Posts Tagged ‘Helvetica’
Helvetica: The Movie
Every few months the Brunerbiz team gets together for some professional development and socializing. For our last meeting, we screened Gary Hustwit’s 2007 documentary, Helvetica, which marked the typeface’s 50th birthday. This sounds nerdy, and it is, but I’d like to add that when this film was screened as part of 2007 Hot Docs festival in Toronto, it was one of the first to sell out. You can see clips of the movie.
Why is Helvetica’s birthday a reason to celebrate? For one thing, Helvetica is one of the great typographical success stories. It was created in 1957 by by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann. It was originally called Die Neue Haas Grotesk but was renamed Helvetica in 1961 (after the Latin word for Switzerland: Helvetia) to make it more marketable internationally.
The design community loved it—it was legible and modern. Until Helvetica, designers were working with typefaces inherited from the 19th century, which had a manual, handmade feel. Helvetica, with its sleek lines, looks machine made. It has a neutral tone—any meaning it conveys is purely in the text. Helvetica is simply “there.”
Helvetica became the typeface of corporate identity in the ‘60s and ‘70s. There was a period when designers rebelled against it, because it represented the establishment and conformity, but it’s back now and being used by cheeky brands (American Apparel) cool brands (Comme des Garcons) and mass market brands (The Gap).
Notice what the following wordmarks have in common: Each one uses Helvetica.
And this just scratches the surface—Helvetica is used in more than 40 logos. It’s the official typeface of the Canadian government, it’s used in forms created by the IRS and in public transit signage. Look at the typefaces around you and you’ll begin to see it everywhere.
Why is Helvetica such a success? Its most enthusiastic proponents perceive in its design a sense of inevitability, as if it were not so much invented as discovered. “It’s hard to see how to improve Helvetica,” says Matthew Carter, designer of Microsoft’s Verdana and Georgia typefaces. “It just seems exactly right.”
Designers say it achieves a nearly perfect balance between figure and ground, giving it a feeling of solidity. As well, it’s got a roundness that is human and comforting. Helvetica’s message is this: you are going to get to your destination on time; your plane will not crash; your money is safe in our vault; we will not break the package; the paperwork has been filled in; everything is going to be OK.
Ultimately, Helvetica is a blank slate, a cipher—and this is the key to its success. It can be authoritative or ironic, sober or idealistic, corporate or cozy. Throughout Hustwit’s film, the commentators reach for similes to characterize Helvetica’s presence everywhere in today’s visual landscape. They compare it to air, gravity, and perfume—it’s woven into the environment.
I recommend Helvetica—the font and the movie. If you’re interested in design you will also enjoy Hustwit’s latest film, Objectified, which furthers his interest in design, this time industrial design. I had a chance to see it last year at the Hot Docs festival. It was also a hot ticket, and a great film.
Font Humour
If you like jokes about fonts—and who wouldn’t?—check out these two videos from College Humor. We learned about them from Stefan Budansew, a participant from an Elections Ontario course who shares our passion for language.
Remember the site is for college students, so some of the previews you might see are, um, inappropriate. Unless you happen to live with college-age students, in which case you’re probably immune.
- Font Conference is a meeting of personified type faces (French Script wears a beret and has a heavy accent, Comic Sans wears a cape and gets to save the day—you get the picture).
- Font Fight depicts a battle between two gangs, one led by Helvetica, and one by her clone, Arial. A little violent, and again, Comic Sans gets the last line.