Helvetica

Let me preface this by stating that this blog post will not be written in Helvetica. I'm fairly sure that you will see it in its devil not as nice sister font -- Arial.

I recently watched an interesting documentary about the font, creatively called "Helvetica". The font itself means "the swiss font", because it was created by the Swiss. In the 1950, typography was going through quite the remarkable transformation. In the 40's and 50's, companies would advertise using these hand-scripted fonts. Ads would usually involve a cartoon, with a big long paragraph about how when you're at the beach, don't you and little timmy want to just have a big coke for that shiny nickle?

Well, in the late 50's, and 60's, the sweeping trend that was started in WWII was brute efficantcy, and scientific precission. Think laser etchings. So as soon as Helvetica began to take off, it would forever change the world. It worked so well for business that even today, well over half of all business logos use the font.

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/40-excellent-logos-created-with-helvetica/

Its a long list, and it doesn't stop there. Why you may ask?

The reason for Helvetica's success is its neutrality. Out of all the fonts in the world using roman letters, Helvetica is decidedly the most neutral. It doesn't have any personality, or bias. It displays the message without being part of the message itself. Another great example is that all safety equipment, or "in the background" signs, like street signs, or speed limits, or exit ramps, or safety instructions, or "slippery floor signs" all use helvetica. It is soothing apparently.

Some typographers even go so far as to say that Helvetica is perfectly balanced as a font. That... it is the perfect font (many other argue that perfect fonts do not mean the best font, and a large war brews among typographers) , and it is hard to disagree with them. Helvetica has been the champ for 50 years, and there hasn't been a decade that really has dethroned the king of font families.

One thing that all PC users should be wary of is the HORRIBLE job that windows does on fonts. Mac's have been the go to software format for typographers for YEARS, and for good reason. There are many cases when Microsoft office incorrectly displays fonts.

So if you are in doubt, use a mac. Or just don't use office. There are some great open source programs out there to make sure what you are typing is good.

I use one on my mac, which I can't remember the name to right now because I'm typing this on a PC.

My favorite thing about helvetica is the power it can give to powerful words. What I like to do is print out a single word that contains a lot of meaning and emotion in itself -- love -- and print it out in Helvetica font. No capital letters, and if I'm feeling frisky I'll ad a period. The effect (in my mind) is cool. Here you have this very neutral and non-emotional typeface displaying a word that conveys a ton of emotion. This can help a person "feel" the emotion even stronger than if someone uses a non-neutral typeface. This, I believe, is because without a logo, or a typeface to "clue" your brain into what you should feel when you see the word, the only thing you can see is the meaning of the word itself, and then your brain has to figure out all the conotations that are associated with that jumble of letters. In its simplicity, you can find a lot of power.

I would encourage everyone to check out http://typophile.com/ as it is a great place to learn a bit more about typeface. Its fun. I swear.

BTW, feel free to leave me some comments, I can see that there are visitors to the site, but IDK if they are random clicks, or if people are actually reading. I don't mind writing these thoughts as a diary, but if you'd like to leave feedback please do.

Thanks,
Guthrie