HELVETICA (+ BOOK COVER)
Last Friday I had the privilege of seeing a documentary film on the type face Helvetica . Of course I've always known that Helvetica is widely used all over the world, but I didn't realize how ubiquitous it really is until seeing hundreds of different clips spliced together advertising a myriad of products and companies or as street signs and directions. It's incredible. Helvetica is so amazingly popular that we don't even notice it any more.
The film presented several different viewpoints on the virtues and vices of Helvetica. Some argued that although perhaps it is overused, it could be seen as the perfect sans serif because of its neutrality and the lack of real improvement that can be made upon it. Others found its overuse to be disgusting and disturbing. Paula Scher, partner at Pentagram in New York City, even joked about having a moral objection to the use of Helvetica due to the fact that when she was a student Helvetica represented corporate America which to her also represented the Vietnam war. She went onto joke about how Helvetica can now be blamed for the Iraq war as well. I wish the clip were online... very funny. Michael Beirut, another partner at Pentagram, was also very entertaining. Other big name designers included: Neville Brody, Stefan Sagmeister, David Carson, Rick Poynor, Massimo Vignelli (who designed the original NY subway map and signs), Jonathan Hoefler, and Tobias Frere-Jones, among others. It was simply delightful. Check out some clips on the Helvetica Film website.
They are selling buttons that say either "I love Helvetica" or "I hate Helvetica," but I think (being the clever person that I am) they ought to also sell buttons that say "Helvetica makes me feel neutral" or "I am neutral towards Helvetica." It would be just hilarious.
Speaking of design, I spent much of today working on redesigning this very unfortunate book cover:
My version with type set in Frutiger (not Helvetica, thankyouverymuch) looks like this (front and back cover shown):
The film presented several different viewpoints on the virtues and vices of Helvetica. Some argued that although perhaps it is overused, it could be seen as the perfect sans serif because of its neutrality and the lack of real improvement that can be made upon it. Others found its overuse to be disgusting and disturbing. Paula Scher, partner at Pentagram in New York City, even joked about having a moral objection to the use of Helvetica due to the fact that when she was a student Helvetica represented corporate America which to her also represented the Vietnam war. She went onto joke about how Helvetica can now be blamed for the Iraq war as well. I wish the clip were online... very funny. Michael Beirut, another partner at Pentagram, was also very entertaining. Other big name designers included: Neville Brody, Stefan Sagmeister, David Carson, Rick Poynor, Massimo Vignelli (who designed the original NY subway map and signs), Jonathan Hoefler, and Tobias Frere-Jones, among others. It was simply delightful. Check out some clips on the Helvetica Film website.
They are selling buttons that say either "I love Helvetica" or "I hate Helvetica," but I think (being the clever person that I am) they ought to also sell buttons that say "Helvetica makes me feel neutral" or "I am neutral towards Helvetica." It would be just hilarious.
Speaking of design, I spent much of today working on redesigning this very unfortunate book cover:
My version with type set in Frutiger (not Helvetica, thankyouverymuch) looks like this (front and back cover shown):
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