Helvetica Thoughts and Opinions

“Helvetica,” is a movie on the typeface, Helvetica, and how it is seen everywhere you go. Multiple times throughout the movie a variety of artists continued to say that the font was everywhere and always being used for many different reasons. In my opinion, because of its repetitive agreement from all the artists saying how it was used so often, it got very old and boring. I appreciated the many people they interviewed to get their word across and see what they have to say about it, but in the end they said exactly the same thing as the one before did. I enjoyed the montages they brought into the film because it showed many examples and instances that Helvetica could be used for the public eye and for various other reasons such as advertising, packaging, promoting, etc. When Michael Place said “…ordinary things that people would just gloss over, I find very beautiful,” I can’t help but agree because it is always the small things in life that make someone feel comfortable and simple. This may be why they use it so often is for the simple reason for it being comfortable and safe. The film was certainly informative and opened my eyes a little more to see if there are any signs using the typeface, Helvetica.

“It’s air, you know. It’s just there. There’s no choice. You have to breathe, so you have to use Helvetica.”-Erik Spiekermann

This quote is great because of the metaphor he uses to describe the font. It is simple and easy to understand to any living, breathing human being.

The life of a designer is a life of fight: fight against the ugliness. Just like a doctor fights against disease. For us, visual disease is what have around, and what we try to do is to cure it, somehow, with design. –Massimo Vignelli

I like the way he describes organization and having less chaos just by using this font. Helvetica is neat and legible to read, so it is like trying to cure disorder with the typeface that demands order.

“You’re always a child of your time, and you cannot step out of that.” –Wim Crouwel

This quote made me think about the bigger picture and I thought it was very thought-provoking. It is very true how people are a product of their times and these artists happen to show it through their time with Helvetica and how people will grow up with it all around them for a very long time.

Watching Helvetica for the first time I didn’t know what to expect. After watching the movie I found it to be very interesting and informational. I didn’t know much about Helvetica and I had no clue about the different typefaces and how they are all around us. We see typeface all around the world either on brand names, logos, airplanes etc. The most interesting part I think was seeing how someone can take a word and change one aspect about it and it would look totally different. Also after seeing the movie I am now noticing how Helvetica is everywhere and before I never really noticed it so I’m appreciating it more.

Quote 1

“It’s air, you know. It’s just there. There’s no choice. You have to breathe, so you have to use Helvetica.” Erik Spiekermann

The first quote is from Erik Spiekermann and he is a German typographer and designer.  Reading this quote caught my eye right away because Helvetica is everywhere so its saying how we breath it in. I agree with this quote because its just there and we have no choice about it. Its talking about how much we use Helvetica and we can’t get rid of it anytime soon.

Quote 2

“And I think I’m right calling Helvetica the perfume of the city. It is just something we don’t notice usually but we would miss very much if it wouldn’t be there.” Lars Muller

The second quote is from Lars Muller. Reading this quote I really liked it because I agree with it. Helvetica is everywhere around us like when you stray perfume it goes everywhere. We also don’t really notice Helvetica around us like the quote say. It has such an impacted on our lives and without it what would we do.

Quote 3

“You can say, “I love you,” in Helvetica. And you can say it with Helvetica Extra Light if you want to be really fancy. Or you can say it with the Extra Bold if it’s really intensive and passionate, you know, and it might work.” Massimo Vignelli.

The last quote is from Massimo Vignelli who was an Italian designer who worked in a number of areas ranging from package, housewares and furniture design. This quote is really what typeface is about. You can take a simple word and change one aspect about it and it will look totally different. You can make the word look fancy, bold or light and this is what the quote is explaining.

What’s Helvetica?

Before even beginning this film I did not expect it to be at all what it ended up to be, which was captivating. When first hearing about this film and how it was about one typeface and the history behind it I began to wonder what I was about to watch and if I would enjoy it or not. Only a couple minutes into the film I realized that it was much more than just one simple typeface that we see daily. Being a Film Production major, we don’t focus to much on what kind of text we’ll add in the title of our film or the credits, it’s pretty much what looks good and is legible. It was extremely interesting to learn that Helvetica is the most popular typeface and many people (including myself) don’t even realize it because it is so widely used in our lives. One of the more interesting parts of the film was how Helvetica actually evolved over the years and how font was found to be easy to see, clear and good for mostly everything we need to read. It was also very intriguing how people can focus so much on a simple font that can make such an impact, but also have the viewers not realize how powerful that text really is.

Quotes from Cast

“You can say, “I love you,” in Helvetica. And you can say it with Helvetica Extra Light if you want to be really fancy. Or you can say it with the Extra Bold if it’s really intensive and passionate, you know, and it might work.” Massimo Vignelli

Massimo was one of the first people we were introduced to in the film and his statement really stuck with me during and after the film. The feeling you can leave with someone with just words is absolutely incredible and how we portray and interpret it in our minds is even more incredible. The fact that humans can decipher what kind of tone and emotion you are expressing through a text without the person physically there, is quite fascinating. Being in a generation where text is so heavily depended on for communication and expressing emotion it was eye opening to hear someone address the fact that depending on the wording and emphases used in a sentence can mean a different thing each time.

“It’s air, you know. It’s just there. There’s no choice. You have to breathe, so you have to use Helvetica.” Erik Spiekermann

As I had mentioned earlier how I had learned that Helvetica is actually everywhere in everyday life, Erik emphasizes that it truly is just there. I thought he was particularly interesting because of his blunt and bold statement about Helvetica. He made the great, yet simple comparison to breathing in air and how we just have to do it to survive so we must use this type to survive as well. Although we may not realize it’s right in front of us like air, it is still always there and most likely always will be in some shape or form.

“And I think I’m right calling Helvetica the perfume of the city. It is just something we don’t notice usually but we would miss very much if it wouldn’t be there.” Lars Muller 

This particular quote I believe ties in with the other two quotes very nicely because as I have stated we don’t realize how much we use Helvetica but once we do notice it would be a lost element in our lives if it was not there. Thinking about this typeface more into depth has been quite interesting in the way where what would we have if it wasn’t Helvetica? Because this culture is so used to seeing it, but also not realizing what they’re seeing, how would it impact people if all of a sudden we stopped used this typeface. Lars is correct by saying that we would miss it very much if it wasn’t there anymore. This particular typeface is so deeply embedded into our lives that we have become so accustom to it that it is just normal to see it all the time.