HELVETICA

Helvetica is a documentary by Gary Hustwit. He tells the history of this typeface by having different font and graphic designers tell their feelings and opinions of Helvetica. Most designers believe that Helvetica is a modern, clean type that is good for anything. There are some graphic designers that pretty much only use this typeface. This font is believed to have the best figure-ground relationship that is properly executed. According to many of these designers, Helvetica says accessible, accountable, nonthreatening and transparent. It is well rounded with a perfect balance of push and pull. Some say that it is the typeface of capitalism and socialism. "There is a fine line between simple, clean, powerful and simple, clean, boring."

Helvetica, meaning Swiss typeface, was designed by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei in Munchenstein, Switzerland. Eduard Hoffmann wished to make a traditional font . Helvetica is seen all over the place in signs, logos and posters.
















"Erik Spiekermann, born 1947, studied History of Art and English in Berlin. He is information architect, type designer (FF Meta, FF MetaSerif, ITC Officina, FF Govan, FF Info, FF Unit, LoType, Berliner Grotesk and many corporate typefaces) and author of books and articles on type and typography. He was founder (1979) of MetaDesign, Germany's largest design firm with offices in Berlin, London and San Francisco. Projects included corporate design programmes for Audi, Skoda, Volkswagen, Lexus, Heidelberg Printing and way finding projects like Berlin Transit, Düsseldorf Airport and many others. In 1988 he started FontShop, a company for production and distribution of electronic fonts." Erik Spiekermann feels that this font is overused and does not make the product or company unique or stand out. He was the only one or one of the very few from the documentary that was not singing the praises of this well balanced typeface.