Helvetica (Richardson)

Fonts…

It brings me back. Reminds me of high school when I was the editor in chief of the yearbook. I still remember what font we used: Futura. We had a big poster on the wall with consistencies regarding font sizes, styles and weights. Good times…

But I digress…

I used to be more familiar with fonts and I vaguely remember having the discussion that Helvetica was overused. I think all of my high-school yearbook memories had been suppressed until now, so this documentary was beneficial in jogging my memory in all things font-related.

Helvetica. Seriously. It’s used everywhere. I laughed at the line in the beginning of the film that compared Helvetica to off-white paint. I never considered using Helvetica as a conscious choice rather than simply out of laziness or lack of expertise in picking type face. I always assumed that people used Helvetica due to an oversight by the design team.

To me, font is very important. One of my favorite sites is dafont.com. There’s so much cool free stuff on there. Just like when taking a picture, every detail is important. Or when making a film, every frame has to look good. I’ve had to make a lot of font choices when making films. Simply because your font has to match your brand, or your project.

I think the main takeaway from watching Helvetica is that we all need to be conscious of what font we use in design, and regardless of what that choice is, we should be able to justify that choice. Type face can make or break a design or brand. And I don’t think most consumers would think twice about fonts, but attention to font could affect whether or not you keep your job, or get another one, in the design world.