Legibility, Communication and the Helvetica Problem

“Don’t confuse legibility with communication. Just because something is legible doesn’t mean it communicates and, more importantly, doesn’t mean it communicates the right thing.”
-David Carson

 

I think this documentary presents two strong arguments for and against Helvetica. On one had, I’m concerned about it being over used. But there are over many, many different styles of it so customization is easily available. I was once told that you are more creative the more constraints you have. I think I could take Helvetica and make it unique. Clearly that has been done before if you look around.

But I think there is something to be said about loss of identity. Google. Yahoo. Hulu. Heineken. TIME. The typography used in these logos are easily recognizable. They are apart of the brand imagine. Even with some customization. You don’t get that same distinction you normally get with an unique font. It wouldn’t be the same as changing everything to Comic Sans but it would make me think differently.

There are tons of different typefaces to use. So why do we keep coming back to Helvetica? I don’t think Helvetica should be seen as the enemy. But I also don’t think it should be used as an easily solution. There was a great quote in the documentary “Don’t confuse legibility with communication.” With all typography, it boils down to what you are trying to say and in what context. If Helvetica is the best font choice for your project, go ahead an use it and try to customize it. But if there something that might work better, it may be worth the risk to design an unique logo with a different typeface.

Also, I really like the Font Conference video but I couldn’t think of anyway to work it in to my post. So I’m sharing it here because typeface really does have personality.