Max Miedinger

Max Miedinger – born 24.12.1910 in Zurich, Switzerland, died 8.3.1980 in Zurich, Switzerland – type designer.

• 1926-30: Trains as a typesetter in Zurich, after which he attends evening classes at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich.
• 1936-46: Typographer for Globus department store’s advertising studio in Zurich.
• 1947-56: Customer counselor and typeface sales representative for the Haas’sche Schriftgießerei in Münchenstein near Basle.
• From 1956 onwards: Freelance graphic artist in Zurich.
• 1956: Eduard Hoffmann, the director of the Haas’sche Schriftgießerei, commissions Miedinger to develop a new sans-serif typeface.
• 1957: The Haas-Grotesk face is introduced.
• 1958: Introduction of the roman (or normal) version of Haas-Grotesk.
• 1959: Introduction of a bold Haas-Grotesk. 1960: the typeface changes its name from Neue Haas Grotesk to Helvetica™.