Developed between 1974–84 by Team’77 (André Gürtler, Christian
Mengelt, Erich
Gschwind) following the invitation of Alfred Hoffmann of the
Haas type foundry to reimagine Helvetica for
phototypesetting. Released in 1980 for Bobst Graphic/Autologic and
later Linotype.
For many years a digital version of Unica was
available from Scangraphic (and Elsner+Flake, four weights plus
italics) but it was pulled from the market due to a complaint by
Linotype who claims the Haas rights. In 2004, Stephan Müller
modified a copy for the use in an artist book. [Lineto] In
2008, Cornel Windlin did a custom Semibold for the the
Schauspielhaus Zürich identity, used in 2009–10. Later, Louise
Paradis made a revival named Unica Intermediate
(unreleased) while doing research for the
TM retrospective.
Lineto released LL
Unica77 on March 7, 2015. It’s the only digital version
authorized by and made with the involvement of the original
designers of Team’77.
Toshi Omagari created another digital version and extension
released by Linotype as More…
Developed between 1974–84 by Team’77 (André Gürtler, Christian Mengelt, Erich Gschwind) following the invitation of Alfred Hoffmann of the Haas type foundry to reimagine Helvetica for phototypesetting. Released in 1980 for Bobst Graphic/Autologic and later Linotype.
For many years a digital version of Unica was available from Scangraphic (and Elsner+Flake, four weights plus italics) but it was pulled from the market due to a complaint by Linotype who claims the Haas rights. In 2004, Stephan Müller modified a copy for the use in an artist book. [Lineto] In 2008, Cornel Windlin did a custom Semibold for the the Schauspielhaus Zürich identity, used in 2009–10. Later, Louise Paradis made a revival named Unica Intermediate (unreleased) while doing research for the TM retrospective.
Lineto released LL Unica77 on March 7, 2015. It’s the only digital version authorized by and made with the involvement of the original designers of Team’77.
Toshi Omagari created another digital version and extension released by Linotype as Neue Haas Unica. The first style, Ultra Light Italic arrived in 2014, the others appeared on MyFonts on March 18, 2015.
Alberto Moreu’s Studio Pro (Think Work Observe, 2018) is inspired by Unica, too.
This entry covers the original phototype version, the pre-2015 digitizations, as well as all unidentified interpretations.
