Story about a font (a review)
Typography studies type, yes the letters and numbers even the comma you are reading on the screen right now. If you are not related to design you might not realise it, but I can tell if you are Genz, you usually text in small case letters and all caps when you want to say, ‘SLAY.’ This is one reason which tells exactly why type matters. You would give a cursive handwritten love letter but if you send over your resume in italics, I am sorry buddy you ain’t gonna make it. And you know what could make it work, helvetica.
The documentary Helvetica, directed by Gary Hustwit, talks in length about how clean, balanced and legible it is at any size. So to quote, it is designed to ‘disappear’. The film begins with Helvetica travelling across the city, it is present everywhere so much so that you would not even care to notice. Café menus, various signages, back of the bus, poster on a wall or a torn down pamphlet. This fast moving montage is cut to interviews of designers, who explain the need for visual clarity after World War II, thus formally introducing Helvetica by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann.
Massimo Vignelli describes the font as modernist. He says that there are people who’d want the word ‘dog’, be written such that it barks. So to say, he doesn’t believe in excessive style and myriad fonts to be out there. For him, at most 3 fonts do the job. He further talks about grids in detail and how he has made use of it in his own works. The film also shows photos of how this font was developed. The key philosophy was that the typography should not overpower the content of the text.
The film again moves between interviews and footage of cities filled with advertisements and signage, showcasing how Helvetica is the go-to type for the urban. Michael Bierut and Wim Crouwel show their appreciation by calling it modern, efficient and powerful. Comparison is drawn between the pre-Helvetica world and today. How old designs were always cluttered, fancy and heavy. A special feature is made on the New York City Subway redesign, Vignelli says a system as complex as NYC needs a simple font. Thus, showing how helvetica brings in civic order.
It’s not all positives. The film subsequently turns to torn posters and once-clean surfaces of Helvetica. The new age designers voice their opinions in disagreement regarding Helvetica. David Carson thinks that if everything is in Helvetica there’s no fun, he says it’s like everyone wearing the same ‘helmet’. This is also interpreted as the type giving in to conformity that lacks individualism. The film portrays that the world has grown weary with the font’s overuse, devoid of expression. It so seems that the focus is more on the philosophy, conformity and individuality, than the type itself.
Towards the end of the documentary, Helvetica again travels, this time through the digital world, though there are competing fonts as well. The world is divided over what they think about Helvetica, while some find it boring and obnoxiously dominating spaces, others think of it as a neat, tidy font. While the documentary is interesting with the visuals it gets a little monotonous with the interview, what fascinates me is how the ‘A’ is not a pointy edge but a plateau and the equality shown in the three arms of ‘E’, all being the same size.
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