Helveticlock
Top: Swiss Railway Clock; Bottom: iOS 6 Clock
Helvetica was born in Switzerland in 1957, a product of the Swiss design movement, designed by Max Miedinger. Just a couple years prior Swiss designer Hans Hilfiker designed this clock (left) for the Swiss railway, Schweizerische Bundesbahnen. The resemblance of Hilfiker’s clock design to Helvetica — the reduction of elements, the self-consciously fat strokes — is evidence of the same minimal DNA emerging as the Swiss design movement.
With that backstory it’s easy to see how the design rationale at Apple would lead to this choice for a clock UI. Apple’s skeuomorphic design language bears Helvetica and this choice doubles down on both Swissism and skeuomorphism. The Hilfiker clock is not just the most natural choice, it’s the only choice. But, not so fast. Now the Swiss railway wants to have a chat with Apple about some copyright issues.
(There’s some irony in a skeuomorphic design language that borrows so heavily from Swiss modernism and I’m not the only one to spot it.)
Cross posted on the Punchcut blog.
