As I was watching Helvetica, I couldn’t help but wonder about the ownership rights behind the font. I thought, I use helvetica in a variety of programs, sometimes for pages on end, and this is a recent font so SOMEONE has got to be reaping the benefits of all my typing. It turns out my question was answered at about the midpoint of the documentary when one of the designers called helvetica a socialist font, as opposed to a capitalist font (meant because of it’s widespread use by corporations and governments). It’s cool they sell it once to a program, and then anyone can use it as much as they want, as big as the want, as publicly as they want. Socialism in action!
It’s really interesting to think about how easily helvetic can mold itself to different styles and branding. The film points out that it’s the font behind American Apparel’s ironic hipster brand, and at the same time the classic, housewife-y Crate & Barrel brand (which I LOVE). A perfectly formed, simplistic font like helvetica is the little black dress of typfaces. No matter what the occasion or accessories that go with it, it stays classic and good-looking. There is an endless amount of discussion in the movie about WHY it is so perfect- how the negative space is formed, the letter spacing, the curves, etc. And everyone agrees that there is nothing that could be done to make helvetica more perfect. Like the little black dress, there is almost no one explanation as to why it is such a good font. To me, it seems that helvetica was the right combination of classic and modern and came along right at the right time to free designers from the kitschy typefaces of the 1950s.
Finally, I have to say I get where these anti-helvetica rebellers are coming from; it’s an overused font that doesn’t express as much as it could. The album art/gig poster hand-draw fonts are just FANTASTIC. A couple of my favorite inspiration bookmarks are album art and gig poster collections:
http://wellmedicated.com/inspiration/50-amazing-gig-posters-sure-to-inspire/
But as a one-size-fits-almost-all font for marketing and design, you can’t really go wrong with helvetica. And I’m ok with that.