Helvetica, 2007

Helvetica, 2007                Gary Hustwit

Typefaces express a mood, atmosphere. Helvetica is like air, it is everywhere. Designers use it because it is ubiquitous, beautiful, and timeless.

Massimo Vignelli

A designers job is to cure visual disease with design. 

There are not that many good typefaces. At most, a dozen. He uses only three. 

Helvetica is the best typeface out there. This is because it is not expressive. It is simple. 

Helvetica is clear, modern, legible, and good to use for everything and anything. The world was ready for it when it was introduced, especially after WWII when people needed unifying. 

"I can write dog in any type and it says dog, but there are people who write dog and think it should bark."

Personally, I am not sure if I agree with this, from a postmodernist point of view this is ridiculous. Why not write dog and have it say bark, as that is what a designer does? However, I also agree with the fact that type should be expressionless. The meaning should be within the context and not the type. 

Sees post-modernisms as barbaric disease. Thinks that they don't know what they stand for, all they know is that they are against Helvetica. 

Rick Poyner

In the 1950s idealism in design was prolific, especially in Europe. Design needed to be rebuilt so that it was more open to the people, smoother. From this, came the emergence of Swiss-style.

Helvetica is rational. It can be used for signs, corporate uses. It is intelligible and legible. Helvetica is underpinned by the feeling of idealism.   

Wim Crouwel 

Not in favour of using multiple typefaces for different atmospheres. Helvetica is usable for all. 

It is readable, clear, straightforward. Neutral, machined.

Grids create order and order is type. 

Type should not have meaning in itself, the meaning is in the context of the type itself. 

Mathew Carter 

When designing a font, always start with a lower case h. 

Helvetica has a beautiful horizontal slash that creates a structure throughout. 

Helvetica was born at the Haas type foundry in Switzerland, which is owned by Linotype. 

It was designed by Edward Hoffman and shows the interrelationships of negative shapes. The Swiss pay more attention to the background that holds the letterforms tightly. 

Michael Bierut

Using Helvetica restored tye history and makes designs new and fresh. 

Leslie Savan 

Helvetica is neutral and efficient yet smooth and accessible - this is what makes it perfect for brands who want to be seen as human, transparent, accountable, clean, official. 

Erik Spiekermann

A negative opinion on Helvetica - it has no rhythm to it like handwriting does. 

It is so popular that it is now the default, so all of the meaning has been stripped away from it.  

He believes that not all letters should look the same, and this is what Helvetica represents. 

Typefaces are a brand and Helvetica is a modernists club. 

Lars Muller 

Some people believe that Helvetica is the typeface of capitalism because it is used for so many brands, however, he believes that it is the brand of socialism due to that fact that it is so accessible and invites everyone into type. 

He describes it as 'the perfume of the city'.

I think this is an interesting take on Helvetica - that a typeface can somehow blur the lines between politics. 

Personally, when looking at the beginnings of Helvetica, I think that it was easy to anticipate a rise up against what quickly became the social norm, as there always is. 

Helvetica can easily be looked at as a dull, blanket of sameness. 

Paula Scher

A post-modernism view. Helvetica represents a visual language of brands and corporate culture. 

It's squeaky clean - much like the big brands that use it try to advertise themselves. 

These, however, are the same brands that sponsored the Vietnam war. 

Pushpin Studios was something that young designers who wanted to stand out looked up to - do to it feeling so fresh, alive and witty. 

When Scher started to illustrate her own type it was freeing and gave her designs more personality, its own medium, palette, vitality. It was expressive and free. 

Stefan Sagmeister

He was disappointed in modernism because it bored him. 

If it is 'boring' visually, then the content will probably be boring too. 

In my opinion, why does one have to choose a side? Why can't I blur the lines and be taken seriously by both modernists and post-modernists? 

David Carson 

King of Post-Modernism, experimental type?

Don't confuse legibility with communication - just because it is legible does not mean that it is communicating something correctly. 

The 'grunge type' trend shattered the rules within type.