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Helvetica Response

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.