I could spend hours looking at fonts. I love looking at typography based art. I aspire one day to make some kind of application that matches a header font to body font, as that is something I struggle with often, accompanied by much notation and scribbling. To me, reading different fonts is like listening to different voices. You have to pick the right voice for the right situation. I think for most people, reading Helvetica is a little like listening to Morgan Freeman’s voice, but for me it’s like listening to the teacher from Charlie Brown. “Whomp whomp whomp whoooomp whomp”. It has become so saturated it just fades into the background. That being said, and from a corporate design stand point, it’s a great font. Clean lines, easy to read, easily adaptable, ubiquitous.
But it’s also a cop out.
It is a safe font. Low risk. Want to make something look classy? Slap it up there in Helvetica. It’s the easy way out. Watching all the images of Helvetica flash by in the movie was both mesmerizing and horrifying. Where is the variety?! We shouldn’t rely on one font to convey or carry so much. Aesthetically it’s a great font, but do we want everyone to sound the same?
I would be interested to know if any one is even trying to top Helvetica—or is the end all be all of fonts forever? It can’t be. Something, eventually, will come along and unseat it. I’m not sure I’ll live to see it, but nothing lasts forever.
If fonts are voices, then I think we’ve been listening to “whomp whomp whomp” way too long. There is a place for that. But there’s also room for a symphony (or cacophony depending on your view) of other sound too. I admire smaller brands that are trying to shake things up design wise. In a sea of Helvetica, anything different stands out.
Just as a closing note, I found this poster on Flickr. A student made it for a typography class and I don’t think they could have picked a better quote.
I vote we ditch the whomp.