Helvetica

I watched Helvetica much earlier in the semester, in fact the week we were supposed to write on it, but never actually did so. Now that I have realized the error in my ways, I’m actually glad to have gone through the whole semester before writing on it. The documentary itself is incredibly interesting in that geeky design-freak kind of way. It is amazing the diversity in feelings/opinion towards the ever popular and used font. It is also interesting that these feelings/opinions seem to speak to a greater design aesthetic of the arguer. The main thing I can pull from the film is possibly my own approach and aesthetic when it comes to typography. I fall somewhere in the middle, I do believe that typography can express a theme or feeling, but also don’t feel that it always a must. I think there is an appropriate time to use the majority of fonts (including Helvetica, but perhaps to avoid Bierut’s wrath I’ll avoid ITC Garamond), but also think the use of font can be overdone. Let’s just say stick to the old, tried, and true, K.I.S.S. In my designs, similar to color choices, I try to limit my font diversity (generally to two) and keep at least one of them simple and clean. I guess you could say font should only be used for emphasis.