Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Exhilaro

I want my font name to have a connection to Helvetica. I was initially calling my font 'Helv' but it was so simple and obvious that it was boring. Through this reaseach, I discovered that font names are not picked at random, but are actually pretty informative of the font itself.

"In 1960, the typeface's name was changed by Haas' German parent company Stempel to Helvetica (derived from Confoederatio Helvetica, the Latin name for Switzerland) in order to make it more marketable internationally. It was initially suggested that the type be called 'Helvetia' which is the original Latin name for Switzerland. This was ignored by Eduard Hoffmann as he decided it wouldn't be appropriate to name a type after a country. He then decided on 'Helvetica' as this meant 'Swiss' as opposed to 'Switzerland'." - Wikipedia

A Latin word would be appropriate... something like, personalised or cheerful. 
  • to make cheerful : exhilaro 
  • to make progress, advance : proficio 
  • to add : subinfero 
  • to be in the habit of using : usitor 
Exhilaro has been chosen as Helvetica has no personality, and to be cheerful it must have a personality.

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