Burtin has been credited with importing Helvetica to North America from Zurich in 1958 (just a year after Max Miedinger created it as Haas-Grotesk). Burtin pressed its use at every possible occasion, as, for example, at Typography--USA 1959, held in the Hotel Biltmore, where he went into a debate with his friend William Golden (art director at CBS) over New American Typography.