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Within design Helvetica seems to be the marmite of the typefaces, it is either completely adored by a designer and used within almost every aspect of their design work or absolutely despised by a person and seen as the obvious, cliché, default answer to a problem, the easy way out. Whether you hate or not since the birth of helvetica 50 years ago the typeface has managed to completely clean up design, being a big factor is the rise of the modernist 'swiss style' of design which is still used heavily today, revolutionising the the way typography has been used for the past 50 years.
Originally
named 'Die Neue Hass Grotesk' helvetica was created in switzerland in
the 1950's; not knowing how much of an impact this typeface would
have on graphic design the aim of the design was purely to challenge
other sans serif typefaces out there having
no meaning, only function and clarity.
The main competition being 'Akzidenz Grotesk', a tremendous German
san serif typeface designed by the German company H. Berthold AG in
1896, which became the first ever widely used san serif font, the
typeface was; “so popular that graphic artists were actually
forcing it on the printing press” (helvetica
forever, lars muller publishers, 2007, p. 22), which shows that even
without the aid of modern technologies, being able to download a
typeface with the click of your mouse a typeface could still be in
very high demand and this demand is what Helvetica sought to capture.
The idea behind helvetica was to design a modernised version of
Akzidenz Grotesk being heavily influenced by this font just with the
ideology of having a modern twist which would serve of a purpure of
completely modernising graphic design from their onwards. Massisimo
Vignelli describes helvetica as; “A typeface that was generated by
a desire for having better legibility, it is a modern type, it's a
very clear type, it's good for everything.'' (Helvetica, Gary
Hustwit, 2007, plexifilm) and Rick Poynor say's, “it's underpinned
by this great feeling shared by many designers of idealism.”
(Helvetica, Gary Hustwit, 2007, plexifilm) Which shows that even 50
years on helvetica still shares the same aim of being “the ultimate
typeface” with perfect legibility and wide range of uses along with
bringing with it the idealism of post-WWII
reconstruction and a massive clean up of graphic design.
The
idea to create a new san serif typeface came from Eduard Hoffman of
'Haas Typefoundry' who sought after Max Miedinger to help bring the
idea to life by doing the manual construction of the type, Max
Miedinger was a salesman and freelance graphic artist who worked at
the 'haas typefoundry', and for Hoffman seemed like the perfect man
for the job. The direction of the typeface was simplicity, aiming to
create a perfectly legibly font using Akzidenz Grotesk as reference.
Work began on Helvetica in 1956, or as it was originally named 'Die
Neue Hass Grotesk' and in 1957 the typeface was completed. In 1960
the typeface's name was change to helvetica by Haas' German parent
company 'Stemple', to make the typeface more marketable
internationally. Helvetica meaning 'the swiss' in latin, their fore
underpinning the typeface with the huge title of THE Swiss typeface,
to which it has definitely lived up to its name.
Helvetica
seems to work as a typeface because it is so neutral, the smoothness
and roundness of the letters doesn’t display any negative or
positive connotations theirfore it can be used within virtually any
design and probably would work very well within it. Each letter
carries the same characteristics as another giving the typeface a
nice flowing feel along with the boldness given from the almost
perfectly rounded letters and the weight which grabs your attention.
Matthew Carter says,
“one
of the most characteristic and beautiful things about helvetica is
these horizontal terminals in the lowercase 'e's, 'c's, 'g's; the
whole structure is based on the horizontal slicing off of the
terminals' (Helvetica, Gary Hustwit, 2007, plexifilm), the slicing of
which helps prolong the rounded feel to the type, rounding off every
curve at either horizontal or vertical line, means each curve is
curved all the way round, almost to a circle, which give helvetica
and overall friendly 'rounded' feel. However some designers do not
agree on this being such a good thing even though Helvetica has
become a massively revolutionary typeface; Erik Speikermann is well
known for hating helvetica and what it has become, he believes type
should share characteristics of hand written type and each letter
should not just follow the same patten, he states, 'the person that
designed it tried to make all the letters look the same, that is
called and army that is not people' (Helvetica, Gary Hustwit, 2007,
plexifilm), meaning the designer has took the beauty out of designing
indual letters and carved them into the same formula, much like when
you take a group of people, place them in the army, shave their heads
and put them in uniform.
and
an unobtrusive geometry that almost suggests it was designed not to
stand out.
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Post
World War II in the 50's a huge modernist movement then came about
formerly known as 'swiss design' or the 'international style'. This
is a time where a change was needed within design and a real ideology
was felt between designers. One of the key people in inspiring this
new style of design is Joseph Muller Brockman, he was one of the
first designer to apply this de constructivist style within design.
In this image you can really see how...
''once
we introduced helvetica it really ran away, it was exactly what the
designers were looking for, it was just a landslide waiting to go
down a mountain and away it went.'' – mike parker
[By
looking at the advertising for Coca Cola in the 1960’s, one can see
the clear difference. The typography is there, that is all it needs
to do, but the bottle and glass of coke have to sweat to make their
efforts to adhere to the properties which Helvetica depicts; modern,
simple and the most effective word, refreshing. “It’s the real
thing. Coke.” The real promotion of the advertisement is coming
through the typography, which is making a clear statement as to what
the reader really wants. Michael Bierut expressed this idea
proficiently when explaining a redesign:
Can you imagine how braising and thrilling that was, that must feel like you were crawling through a desert with your mouth caked with filthy dust and someone’s offering you a clear and refreshing distilled glass of icy water to clear away this horrible burden of history. It must have just been fantastic, and you know it was fantastic because it was done over and over again.]
Can you imagine how braising and thrilling that was, that must feel like you were crawling through a desert with your mouth caked with filthy dust and someone’s offering you a clear and refreshing distilled glass of icy water to clear away this horrible burden of history. It must have just been fantastic, and you know it was fantastic because it was done over and over again.]
using
helvetica massively throughout it.
around
the time that helvetica was released in 1957, the movement being
known as 'swiss typography',
''t's
The Real Thing. Period. Coke. Period. Any Questions? Of Course
Not. ''
Everyone
sees Helvetica,
“Helvetica
is often described as the
tasteless
white rice among typefaces: satisfies easily, cheap and fast. But the
good
thing is, you can take the design into different directions with the
sauce
and
side dishes (the typefaces you pair with Helvetica).” - Indra
Kupferschmi''
It
is arguably the most respectable of the “default” fonts. But it’s
also used because
it’s
a safe, neutral choice. For many purposes, typography is more about
content
than
style. Fans of Beatrice Warde will tell you that typographers should
communicate
without distraction. Helvetica, with its simple, unadorned forms,
is
the perfect crystal goblet. Even its ubiquity contributes to its
neutrality —
letters
so common they become invisible.
But
invisibility isn’t always appropriate, particularly in advertising
or branding
where
individuality is key
(modernism)
(swiss design)
Helvetica
analysis
grid
system
comparison
between old and new design
swiss
design image analysis
modern
design, branding
helvetica
haters
conclusion.
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