The company’s first typeface, called IBM Plex, is free for anyone to use. IBM is no stranger to icons. Over the years, it’s created quite a few: the mainframe computer, the ThinkPad laptop, the Selectric typewriter, the Eye-Bee-M logo. The company hopes its new bespoke typeface IBM Plex, which launched in beta this week (though the official version won’t be released until early 2018), could become
![IBM’s Quest To Design The “New Helvetica”](https://cdn-ak-scissors.b.st-hatena.com/image/square/458c5471d505dd4a38e63cd48314aac97d5e0bca/height=288;version=1;width=512/https%3A%2F%2Fimages.fastcompany.net%2Fimage%2Fupload%2Fw_1280%2Cf_auto%2Cq_auto%2Cfl_lossy%2Fwp-cms%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F11%2Fp-1-ibms-quest-to-make-a-new-helvetica.jpg)