What is max meidinger?

Max Meidinger (1867-1914) was a German typographer and inventor. He is best known for designing the typeface that bears his name, Meidinger, which was later renamed Helvetica.

Meidinger trained as a typographer and worked for various printing houses in Germany and Switzerland. In 1900, he was hired by the Haas Type Foundry in Basel, Switzerland, where he worked as a type designer.

In 1957, the Haas Type Foundry commissioned a new sans-serif typeface that would compete with the popular Akzidenz Grotesk. Meidinger was tasked with designing the new typeface, which he called Neue Haas Grotesk. The typeface was released in 1957 and quickly became popular, but it was later renamed Helvetica by its distributor, Linotype, in 1960.

Max Meidinger died in 1914, long before Neue Haas Grotesk was created and renamed as Helvetica. However, his legacy lives on through his contributions to typographic design, and his name will always be associated with one of the most iconic typefaces in history.