■ About the Publication

Magazine B is an ad-free monthly publication that dedicates each issue to one well-balanced brand unearthed from around the globe. The magazine introduces the brand’s hidden stories, as well as its sensibility and culture, and is an easy but also serious read for anyone with an interest in brands.

■ About the Publisher

JOH & Company is a creative company founded in April 2011 by Suyong Joh, former Director of Creative Marketing & Design at NHN. He oversaw and directed the construction of NHN Green Factory, which is the headquarters of NHN, the company that has earned domestic and international reputation as “Google of Korea.” He also created a sensation in the publishing world when he compiled the construction process in a publication, Green Factory. Currently, he leads JOH & Company, a group of creative directors that he has brought together from various fields, and he is conducting complex projects encompassing architectural design, brand consultation, interior, food & beverage service, and product design, based on his own experience. The first fruit of such endeavor is magazine B.

■ About the Issue

This month, we introduce Helvetica, a widely used sans serif typeface born in Switzerland. It was the typeface I was supposed to draw for the assignment I mentioned above, and I would say it is one single typeface worthy of careful study even now. The most basic, but also the most sophisticated typeface, Helvetica is perfectly balanced and has a great deal of potential for variation depending on the designer. This explains why, for more than half a century since its creation, Helvetica has been?as it will surely remain?a global graphic design standard. Sometimes Helvetica is criticized for being too rigid or for stifling individuality. But every typeface also has its own merits and demerits, and such criticism is not channeled at Helvetica only.

I believe that the aesthetics of a thing, whether it is a small bag or an imposing work of architecture, is determined by having the aesthetic acuity necessary to find balance for a font in a small space. This requires the sensitivity for the fine-tuning of weights, widths, and spacing in a typeface that can be trained down to 0.001 mm. That does not mean that typography has to be approached professionally by a design major. But those who are skilled in designing and employing typefaces are sure to have an outstanding sense not only for design, but for other fields as well. That is because they must have their own distinctive perspective on the content and expressions they are trying to convey. I’d like to recommend that you look closely at well-designed documents and try to imitate the weight and spacing of the typefaces used. I believe even to an untrained eye, this exercise would reveal a new world of type design.