Here’s Why The Jeep Font Is as Popular as the Automobile Brand
Jeep is an American automobile brand initially established in 1943. The company is best known for its sport utility vehicles, including crossovers and fully off-road SUVs.
Jeep has fallen under numerous ownerships over the years. At some point, the automaker was owned by American Motors Corporation (AMC) and Chrysler, before its eventual acquisition by Stellantis.
Jeep Font Features
Jeep is not only a leading automobile manufacturer. The company also uses one of the world’s most popular fonts – Helvetica.
Helvetica is a sans-serif, neo-grotesque typeface created in 1957 by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann. The font was previously known as Neue Haas Grotesk. But as you shall find, there’s also a distinct style going by the name ‘Neue Helvetica.’
While developing Helvetica, Miedinger and Hoffmann drew their inspiration from earlier German and Swiss designs. One such design is the Akzidenz-Grotesk typeface which enjoyed tremendous popularity in the 1890s.
However, Helvetica stood out from Akzidenz-Grotesk and other fonts that influenced its development in various ways. Most notably, the typeface sported a neutral and clean design, which offered exceptional clarity. That made it ideal for use on a wide range of applications, including company logos, signage, book covers, etc.
Helvetica also differed from earlier sans-serif typefaces in its relatively high x-height, as well as its abnormally tight kerning (spacing between letters) and strokes that terminated on vertical and horizontal likes. These three features worked synergistically to give Helvetica a dense and solid texture, further enhancing its legibility.
Other unique Helvetica features include;
• Bracketed top flag of the number ‘1’
• Concave curved stem of number ‘7’
• Two-storied letter ‘a’
• Rounded-off square tails of letter ‘R.’
• Square-shaped letter ‘s’
• Wide capitals featuring uniform width, as is evident in the wide letters ‘E’ and ‘F’
Helvetica was released through the (Haas Type Foundry) Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei of Münchenstein (Basel), Switzerland. During this period, Hoffmann served as the president of Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei of Münchenstein while Miedinger was a freelance graphic designer.
Shortly after its release, Linotype licensed the font and changed its name from Neue Haas Grotesk (New Haas Grotesque) to Helvetica. The name ‘Neue Haas Grotesk’ continues to be used in various contexts and countries, such as Germany and Switzerland.
Like most fonts, Helvetica was originally released in normal versions. But subsequent development works have spawned additional styles and width, including distinct sizes and matching designs for various non-Latin alphabets.
The top Helvetica styles include: Helvetica Inserat, Helvetica Compressed, Helvetica Now, Neue Helvetica, Helvetica Light, Helvetica Rounded, Helvetica Narrow, andHelvetica Textbook.
Where to Download Helvetica
Due to Helvetica’s immense popularity, there’s no shortage of websites to download it from. You can find Helvetica on DaFont Free, Fonts Place, and CoFonts. The font is also available for download on Free Fonts Family, My Fonts, and Fonts.com.
Helvetica is free for personal and commercial use. However, ensure you contact Haas Type Foundry before applying this typeface on commercial projects.