In the 1950s, the sans-serif typefaces from the H. Berthold Type Foundry in Berlin were particularly successful. In order to have an equally successful sans-serif in Switzerland as well, the commercial artist and typographer Max Miedinger collaborated with Eduard Hoffmann, the head of the Haas Type Foundry near Basel, to create a new sans-serif typeface. The first fonts for manual typesetting hit the market in 1957. D. Stempel AG Frankfurt am Main added the typeface to its line-up under the name Helvetica in 1960. In 1983 D. Stempel designed the New Helvetica font family for Linotype AG.

Today Helvetica is one of the most common typefaces in the world. The range of uses is diverse and comprises the wordmarks of many international companies (Nestlé, Tupperware, Bayer, Toyota) as well as public institutions around the world. Use of the design all-rounder from Switzerland runs the gamut from elegant lifestyle products to everyday items. While the IT-firm Apple includes the Helvetica font as standard in its operating system, its competitor Microsoft uses the very similar Arial typeface.