Helvetica Review

I felt that the movie Helvetica was quite interesting.  I liked how they interviewed a broad spectrum of famous/talented graphic designers to get each of their opinions on the typeface.  And they received some very different feelings about it.  Some felt that the typeface was easy to read, timeless, and beautiful. While others found it to be overused, boring, and just overall .  I believe it to be more of a mix of the two extremes.  It’s very easy to read, and is timeless because it’s so uniform and simple.  It’s definitely overused and because its so simple, using the typeface doesn’t inflict any kind of emotions of feelings in readers.

Quote from Massimo Vignelli:

“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.”

I find this quote to be a little much,  yes by changing the style of the font you do change the impact of the words themselves, but it’s not really going to be effective unless the person reading it is a graphic designer

Quote from Lars Müller:

“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.”

I find this to be the most accurate quote throughout the entire movie.  And it’s why I think helvetica is not the best font, because it doesn’t pop, it’s just instantly processed in our brains.

Quote from David Carson:

“Don’t confuse legibility with communication. Just because something is legible doesn’t mean it communicates and, more importantly, doesn’t mean it communicates the right thing”

This is another great quote, and it explains Helvetica completely.  Yes, it’s easy to read but it’s so uniform that it can be used to say a million different things that are unrelated.  And because of that the words lack expression

HELVETICA

Helvetica is one of the most used typefaces in the world. To me, there was no better font to make a documentary about. Prior to watching the film, I had never thought about how often Helvetica is used in my daily life. Some of the most popular brands such as Toyota, Jeep, and American Airlines have mad an everlasting imprint in our minds of their logos by using arguably the most simplistic font available on any given computer. The film “Helvetica” was a very interesting film in my eyes. This typeface is everywhere around me and I had no idea. I thought that the film was very intriguing because it dove down to show the deeper meaning behind the font itself and its many uses. I believe that there were some parts of the film that could have been made more interesting by not dragging on as long but overall, the film “Helvetica” was one of the most interesting, eye-opening documentaries I have ever seen.

Quote #1: “If you want to say something, say nothing” -Massimo Vignelli

During the film, this was one of the quotes that caught my attention. This quote, the first time you read it, seems very foolish and does not make much sense. To understand this quote you need to analyze it further than what is on the surface. Once you go deeper down into the quote, what Vignelli is saying is that sometimes being simplistic tells the story better than if you try to make things too complicated. For example if the company  “Target” had used a font other than that of Helvetica, many people may not have been drawn to their company as they would because they used Helvetica. I believe that this quote applies to many things in the way that sometimes less is more.

Quote #2: “Type is saying things to us all the time. Typefaces express a mood, an atmosphere. They give words a certain coloring.” -Rick Poynor

This quote was also able to catch my eye because it is very true. Everyday, we are mesmerized by the different typefaces that we see everyday without even knowing it. For example, if you are in the mall and you see an ad for a new pair of  Nike sneakers and later that day you are thinking about the swirly font that they used when advertising, that is typefaces effect on you. Typefaces have the ability to create an impression on us and change our mood towards a company and this is what this quote is saying.

Quote #3: “The meaning is in the content of the text and not in the typeface, and that is why we loved Helvetica very much.” -Wim Crouwel

The context of this quote is very meaningful. What Wim is saying is that we stress too much about the typeface that is used and worry not enough about what is being said. If the message within any given graphic or title is meaningful enough it will be memorable; and the typeface does not matter. I think this quote is important because it is all about the message, not the typeface.

Understanding Helvetica

I wasn’t sure what to expect from a movie that revolved a singular font. Looking back now I think I found parts of it more interesting than I thought it would be, but it still had flaws. I appreciated learning the history of the font, and in turn learning more about the history of font making and graphic design in general. It was also interesting to get a look into graphic design culture, some of the big names from it, and all the varying professional opinions on such an influential font. It definitely surprised me how often this particular font was used and how I’d never noticed it. However, this is also where it felt like the film began to fail. After a while, opinions and facts seemed to repeat, and the movie felt stretched out to be a little longer than it should’ve been. Overall, though, it was fascinating to get a look at a deeper understanding of Helvetica and the influences it as a typeface can make in peoples lives.

Helvetica Quotes

“Don’t confuse legibility with communication. Just because something is legible doesn’t mean it communicates and, more importantly, doesn’t mean it communicates the right thing.”

—David Carson

This is something I feel is deeply important to graphic design as a whole. It’s essentially the whole philosophy of graphic design; it’s taking words or images and manipulating them for a deeper meaning towards the viewer. If it only had to be legible it wouldn’t be graphic design.

 

“Maybe the feeling you have when you see particular typographic choices used on a piece of packaging is just “I like the look of that, that feels good, that’s my kind of product.” But that’s the type casting its secret spell.”

—Rick Poyner

I like this quote because it represents one of the biggest thoughts I felt the movie was trying to get across to the viewers. That typeface is something we see every day but don’t truly consider it’s effect on us. Our entire opinion about something can be molded by something as simple as the font and we don’t even think about it.

 

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

—Massimo Vignelli

This is another quote I think really emphasizes the affect the design of a typeface has on people. Even something as simple as the font being bolder changes how you read, feel, and perceive it in your head. It’s an emotional response that graphic designers have to understand for their work.