03 — Sections · Desks A–E
Five desks.No lifestylepages.
Every article in Helvetia is filed to one of five desks, lettered A through E and ruled accordingly. A desk is a promise: a subject, an editor, and a standard of proof. Below, the desks and what they filed for Nº 14.
Typography
Edited by Ines Roth
Letterforms, foundries, and the quiet politics of the alphabet.
- Akzidenz Before Helvetica: The Grotesk That Refused to Diep. 012
- Emil Ruder’s Last Lecture, Reconstructed from Three Notebooksp. 018
- Kerning Is a Moral Actp. 022
Grid & System
Edited by Bruno Achermann
Structure, ratio, and the discipline of the column.
- The 12-Column Lie: What Your Framework Got Wrongp. 028
- An A4 Obsession: Why √2 Refuses to Retirep. 034
- Baseline Grids for People Who Ship on Fridayp. 038
Architecture
Edited by Yves Padrutt
Buildings read as typeset pages; cities read as books.
- Concrete Is a Typeface: Reading the Hallenstadionp. 041
- The Stairwell as Footnote: Zürich’s Hidden Circulationp. 047
- Signage at 120 km/h: The Autobahn Alphabetp. 050
Criticism
Edited by Salome Wirz
Polemic, review, and the occasional partial apology.
- Vignelli’s Subway Map Was Right, and New York Still Owes Himp. 052
- The Tyranny of the Hero Imagep. 056
- In Defence of the Ragged Right (A Retraction, Partly)p. 060
Archive
Edited by Margrit Lendi
What the movement left behind in its flat files.
- Müller-Brockmann’s Beethoven, Measured to the Millimetrep. 064
- Lufthansa, 1962: The Identity That Outlived the Aircraftp. 068
- The Lost Specimen Books of Basel, 1957–1971p. 070
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A desk you would add? We have rejected F fourteen times.