by Type Director Dan Rhatigan in 2012.