40 Excellent Logos Created with Helvetica

I like the simplicity of this font added by the creativity = awesome logo result. Nice list.

Great Post! It really has been widely used and by most prominent companies.

Nice list, however, a couple of the logos aren’t set in Helvetica. BBC is infact set in Gill Sans and it looks like Microsoft is set in the bastardised version of Helvetica, Arial.

While I think this is a a good start of a list, several of these logos are not using Helvetica.

BBC, AeroMexico, Microsoft, Orange

Amazing! Helvetica FTW !1!!

@henrik
The microsoft logo IS helvetica, it sounds weird but it is. the end f is more curved in arial and the C ends are straight in helvetica.

The BBC aint helvetica indeed.

Great post! Thanks!!!

That’s great to see. In some cases you wouldn’t guess Helvetica is the font.

Another nice question would be: what font is the most used font in logo’s? Is that Helvetica?

nice LOGO,and I love helvetica

This is a beautiful, awesome post! Great job! I loved it.

My bad! Thanks @Luc Lodder for the correction and enlightenment, though I still highly disagree with what Microsoft did with Arial.

Are you sure these are all using Helvetica?!?!

EVIAN is Helvetica? maybe the “V” “I” and “N” but surely not the “E” and “A”
weird mix of font on this logo

I prefer proof! Watch the difference in c and t.
Sorry for the joke, couldn’t help it

http://static.pixelpipe.com/b2a9044c-8a34-4692-97e3-d94c6cdcadaf_m.jpg

Nice selection of logos. Simple, memorable, and good looking.

Fantastic list. I think panasonic is my favorite one next to post-it.

I love the site and the articles on it, but seriously guys: how can you class ‘American Apparel’ and ‘BASF’ as ‘excellent’ logos? C’mon guys.. they are type on a line and absolutely nothing more.

afaik the mercure hotels use also the “New Helvetica” in all CI elements and logo stuff.

I’ve always been a fan of the Skype logo, it matches the software’s persona so well. Professional, but fun.

the fact that Microsoft uses Helvetica in their logo but won’t include it in Windows is somewhat humorous to me.

things might have changed, though. i haven’t used Windows in almost ten years.

Quite a few custom jobs here where the starting point may have been Helvetica. However, Toyota is probably Folio—if you go back to 1960s’ brochures, you will find them set in Folio along with the Toyota logotype. But this is an easy mistake to make as these four characters are very similar in both typefaces, and Hustwit himself showed the Toyota logotype in his movie, I think by mistake.

Motorola, Evian, Dole and Harley–Davidson are not Helvetica. Again, examine period work when the Motorola logo was created and it’s more likely other Swiss geometric sans were the starting-point; while Evian has been in Helvetica, the incarnation you show is not. Dole bears few resemblances to Helvetica other than coming from a geometric basis (if you were to discuss a starting-point, have a look at Lubalin and Carnase’s ITC Avant Garde Gothic). Harley–Davidson also seems like an original creation to me.

Still, I accept your main point that Helvetica is very influential as a typeface family and it has a modernist ideal to it, which most of your examples reflect. I agree with this core point and admit I am only nit-picking for the sake of accuracy.

I’m impressed how many of these popular companies are using Helevetica in their logos. Nice post

Amazing one font rules very where

Great list! I really love type only logos (a lot of which are in this list)

I would be inclined (but may be wrong) to say National car hire isn’t helvetica (or a pure breed of) If you look at the ‘a’ in National Car hire, and some of the others – Kawasaki for instance, you notice the “tail” is different.

Keep up the great work though

Me parece fantastico, a mi personalmente me encanta la Helvetica.

When I think of the font Helvetica,
I think of Lufthanser, American Airlines
& The north face type of application.
I did not realize that
Skype used it also.

Helvetica is a soft block-font. simply awesome I never thought evian was a Helvetica though

Nice post. Gotta luv Helvetica

My own logo is Helvetica 85 – just love what you can do with that font combined with an good icon.

Is the Evian logo really Helvetica? I mean, look at that “e.”

But a great post nonetheless.

Thanks for the nice post! I’ve always been a fan of the Crate&Barrel logo, I like the simplicity.

Love this – Stuck it on IHeartTopTens.com : http://www.ihearttoptens.com/view.php?uid=29

Great collection, but the Evian and Dole logos are not Helvetica.

Nice selection. Who says Helvetica isn’t useful?

Good to see them all – thanks.

Nestle is a logo, but its it an excellent one?

For me, it’s one the most high profile logos that really needs sprucing up.

That birds nest needs some renovation work.

are you sure the evian-logo is using helvetica?

Evian – No.
digital – No.
Skype – No.
Harley Davidson – No.

Nice post.
But EVIAN is not helvetica.. just look at that “e”.

WOW! Great post! Really inspiring! More like this please!

You know hate it or love it … Helvetica just has this certain presence about it that just “works”.

If any of you are interested and/or haven’t seen it… this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhKKIXDypxk is a really good video showing the many faces of Helvetica.

You almost get this feeling that if Helvetica was a building material you could build any house you wanted out of it!

There’s still a lot that aren’t helvetica in this list. Look at the tails on the lower case ‘a’. There are some that go straight down and some that curl back (like Helvetica). Maybe call this article “40 excellent logos created with sans serif fonts”?

Here’s what Helvetica looks like:
http://www.identifont.com/samples/adobe/Helvetica.gif

i wouldn´t say that evian, skype and dole use helvetica in their logo. maybe they took it as base, but those aren´t helvetica any more.

“evian” is definitely not helvetica. “skype” and “Nestlé” are helvetica-derived, but not helvetica.

I don’t think evian’s logo is Helvetica based on the shape of the lowercase E. Not to mention the shape of the lowercase A is different.

Pretty good list overall.

Evian isn’t Helv either. Don’t think Jeep is, or if it is it’s been edited a fair bit.

There’s a couple of others like Dole that I’m not sure on either, guess it depends on how how far you can edit a character before it’s no longer Helvetica.

The Evian logo pictured above is NOT in Helvetica, though Evian was once set in it.

http://vectorlogo.blogspot.com/2008/05/evian-logo-eps.html

And I seem to recall Microsoft’s logo being set in Franklin Gothic; most of their products from Windows 95 through Office 2003 (I think) had text typeset in FG or some variant thereof.

Eclectic compilation! Which Helvetica was the Skype logo made with, rounded?

On closer inspection, I take back what I said about MS’s logo, but not the products.

Evian and Harley Davidson are not Helvetica
But great post for a great font.

Evian and Skype…surely not Helvetica, right?

This is a good group of logos that use Helvetica, however, I would hardly qualify many of these as “excellent logos.” The brands are recognizable, yes – but that’s as far as it goes for me.

Helvetica has been over played for generations

Great post, i think Helvetica is a better typo, but personally i don’t like use for my jobs. Great!

Very nice list. Helvetica rocks!

@3drockz

The “C” in Crate and Barrel is not Helvetica, but the rest is. That always bugged me.

skype isn’t Helvetica. Nestle’s not straight helvetica, but it appears to be based on it.

I’m not sure if that BMW is helvetica, but I know they’ve used it.

A couple of those (GM? Olympus? Motorola others?) might be Univers.

Microsoft actually appears to be Helvetica (not Arial as someone suggested). I think they’ve been using that logo since before they unleased Arial on an unsuspecting world.

Evian’s definitely not Helvetica, though I think it used to be. I don’t think the Harley shield is either, though they used it on the AMF-era Harleys (and the AMF logo is Helvetica)

Dole looks like Futura.

Sorry to nitpick, it’s a great list anyway, you just can’t do something nice without font nerds coming in and gumming it up, can you?

I take it back, the AMF logo is not Helvetica, but here’s an AMF-era Harley with a Helvetica logo:
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/1975-harley-davidson-ss-250-3.jpg

@Torley, yes I believe it is Helvetica Rounded:

http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/helvetica/rounded-bold/

(Though, Arial Rounded Bold comes very close too, aside from the “y”).

Lovely post.

Really inspiring to see these all using Helvetica or custom derivations, thank you. (The lower-case a in National… Hmm, that’s not Helvetica is it?)

The discussion is just as fascinating too. Going to come back later and see how far this gets

I like TELUS. Also using Helvetica. http://www.telusmobility.com/

uh yeah, some of these are not helvetica
just because a font is sans serif does not make it helvetica
nice colorful post

Motorola? Don’t think so.

Some of them aren’t Helvetica (Harley-Davidson, for example was designed from scratch, not using a premade font) , anyway – nice post, thanks for sharing.

I’m gonna have to go ahead and agree here…a lot of those logos aren’t Helvetica. Perhaps try running them through WhatTheFont? http://new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/ Just an idea…you don’t deserve flak over getting some wrong, but you might get it anyway, since this is the Internet and all. Keep up the great work tho!

Energizer logo is not Helvetica

I knew Helvetica was used a lot but I didn’t think it was used in all these logos.

These are such famous logos and they really stand out and look great. I think we all have had some sort of experience with these companies. They look nice. thanks for the post.

caterpillar is univers

maybe it should have said:
“4o logos using really basic sans serif fonts, with serious branding colors,”
but that would have been too long.
Point is, its about identity, and simplicity.

happy friday!

ellarose.

Amtrak may be a replacement for some non-Helv ones. Version in background here, not the current one. http://www.stevestenzel.com/photos/amtrak.jpg

I also think the Jeep logo is not Helvetica. The “p” is way too off.

This is Helvetica Black over the Jeep Logo.

http://s5.tinypic.com/mu8i15.jpg

Anyway, nice collection!

not really breaking ground here, fellas…

Sorry to see that a lot of these people are not reading the comments. Great collection here, and excellent collection of logos.

Some of you people commenting are morons, really. Skype for example is clearly Helvetica. Just because the edges are rounded doesn’t make it not. Likewise for many of the other logos.

@Forgar- Adjust the kenning and thickness. I just opened up Photoshop to test the Jeep logo. Helvetica is a perfect fit.

Um, actually most aren’t Helvetica – Nestle is a mix of Helv and Avent Garde, BMW, Target – Similar but every letter is different, Evian – nothing like Helv, Harley is Transport, Dole is completely different, GM is Trade Gothic.

Don’t get me wrong Helv is a classic, just many of these are wrong.

Thanks very much for this article. I’ve enjoy every word!

Great collection and excellent collection of logos.

Skype is not using helvetica :[

Some of these are suspect in orgin, however, as a whole an impressive set indeed!

Design and graphics are the blood in my veins, sites of experienced design attractive to the point that I made to this site and explore its roots. I hope to become one of the best websites designers in major companies

Loved the post & observations from all, there are things in Graphic design that you need to give a deep thought over it.

This is a wonderful compilation, although I definitely doubt( as a few others) if all of these logos are set in Helvetica. Evian definitely is not. I doubt if Harley Davidson is. I would also add keybank’s latest logo to the list. You must helvetica for rendering such unique indentities to all these brands inspite of being such an overused typeface in the web world! Nice post!

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of Helvetica. How can you label the logos above with using this font? I guess I understand what was meant to be said. Those logos use fonts that are variants of Helvetica. I don’t quite see the “practicability” of the font, other than the fact that it is clean-cut and striking. A font is font. Also, I question the “excellent” title given to some of the logos presented above. Interesting article though, it gets you thinking about concept of design in different fields.

as far as I can tell, jeep isn’t Helvetica. Anyone concur?

Helvetica forever

I love Microsoft logo!
simply superb!

really interesting article, but I doubt if all the logos are exclusively helvetica.

I don’t think ‘Jeep’ is Helvetica etiher. I played around in Photoshop for quite a while with that one. The ‘e’s seem quite different. They’re wedge shaped, Helvetica’s ‘e’s are more rounded. Would be interested if anyone else could demonstrate otherwise with a photoshop overlay…

I did however notice that there are several Jeep variants out on the internet… some looking decidedly more ‘Helvetica’ than others. Perhaps this accounts for the differences in opinion?

I don’t think all the logos are Helvetica, but for the most part – IMPRESSIVE.

Es una de las tipografías mas usadas, y por las mejores empresas,
habla bien de ellas

Some of those looked suspect to me, but great compilation none-the-less. Thanks!

good post like it, and is cool to see how u can use one tipography style for so many and diferent companies, it´s great the use, and some of the are based in helvetica onli, but part of the design is that, make something unique:D

Scottrade….

I don’t know about excellent, but definitely Helvetica.

http://www.scottrade.com

probably mentioned above but skype is VAG rounded – and clearly evian is far from helvetica.

Nice post though, good on u!

The evian logo isn’t Helvetica.

And here I thought all these logo’s were Unique.
I bet they’re kicking themselves now for having the same font as so many other companies. I know I would be!

I believe Caterpillar is Univers. Not Helvetica.

Is this just for well-known brands? If not, I would have included http://www.visualboxsite.com, don’t you? Good article!

helvetica rules!

Excellent collection. I’m a heavy user of Helvetica
But the “digital” seems suspicious to me. The “a” looks different from others.

Simple and clean..is a perfect solution. Every time i prefer use this way for create a logo…is the best way! You can use everywheare!

my life style!!!

Why Microsoft chose Helvetica over Comic Sans MS is beyond me.

Great list, is amazing what this font can do…

are you kidding me??
so many logos are definitely NOT set in helvetica. evian?? dole? is this a joke? a blind man could see that.

the skype logo isnt helvetica i think

helvetica Rounded is a family of helvetica

I love helvetica!

great list !!!!!! love it !!!!

Regardless of the fact that a number of the examples are not Helvetica or pure bread Helvetica, it is none the less a great post that has sparked a discussion, fact faulting, debate and nit picking thread of comments.

A interesting post is further backed up by the variation in comments, good or bad. And I love the fact that it has got people so clearly worked up over it.

I personally love Helvetica and run http://www.lovehelvetica.com so posts like this are always of interest to me, even if not 100% factually correct. And it seems many people have learnt some new things here today, so its a win for me.

If i needed to pick a fav, then it would be the Tupperware logo. Awesome colour, nice use of a heavier weight and a neat logomark make this use of Helvetica look very very trendy and cool. Not that it needs any help to look cool, Helvetica that it, but it looks more cooler. Bah.

So whatever, neat list of logos.

Graham

gr8 list!! good job….

evian it’s a gill sans!

This is a great post. While yes, I love Helvetica, and everyone can pick apart whether it is purely used or not, the great observation of this post is how distinctive a name can be. Letterforms put side-by side are creating positive and negative shape to form a logo. Websters defines a LOGO as graphic representation or symbol of a company name, trademark, abbreviation, etc., often uniquely designed for ready recognition.

Fascinating how ready recognition is market by kerning, italic, caps, lowercase, color and the nature of the name itself. Such small shifts in the use of a typeface can produce such notable logos. It is all about the abstraction of those positive and negative shapes that impact style. Sign of a GREAT typeface.

Great work!

wow, great post, i didn’t know that all of those logos was created with helvetica

Gostei do Post, bem legal!

I ran CATERPILLAR through ‘whatthefont’ and it came up as Swiss 921.

The Mattel logo has web 2.0 style!

Fantastic article and really love the round up. I am quite a fan of Helvetica and it’s the application in these logos/brands that supports just why!

I concur that some of these logos are/were not Helvetica but I agree with @Graham Smith too. I think an article with debate and discussion about it is always a win/win.

Thanks for starting it and keep up the great work!

Alex | Zen Elements

Excellent post. Thanks a lot !

Who would have guessed that Helvetica is so widely used. While most of those are variations of Helvetica , it’s one of those things you don’t think of when seeing those logos every day. Any hoot, very cool!

Great collection, great resource.
Also nice high quality logos!
Thanks for the effort.

Best wishes

Great post, nice collection . i like BME logo so much . it is amazing

dear writer designer of this presentation.

your article is complete. very nice and VERY useful to me.

Thank You.

after reading the comments im reminded of what someone once told me.

Opinions are like a**holes. everone has one.

Your project is complete and good

these opinions are ridiculous and voices of small ones

Guys, there are many variants of Helvetica available, and there are many ways of further tweaking the typeface for logo design purposes. So don’t be so sure that some aren’t based on Helvetica or aren’t based on a variant of Helvetica.

Also:
Quiktrip, Skittles

Wow! How familiar Helvetica is! Some of the logo’s don’t “seem to be” Helvetica but are… very interesting!

Helvetica Rocks!!! but i think all logos are not made in Helvetica

Everyone should watch the documentry “Helvetica” I watched it the other night and it was fantastic. Gave great usage and the history of Helvetica.

The furniture company Knoll is probably my favorite:

http://www.knoll.com

I do find it pretty funny that Microsoft won’t license Helvetica for their operating system, but would use it for their logo. Shouldn’t they have used Arial to show solidarity… but that’s just me.

Some really good examples here. My personal fave is the North Face logo. Pretty much perfect.

Will Helvetica ever start to look dated? Probably not or at least not for a loooooong time.

I’m pretty sure I see a few Arials in there.

Excellent list.. need some examples of simple typefont logos with some design elements to ad energy..preferably some rounded fonts for a smart fun feel. would appreciate some references.

another one: Paris-based amazing radio nova

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_P37xmUzcGZk/Rho7esXApPI/AAAAAAAAAVI/kavCmjVv1eA/s320/nova.gif

Try Akzidenz Grotezk for a change—complicated, simple and full of character—, Helvetica is just an idealized version of this. Helvetica is to predictable and easy to design with.

Toyota was based on Gill Sans Bold. Evian was a design based on Frutiger, with strong changes to the letter shapes.

none of these logos are really remarkable or recognizable on its own because of helvetica. the typo makes them only interesting and good-looking because of the clear style the font brings with it.

if you look closely at those logos you’ll know and remember them because of simple, but very important design edits and adjustments. from adding a design mark to integrating minimal modifications in the font (removing or adding). logos and brands like Jeep, American Apparel or JCPenney aren’t famous and established because of Helvetica.

Your list is great and very inspiring. But I would prefer to see the logos at a slightly smaller size; that will help to see the logo better. That could sound as a paradox, but you know what I mean.

Excellent!.. simplicity becomes a publicity!

American Apparel uses helvetica, but it uses a slightly modified version of Helvetica Neue. The example on this page isn’t the real logo.

if you like helvetica, take a look at Alte Haas Grotesk… i think it is quite inspired by helvetica but can stand alone…

http://www.dafont.com/search.php?q=alte+haas+grotesk&nb_ppp_old=10&page=1&text=Type+your+text+here&nb_ppp=10&af=on&psize=m&classt=alpha

Alte Haas Grotesk is just helvetica with blurred edges.

Sweet. Great compilation

Found this strange “Helvetica” notebook recently:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laborandcurse/3643147263/in/photostream/

I’ve been inspired to use Helvetica on my new company logo check it out….would love to hear you Helvetica gurus’ comments. http://www.dekode.co.uk

I actually feel like im commiting a bit of a design crime when i use helvetica as it is used everywhere! A very inspirational article which puts it in perspective for me. Thank you.

I just wrote a post about nearly the same thing! I have no idea how I didn’t come across this one earlier, but I’m glad I did. It has a few I missed, although their credibility seems to be in questions.

Click on my name to see the Top 50 Helvetica Logos.

Keep up the great posts guys,

Cheers

Woah, awesome list!!!!!!!!
I just started taking graphic design, and for one assignment we’re to hand print our title page in Helvetica, so I was trying to figure out how to do this… Glad I stumbled upon this list, now I have a better idea of what the font actually looks like!

These logos are NOT in Helvetica by any manner:
BMW, Evian, Harley-Davidson, Olympus, Dole, GM, Motorola, Digital.
Please take them off the list quickly, to avoid spreading misinformation.

Less is more. As soon as companies learn how to execute this simple principle and get off of the papyrus train, they will see a much better result. Simplicity has served the folks on this list quite well I would say.

same helvetica
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2397/huhl.gif

VERY awesome. Just what I was looking for

They are some great logos here. It just goes to show that a simple type face can restore your faith in simplicity. Like a good photograph they tell a story, they remain fresh and bright in your mind like newly restored old photo. Excellent examples!

Great List of Logos using Helvetica. The use of Helvetica in Logodesign can be very manifold. Some of these Helvetica-Types are modified but still based on the same great old Helvetica Font. Thank you for sharing.

I agree less is more and helvetica is a great font for logo design.

Georgeous list of Helvetica logos!

Sticking to the KISS method usually works pretty well, and Helvetica does this for sure. Thanks for the great list!

Is the skype logo helvetica? I think it looks a little to rounded… Nice list however… It seems that around these parts (Glasgow, Scotland) that Arial Black is becoming the new helvetica… I’ve had clients ask me to use it by name. Maybe they don’t know of Helvetica because it’s not on Windows machines…

I think McDonalds is.

Evian is definitively not Helvetica.

Skype uses HelveticaRounded LT Bold no doubt about it.

Hevetica is a great and simple font which can be very well used in logo design. Nice examples!

cattepilar & evian? this is helvetica?

Caterpillar uses Helvetica Compressed yes, but that particular Evian logo it’s not helvetica.

Amazing!

the logos are brilliant. simple very famous.

helvetica is just great. i prefer to use it cause its well known good.

Font used i Evian, Dole, National (Car and Track Rental) logo is not a helvetica.