Bloomberg Businessweek

新闻|Fonts in Use|Marc Oxborrow 2012-01-07 00:34:00

I experienced a range of emotions when I came across the first issues of Bloomberg Businessweek's redesign in early 2010: admiration, envy, and even a little anger. How dare creative director Richard Turley reinvent the venerable publication in such a Euro-perfect way, usingHelveticano less? And how gloriously Swiss (by way of London) it is: tight-but-not touching heads, buttery-smooth sidebar text, with the entire design informed (but not bound) by grids and rules.

Except that it turns out that the type I was admiring wasn't really Helvetica, but a new digital version of its original incarnation,Neue Haas Grotesk. Type designer Christian Schwartz describes the project as a restoration, "bringing [Helvetica designer Max] Miedinger's original Neue Haas Grotesk back to life with as much fidelity to his original shapes and spacing as possible." The redrawn shapes, impeccable spacing, and revival of an alternate straight-legged 'R' position Neue Haas Grotesk as a contemporary sans serif, without a whiff of the nostalgia and irony that can saddle Helvetica.

Oh, and did I mention that the magazine's covers are consistently inventive and smart? It looks like the arrival of the latest issue of Bloomberg Businessweek will continue to be an emotional event.

Christian Schwartz

Christian Schwartz