---
title: "Typefaces designed in the 1950s"
description: "4 typefaces first cut in the 1950s, who drew each one, and what a design using it reads as today. Plus what came before and after."
url: https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1950s/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Typefaces designed in the 1950s

4 typefaces first released in the 1950s, in order.

| Typeface | Year | Designer | Kind | What it signals now |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Courier | 1955 | Howard Kettler | Monospace | A typewriter, a screenplay, or code written before syntax highlighting. |
| Helvetica | 1957 | Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann | Sans-serif | Neutral corporate modernism. So common it reads as no choice at all — which was the intent. |
| Univers | 1957 | Adrian Frutiger | Sans-serif | Systematic Swiss design. The typeface for people who find Helvetica sloppy. |
| Optima | 1958 | Hermann Zapf | Sans-serif | Elegant, slightly classical. Cosmetics, memorials, luxury that does not want to shout. |

- [Courier](https://atoneplace.net/font/courier/) — Howard Kettler, 1955
- [Helvetica](https://atoneplace.net/font/helvetica/) — Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann, 1957
- [Univers](https://atoneplace.net/font/univers/) — Adrian Frutiger, 1957
- [Optima](https://atoneplace.net/font/optima/) — Hermann Zapf, 1958

## Related pages

- [Typefaces from the 1530s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1530s/)
- [Typefaces from the 1720s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1720s/)
- [Typefaces from the 1750s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1750s/)
- [Typefaces from the 1780s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1780s/)
- [Typefaces from the 1790s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1790s/)
- [Typefaces from the 1840s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1840s/)
- [Typefaces from the 1890s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1890s/)
- [Typefaces from the 1900s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1900s/)
- [Typefaces from the 1910s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1910s/)
- [Typefaces from the 1920s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1920s/)
- [Typefaces from the 1930s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1930s/)
- [Typefaces from the 1960s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1960s/)
- [Typefaces from the 1970s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1970s/)
- [Typefaces from the 1980s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1980s/)
- [Typefaces from the 1990s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/1990s/)
- [Typefaces from the 2000s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/2000s/)
- [Typefaces from the 2010s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/2010s/)
- [Typefaces from the 2020s](https://atoneplace.net/font/decade/2020s/)