Look at the letters in these words . Really look at them : the shape of the circle that makes the `` o '' and the roundness of the `` c. '' Look at how wide and tall they are . Look at the spaces between them . How do the lowercase letters make you feel ? HOW ABOUT THE CAPITALS ? A lot of consideration goes into designing a font , but somehow we 're all able generally to accept the typefaces around us , ignoring their subtle design quirks as though they 're as ordinary as air . We read their content but do n't think too much about their form . In this way , the Helvetica font has established itself . There 's even a movie about it -- the 2007 documentary `` Helvetica . '' One of the people responsible for the popular use of Helvetica , Mike Parker , died Sunday at age 84 . His son , Harry Parker , considers his father to be the `` godfather '' of the Helvetica font , as a Fast Company headline described him . `` My dad did n't draw Helvetica , but he was very instrumental in it , '' Harry Parker said . Many different companies use corporate logos inspired by Helvetica . The typeface is clear , legible and `` good for everything , pretty much , '' Massimo Vignelli , a designer , said in the `` Helvetica '' film . Words printed in Helvetica tell you what stop you 're at on the New York subway . You might also see it in house numbers and tax forms . Interviewed in `` Helvetica , '' Mike Parker praised the `` firm '' quality of the font and the way that the spaces between characters `` just hold the letters . '' `` It is not a letter that 's bent to shape ; it 's a letter that lives in a powerful matrix of surrounding space , '' he said . `` It 's -- oh , it 's brilliant when it 's done well . '' Helvetica was born as `` Neue Haas Grotesk '' in 1957 , a collaboration between Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann , for the Haas Type Foundry in Münchenstein , Switzerland . The original , pre-digital font is different from what we know today . In the post-World War II era , design was seen as part of a movement toward social responsibility , openness and reconstruction , design writer Rick Poyner said in the film . Swiss designers in the 1950s were pushing the idea of `` rational typefaces '' for information that would `` present those visual expressions of the modern world to the public in an intelligible , legible way , '' Poyner said . Linotype machines were commonly used in printing at that time . Mike Parker comes into the Helvetica story as the director of typographic development at Mergenthaler Linotype Co. `` He oversaw its development into a font published for the Linotype machines , '' Harry Parker said . Under his leadership , more than 1,000 typefaces , including Helvetica , were added to the company 's library , which became an industry standard . Parker made a name for himself by bringing fonts to the world , while his original career path might have unearthed rocks and minerals . Born in London in 1929 , Mike Parker had intended to become a geologist , like his father , Harry Parker said . He then turned to painting but discovered that he was colorblind . `` What does a colorblind painter do ? Type is black and white so that was the logical direction to go in , '' Harry Parker said . Parker graduated from Yale University with an undergraduate degree in architecture and master 's in design . He got a job at the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp , Belgium , a museum with an extensive historical typography collection , and `` that 's where Mike fell in love with the whole thing , '' font designer Matthew Carter said . After Linotype , Carter and Parker formed a company called Bitstream in 1981 , the first company dedicated to producing digital fonts , ex-wife Sibyl Masquelier said . Parker also founded a company called Pages Software in 1990 , which featured a word processor developed on the NeXTSTEP operating system , developed by Steve Jobs ' early company NeXT Computers . Pages was in the beta stage when NeXT was discontinued in 1995 , Masquelier said . Apple later named a word-processing program Pages . Parker additionally served as the historian for the Font Bureau , a typeface design foundry . He would often bring conversations back to typography , Masquelier said . She remembers him complaining about how fonts he had once overseen were being used on trucks , or how ugly other typefaces looked in magazines . `` He hated the fonts that looked like they had a machine gun shooting them , '' she said . `` Mike was all about classy style . ''
Mike Parker , who helped make Helvetica famous , died Sunday at age 84 . In a documentary , Parker praises the `` firm '' quality of the font . " The typeface was created by American Type Founders in New York City and is still used today on everything from business cards to greeting cards.