Book: Helvetica Forever
Lars Müller is fascinated by the sans serif font. Following the highly successful Helvetica: Homage to a Typeface, published in 2005, the eponymous typeface has found even more fame with a documentary, demonstrating that there's a design-hungry audience out there, eager for the low-down on what many people simply take for granted.
Helvetica Forever: Story of a Typeface, also published by Müller, together with Victor Malsy, is the book for them. Beautifully designed, as one would expect, the book attempts to tackle the great paradox at the heart of Helvetica - how could a typeface designed for modest, almost invisible ubiquity, become such a well-known, almost iconic 'brand'.
Originally named 'New Haas Grotesk,' Eduard Hoffman's typeface became Helvetica, a name that was felt to help its international appeal. The Haas foundry never looked back, and the typeface became one of the foundation stones of 1960s design before becoming fully integrated into the digital era. Complete with reproductions of Hoffman's original design journals, this is the perfect book for design obsessives.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
-
Tiffany & Co nods to its theatrical history with a surreal new campaign
Tiffany & Co campaign ‘With Love, Since 1837’ sees Dan Tobin Smith and set designer Rachel Thomas create an offbeat set
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Celine’s new fragrance Zouzou is inspired by 1960s heroines
Celine debuts a new fragrance, Zouzou, inspired by Hedi Slimane’s obsession with 1960s youth culture
By Hannah Tindle Published
-
Bar Spero, in Washington DC, nods to the playful nature of Spanish cuisine
Bar Spero is a Spanish seafood bar and grill designed by Streetsense and led by chef Johnny Spero
By Sofia de la Cruz Published
-
‘Package Holiday 1968-1985’: a very British love affair in pictures
‘Package Holiday’ recalls tans, table tennis and Technicolor in Trevor Clark’s wistful snaps of sun-seeking Brits
By Caragh McKay Published
-
‘Art Exposed’: Julian Spalding on everything that’s wrong with the art world
In ‘Art Exposed’, Julian Spalding draws on his 40 years in the art world – as a museum director, curator, and critic – for his series of essays
By Alfred Tong Published
-
Marisol Mendez's ‘Madre’ unpicks the woven threads of Bolivian womanhood
From ancestry to protest, how Marisol Mendez’s 'Madre' is rewriting the narrative of Bolivian womanhood
By Sofia de la Cruz Published
-
Photo book explores the messy, magical mundanity of new motherhood
‘Sorry I Gave Birth I Disappeared But Now I’m Back’ by photographer Andi Galdi Vinko explores new motherhood in all its messy, beautiful reality
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Best contemporary art books: a guide for 2023
From maverick memoirs to topical tomes, turn over a new leaf with the Wallpaper* arts desk’s pick of new releases and all-time favourite art books
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published
-
The best photography books for your coffee table
Flick through, mull over and deep-dive into the best photography books on the market, from our shelves to you
By Sophie Gladstone Published
-
Behind the scenes of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining: new book charts the making of a horror icon
Published in February 2023 by Taschen, a new collector's book will go behind the scenes of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, charting the unseen making of a film that defined the horror genre
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Published
-
Anne Imhof ‘Avatar II’ review: a psychological thriller to make you wince and wonder
German artist Anne Imhof’s ‘Avatar II’ exhibition at London’s Sprüth Magers is a compelling, uncanny probing of contemporary culture, reality and artifice
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith Last updated