Obsession With Helvetica
It is no secret to the people around me, even if someone is just a mere acquaintance he or she when asked what my favourite typeface is , would answer ‘Helvetica’. Most of the people while writing may have come across helvetica. So what makes Helvetica my obsession. I’ll start of with telling why is a typeface so important. But what what is a font then? Font is a actually a grouping of typefaces with similar characteristics.
Typeface is just an individual family member of that font.Well let’s say typeface is music then Font is MP3.
Why do these typefaces even matter? People haven’t moved beyond Helvetica’s ugly cousin Arial or even lets say just Calibri. Everywhere you look around you find typefaces. Typographic plays a major role in design. Type bring out a message in your design. Let us say you have to design a logo for a formal organisation or just even a small company. The type should convey the purpose and the message hidden in the logo. Would you go with Comic Sans? or The Papyrus. Well some might but NO, It is a NO NO. Be it just writing down a letter or be it just presenting a logo. Type is what gives it a feeling, an emotion. In this era of content marketing, it is all about type and its appeal.
Design consists of Space, Colour , Image and Type. To most of the people around, but to some typeface is the most important feature.
The power of type goes back to the greeks, who created handwriting.
Typeface may not be able to replicate the intimacy of writing with pen and ink but with over two hundred thousand fonts, you’ll never be running short of choosing a typeface.
Selecting a font is like getting dressed. One typeface is an outfit for certain emotion created. A good typeface creates an emotional response to the message you’re trying to convey. You can shout or you whisper or just be soft in conveying the message. The power of typeface or the impact is still subliminal. Graphic design in the end is the communication framework of the ideas and the messages we put in. Type makes the framework more stronger.
Out of thousands of typefaces I’ve encountered, Helvetica touched my soul.Helvetica Or Neue Haas Grotesk came into existence when Eduard Hoffman President of Haas Type Foundry, wanted a modernised version of Akzidenz-Grotesk.
It’s release was planned to match the ongoing trend, a resurgence of interest in grotesque typefaces among European graphic designers who at that time also saw the birth of Univers Typeface by Adrian Frutiger.Max Miedinger along with Hoffman set out to create something neutral. Helvetica came into existence post WWII period where everywhere there was an aura of reconstruction where there was a need of rational typefaces. During that time there was a certain need of a more neutral typeface, which would emphasis on the content of the text not the typeface.
When you talk about Helvetica , it is all about the figure ground relationship. The Swiss designers used to focus more on the background so that the negative space just holds together the characters.
Haas Type Foundry was controlled by Stempel Foundry which was under the linotype Font Foundry. The director of marketing at that time changed its name to Helvetica which came from the Latin adjective of Swiss Helvetia.
Helvetica is like air , it is everywhere. During the 1960s when companies used to come to consultancies to get their corporate identities revamped, Helvetica was used to dust off the crap from their current Identities and replace it with a new shiny one.In United States if you look around you’d probably find Helvetica more than any other typeface. The fact that American Airlines didn’t change it’s identity for more than five decades, it should tell you the perfection helvetica has created with its use.Take any crappy text replace it with Helvetica and you’d notice the difference.Helvetica is something which can hardly be explained, its an experience. It gives you that joy of creating which Univers or Frutiger fail to give.
Helvetica has this tall X-height which makes it readable in even smaller sizes, tight spacing between the letters just gives a tight feel. From American Apparel to Harley Davidson everywhere you can find an essence of helvetica, the sex appeal it carries. It is like gravity, it pulls you towards it.
