Eurostile and Microgramma were by that communist with great type sense, Aldo Novarese, earlier than Helvetica. I have a family ruler (Plancks Typographic) that was the hot font. Its great, but, alas, his politics sucked. He did tons of great fonts though. The definitive Italian type designer of the 20th century. I believe he worked at Niebolo before coming to America, he did lots of ITC fonts, NOVARESE, etc.