The Silicon Review ^Asia

The formats, style and the way of representing the written language varies. The typographers are making constant efforts to make it more appealing and readable. IBM’s new typography is expected to replace the traditional Helvetica and might turn out to be the Helvetica of this century. With its new and modern typeface ‘Plex’, IBM is bringing out a new corporate font which was launched in Beta this week.

The official release of the product is expected to be in early 2018. The company officials decided to work on a typeface that brings out the beliefs and the systems of IBM and which is independent on any of the traditional typefaces. According to the concepts of Mike Abbink, the typeface’s designer and IBM’s executive creative director of brand experience and design, typeface is an essential for any growing company to express their views in a better manner. He says “When I came to IBM, it was a big discussion: Why does IBM not have a bespoke typeface? Why are we still clinging on to Helvetica? The way we speak to people and the conversations we need to have and we’d like to have, is that still the right way to express ourselves? We should really design a typeface that really reflects our belief system and make it relevant to people now. Helvetica is a child of a particular sect of modernist thinking that’s gone today.” After the introduction of the mainframe computer, the ThinkPad laptop, the Selectric typewriter, the Eye-Bee-M logo, the new typeface ‘Plex’ is going to bring a change again.