Make Limitless Designs with Confidence Using the Yamaha Font
Yamaha Corporation, commonly known simply as Yamaha and often stylized as YAMAHA, is a Japanese multinational corporation and conglomerate founded on October 12, 1887, by Torakusu Yamaha.
The corporation deals in the manufacture, distribution, and retail of cutting-edge technological equipment. Its flagship products include musical instruments, audio equipment, and electronics.
Yamaha has also been associated with motorcycle manufacturing. However, the company’s former motorcycle division now operates independently, although Yamaha Corporation still commands the majority shares.
The Yamaha Font
Yamaha logos are nearly as unique as the corporation’s offerings. The company likely engaged the services of independent designers in creating its wordmark’s fonts.
But upon close examination, you’ll realize that the font on Yamaha’s logotype isn’t completely unique. It bears a close resemblance to several common typefaces, including Helvetica, Jay Gothic, and Swiss 911.
About Helvetica
Helvetica, sometimes also called Neue Haas Grotesk or BW Haas Grotesk, is a sans-serif neo-grotesque that needs no introduction. The typeface was designed in 1957 by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann. It was originally released by the Haas Type Foundry before being licensed and reissued by Linotype.
Helvetica boasts numerous unique features, many of which are evident on the Yamaha wordmark. The font particularly stands out for its rather high x-axis and unusually tight kerning. It’s also noted for its two-storied small letter ‘a’ and square-shaped letter ‘s.’
You can download Helvetica and apply it on all manner of design projects free of charge. Common places to find the typeface include My Fonts, Bold Fonts, and Fonts Hub.
About Jay Gothic
Jay Gothic is a masculine, sans-serif typeface designed and published by URW Type Foundry. The font sports a neat and clean appearance which makes it suitable for both headline and body text. It supports over 25 languages, including English, German, Spanish, Italian, Icelandic, Slovenian, and Albanian.
You can download Jay Gothic from iFonts, My Fonts, Online Web Fonts, among many other online font marketplaces. The typeface is completely free for personal use. Remember to contact URW if planning to use it for business purposes.
About Swiss 911
Swiss 911 is another close match to the font used on Yamaha Corporation’s logotype. This sans-serif typeface was designed by Matthew Carter and Hans Jörg Hunziker, and is officially published by Bitsream.
It comes in three different styles, namely Swiss 911 Compressed, Swiss 911 Extra Compressed, and Swiss 911 Ultra Compressed. All three styles support a wide range of characters, including letters, letterlike symbols, numbers, and punctuation marks.
Swiss 911 is also compatible with more than 50 languages, ranging from common languages like English and Spanish to less-spoken ones like Estonian and Albanian. The font is available on multiple font websites, such as Linotype, Fonts Geek, and My Fonts.
Just remember to read the full license information to determine the extent to which you can legally use the typeface.