What do Evian, American Apparel, Commes des Garçons, the New York subway system and I have in common? The most detail oriented of my readers might know the answer, but for many of us a simple typeface easily escapes the eye.
The common denominator is Helvetica, a font used in all of the corporate identities mention above. Including my own. And tens of thousands of other logos. Why, you ask? In short, because it does its job so well. It delivers a message, without any fuss. You might never have heard of Helvetica before, but you will for sure have seen it.

Helvetica was conceived by Edouard Hoffmann of Haas Type Foundary in the picturesque, Swiss town Münchenstein. The little-known typographer Max Miedinger was commissioned to create a contemporary version of the popular late 19th century sans serif Akzidenz Grotesk, and his vision of the modernized font debuted to little fanfare in 1957. At that time, it was launched under the name Neue Haas Grotesk, and never really made it big due to the expenses that came with buying an entire set of hand-carved metal shapes that were needed for utilizing it.

Four years later, the typeface was rebranded as part of a marketing plan to sell the typeface internationally. Swiss design was hot at the time, and the name Helvetica was the perfect pitch for the reborn font (Helvetia is Latin for Switzerland, Helvetica means ‘Swiss’). The plan worked like a charm, and the typeface was quickly picked up by the US advertising agencies of the 1960s seeking to imbue their campaigns with cosmopolitanism and modernism. Think slick designs and clean lines. Think television’s Mad Men (who, by the way, have managed to get every single detail right in the show, except for the ending credits ironically set in the poor pastiche Arial). The graphic designers of the era loved the bold new look, and soon Helvetica was everywhere.

By the late 1980s, Helvetica was more or less ubiquitous thanks in part to the introduction of the computer, as Helvetica came bundled with the first Macintosh computers. Today no longer part of the pre-installed group of typefaces, the digital distribution of the font is however still very smooth compared to the expensive metal shapes of former times. It retails at around 99 US dollars when purchased online.

In 2007, Helvetica celebrated 50 years. With a dozen books, a film, an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City to its name, the typeface is without a doubt unique. Have you ever seen people singing the praises of Times New Roman, or casting Monaco as the starring lead in a film? I thought so. To make my point, I’d like to mention the fact that Helvetica was perhaps the first typeface on the moon, used on the Space Shuttle orbiter.
But not everyone loves Helvetica. In the independent feature-length documentary film Helvetica, director Gary Hustwit finds that Helvetica has its haters as well as its fans. Its use by governments and corporations has turned it into a target for conspiracy theorists holding it to account for all the pro-establishment messages it has carried. Paula Scher, a New York graphic designer and artist interviewed for the film, recalls how, back in the 1960s, Helvetica became a symbol of the Vietnam War, because official communication relied so heavily on the type.
On the other side of the chart, others show Helvetica nothing but love. Christian Larsen, curator of the MoMA exhibition gives his view on the typeface:
”Helvetica delivers a message quickly and efficiently without imposing itself, When reading it, one hardly notices the letter forms, only the meaning, it’s that well-designed. It’s crisp, clean and sharply legible, yet humanized by round, soft strokes. Many type designers have said that they can not improve on it.”

53 years old, and still going strong. No wonder Helvetica has been called the official typeface of the 20th century. But will Helvetica survive another 50? Maybe. Frutiger has of lately started to replace Helvetica in many business contexts, and others complain of it being too neutral. On the other hand, there is no doubt that Helvetica has left a lasting mark on modernity.
“Why do some people find it so strange that a typeface should be used for over 50 years? When something is constructed as well as Helvetica, it should last for a couple of hundred years, just like great architecture.”

When Danny van den Dungen of Dutch graphic design team Experimental Jetset puts it like this, everything falls into place. Much like great architecture, a Chanel dress or an exclusive bottle of wine, Helvetica is to be cherished. Helvetica is a democratic luxury, an art form that can and is to be experienced by everyone. But without the price tag.
Enjoy!

Time is as elusive as it is ever-present in our lives. In our modern civilization, there is just no way of escaping it. It ticks alongside us, runs us – and sometimes even drives us – from the day that we are born (a date which is scheduled) until the day that we die (a time which is often recorded, at least if we spend our last days in a hospital bed). Even after we’ve left earth, time continues to pass for the rest of us.

Throughout history, the notion of time has gotten the brains of our biggest, brightest scientists and philosophers working overtime. 2 500 years (or 1 314 000 000 minutes, if you insist on knowing) have been spent trying to understand what time actually is. Therefore I won’t waste any of your time trying to solve this mystery here and now. I would, however, like to highlight some thoughts on what time might be, and why it is so important to us.

Time has played a central role in mathematics from its very beginning, as earth required a knowledge of seasons, lengths of the year, the month and
the day. All the world religions gave time a central role. It was, for instance, important for the early Egyptians to know when the Nile would flood, resulting in a breakdown of time into a calendar with years and months. Later on, the Babylonian civilization divided the day into 24 periods, each hour into 60 minutes, each minute into 60 seconds – thus laying the ground for our contemporary way of telling time.

A huge effort has been put into making devices to measure our time. Hourglasses, sundials and water clocks aren’t so common today, but clocks in both analogue and digital forms are essential tools in living the life we lead today. The common pocket watches were replaced by wristwatches in the beginning of the 1900’s, when aviator Alberto Santos Dumont asked good friend Louis Cartier to come up with a watch that would allow him to time his performance during flight while at the same time keeping both hands on the controls in the cockpit. Together with master Edmond Jaeger, Cartier came up with a prototype that soon was to grace the wrists of many admirers. The first wristwatch is, however, credited to Patek Phillipe but it was Cartier that saw to the popularization of the concept. The first self-winding system was invented by John Harwood in 1923, and the first electric watches saw the light of day during the 50ies.

During the 21st century, watch making was perfected. A revolutionary improvement in watch technology was 1969’s introduction of the quartz watch, resulting in better time accuracy as well as making the watch shock-resistant. The Swiss excelled in the art of watch making through brands such as Patek Phillipe, Cartier, Jaeger Le Coutre, IWC, Baume Mercier, Longines, Tag Heuer and Tissot, leading up to exports of watches for 12.3 billion Swiss francs last year alone.

Why has the market for watches grown so large, and what is it that makes a specific watch popular? A recent example is the inexpensive, relatively unknown Jorg Gray 6500 Chronometer watch that was given to Barack Obama as a gift. All of a sudden, everyone wants to own one. Why? Well, owning one puts you in the same club as the most powerful man in the world. Basically, a man’s watch has the same significance as a woman’s shoes or handbag – it shows everyone which crew you belong to.

A hot topic has of lately been the way we measure time. UTC’s, o’clock’s, half past’s, and quarter to’s are just not cutting it any longer, and many argue that it is time for time to get with the times. We need a modern, reliable pan-global time, and a handful attempts have been made to create such a system.

Back in 1793, the French Revolutionary Calendar was introduced during the revolution. It was used for twelve years before Napoléon abolished it. It built upon the idea that each day was exactly 100 000 seconds. This calendar was curiously reintroduced for 18 days in 1871, when the government Paris Commun briefly ruled Paris.

A more modern approach to pan-global time was Swatch’s idea to divide each 24-hour period into 1 000 ‘beats’. Swatch basically wanted everyone to dance to the ‘beat’ of their drums – when it was @566 beats in Stockholm, it would also be @566 beats in New York. Beat-watches were being produced, and CNN even started featuring the measuring system on their website for a while in 1998. After that, one would have to say that the beat has slowly slowed down, except for on Swatch’s own website where it still can be found today.

There is also DIME, Omnitime and Nooka for everyone out there tired of the standard way of measuring time. Nooka’s approach is quite unique and intuitive, with a linear representation of the day. And perhaps this is one of the futures within time, as the younger generation struggles to read analogue clocks because they were brought up with the digits on their phones telling the time. However, I doubt that the old-school, analogue dials will loose its luxurious appeal, as the craftsmanship and attention to detail make it synonymous with wearing a small piece of art or jewelry.

And as for all the people out there that feel they are being ruled by time … look at it from the bright side. A watch will not only tell us when to get up, work and go to bed – it also lets us know when it’s time to play, relax and take time off. How would we otherwise know?

French novelist Marcel Proust once said, ”Perfume is … the last and best reserve of the past, the one which when all the tears have run dry, can make us cry again.”
Whether a passing whiff of fragrance reduces us to tears or simply calls to mind fond memories, there is no doubt that scent is a powerful way to stir our senses and an effective path to the roots of our souls. Olfaction, the sense of smell, is in fact the one sense that is most strongly connected to our reminiscence.
Research shows that odor information is stored in long-term memory, thus creating strong connections to emotional memory. There is simply no better way to take a stroll down memory lane than by applying a single drop of your favorite perfume …

Let’s have a quick look at the yesteryears of fragrance. The first perfume ever made by man, was found about five years ago in Pyrgos in Cyprus. This potion was secured in an ancient perfumery, with mixing bowls, funnels and perfume bottles filling the space. The perfume is believed to be more than 4 000 years old, and consists of a blend of herbs and spices such as almond, coriander, myrtle and flowers.

Around 1370, it became common practice to add an alcohol solution to the mixture of scented oils, when Queen Elizabeth of Hungary commanded a scent of her own. The perfume was named Hungary Water, and may very well be the first case of perfume branding in history.

In the 14th century, France quickly became the European center of perfume and cosmetic manufacture, and the cultivation of flowers for perfume essence became a major industry in the southern part of the country. During the following centuries, perfumes were used primarily by the wealthy to mask body odors resulting from infrequent bathing.
The world’s most legendary fragrance was probably Chanel No. 5, Coco Chanel’s first fragrance introduced to the world in 1921. It quickly became talked about, with a number of legends surrounding its conception and history. Its popularity was additionally boosted when Marilyn Monroe was asked what she wore at night, famously replying “five drops of No. 5”. It is estimated that a bottle of the iconic scent is sold worldwide every 55 seconds.
Today, our usage of fragrances is of another kind than to camouflage unwanted reeks. For most of us, choosing what fragrance to apply is equally personal as picking out what outfit to wear. Whether it’s the pursuit for happiness, success, love, sex or confidence, or simply to lift our foul mood on a rainy day, a few drops most often does the trick. The ritual of applying a scent if associated with intimacy, luxury and opulence.

Much like Chanel No. 5, a fragrance and its bottle is the perfect symbol of the mood and a style of an era. In the past, the most pristine essential oils were bottled in creations made out of porcelain, crystal, silver and gold, and the best craftsmen and artists were commissioned to design the vessels leading to the fragrance flacon becoming an art form.
Some might argue that today’s fragrances have grown hollow and mainstream with each and every pop singer and actress with a perfume to her name, but this has in fact prompted the industry to reconsider its past in order to drive itself forward.
A growing number of traditional luxury brand are taking inspiration from their past, raiding the storages to dust of, reissue and invigorate classics. Dior, for example, is reintroducing Eau Fraîche and Diorella from previous eras. The current economic stress sees a return to nostalgia, and fragrances loved by your mom and grandma (and even your father and grandfather) experience a rise in sale at the moment.

On the other side of the chart, bold, exciting and innovative fragrances are launched, giving a whiff of something never smelt before. Vibrant, technicolor ingredients mixed in with molecules and pheromones offer new dimensions in perfumes and their allure.
Customizing your own perfume is no longer an unaffordable luxury, with a number of brands offering these services at custom fragrance bars at department stores around the world. Chanel’s olfactive bar is the first in its kind, and uses a ceramic blotter system that gives the customer a “very pure way of experiencing fragrance by isolating it” – the opposite of the usual fragrance hall with thousands of scents mixed up in a headache-inducing cloud of scents. Perfume brand Editions de Parfum Frédéric Malle have their innovative scent chambers, offer a well-needed break from the traditional squirt-and-sniff.

With more than 1 000 perfume launches last year alone, it is clear that brands need to consider new ways of merchandising their product. And with new, innovative concepts being released all the time, we’re in for an exiting, fragranced trip to the future. The question is, will it be love at first … whiff?