You should try! Keep in mind Helvetica is very straight-up and constructed, even in the italic. There are no traits of fluid handwriting, whatsovever, hence some of those shapes in your sketch have no business showing themselves in a grotesque.

Frank, that's exactly what interests me about it ... I completely agree that several of my solutions are bug-ugly; but I'm curious what a grotesque script would look like. I've been surprised by the lack of "straight-up and constructed" scripts on the market, and think that an italic Helvetica could be a great basis to build upon.

The only problem is, I'm not actually a font designer myself, just a passionate graphic designer who sits around wondering about these kind of things.

Paradoxically, there are script based on more geometric typefaces:
http://www.myfonts.com/search/futura+script/

Pay me a bunch of money and I’ll design it for you.

It's a funny idea, I like it! I agree with Frode about the cursive forms, but think there's potential even with grotesque forms.

Or maybe you’ll like this: http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/flat-it/ht-maison/

I once experimented with some grotesque swashes.

the lack of "straight-up and constructed" scripts

http://typophile.com/node/68809#comment-403798

Related to the main topic: someone knowns connected scripts successfully implementing a double storey |a|?

Riccard0, I like this, but it still feels like a "joke font" to me. That is, not something I would use for a number of flexible designs. I guess what I'm chasing is the (admittedly debatable) neutrality/universality of Helvetica in a script face, which I haven't seen enough of to suit my tastes.

If I had a bunch of money, Frank, we'd be in business already.

I love your grotesque swashes! I was not-so-secretly hoping Helvetica Flair would become a real thing. I know it's a gag font, but I have to admit that I thought it could be useful in brightening an occasional universal/humanist design.

I am trying to resist from stealing this idea. :)
BTW have you seen "Pluto"? Some of his alternates have the flavour from your sketches.

Alexander, you're more than welcome to steal the idea! I'd love to use this font in real life, so help yourself. As I said, I'm not a type designer. If you're actually interested, we could draft up some kind of simple gentleman's agreement like a nod my way in the font credits.

Helvetica Flair

*blink* *blink* "..."

*nods in agreement*

@smrvl
I will sketch some glyphs, and see what happens.

But I have to warn you that I am just an hobbyist

Hobbyist or not, you're a step above me, for sure! And Christopher, I wish Helvetica Flair were purchasable. I think some postmodern-ly expressive riffs on Helvetica are long overdue.

I just found this, which is closer to a cursive grotesk, but still not nearly readable enough for my taste. http://www.behance.net/gallery/Lullaby-Font/3860655

what about this:
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Alecko-Typeface/2993193

That's much closer to what I have in mind! I like that a lot.

After around two hours I of playing I started to understand why there is no script version of Helvetica - its most recognizable characters like a, e and s are very hard to "convert" to script form without losing their character.

The rest of the typeface has become standard and default and is hardly enough to carry out its flavour.

and also you have these horizontal and vertical lines.

This would be good Type Battle (http://typophile.com/typebattles) material, if they still existed.

"...and also you have these horizontal and vertical lines."

Excellent!

Thanks for saving the time...

There's Lobster

http://www.impallari.com/lobster/