[Movie Monday] Who Knew Typography Could Be So Interesting?

Actually, I used Arial to create this, but it's practically the same font. Windows PCs come with Arial; Macs come with Helvetica.

I’ve been sharpening my graphic design skills lately, and as I’ve read books on improving the look of my Powerpoint slides, the visual display of quantitative information, and basic typography, I grew interested in a documentary film my brother mentioned to me last year called Helvetica.

“Helvetica?” you might be asking. “Isn’t that a font?”

Not only is Helvetica a font, but it is the font that you’ll see in most graphic design since the 1960s. See, back before personal computers, typesetting and font design was a very complex process — you had to create very detailed illustrations of every character and then ship them to type foundries, where steel pieces would be created for printing presses. Because of this, there was a great need for a simple, “everyman” sort of font that not only was readable and stylish, but neutral.

“Yeah, but why should I care?” you might ask. “All I have to do now is fire up a computer, and I can use any font I want.”

True, but it never hurts to learn about why Helvetica (and copies like Arial) became a visual standard. And it’s even more interesting to see how Helvetica has been used in the creation of logos we see every day:

Granted, you probably will notice some slight variations between these logos and the simple typeface versions I put in the captions — particularly between the “o” and the “s” in “Microsoft”. You’ll also notice some differences in the spacing between letters and some individual flourishes (like the “R” in “TARGET”). But each of these logos begins with Helvetica, and they’re just a small sampling of the many, many corporate logos that are Helvetica-based.

What is it about this font that people like so much? Well, for one thing, it’s very precisely designed, with perfectly round curves, straight lines, and nice arches. The ascenders and descenders (the parts of lowercase letters that go above and below the row of letters) are of a uniform size, and the letters look as good smashed together as they do spaced apart. The font doesn’t have any serifs (the little hooks on the end of letters), which makes it striking and readable from a great distance — perfect for a title. And, most impotant of all, the font appears neutral and safe, making it a reassuring choice for just about any poster, headline or logo.

One of the interesting things mentioned in the documentary is that Helvetica has something of a mythical status as being the perfection of the sans-serif font. The truth of the matter is that it just happened to be the right font for the right time, and it gave companies struggling their way out of the style of the 1950s a chance to simplify their identities and appear more modern. What is interesting is that over the last 50 yeas, Helvetica has fallen out of style and returned to being the dominant font in design, primarily due to the fad of “grunge typography” that typified the 1990s.

Anyhow, the documentary is very interesting, and it’s available on Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” service. You can also get it on Amazon.com. I’d recommend checking it out if you’d like to learn something about graphic design and typography! Even if the content bores you, the photography in the documentary is very good, and it’s interesting to see how and where Helvetica crops up.

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