People have asked me why Helvetica is so commonly used in design. I’ve heard comments like “It’s boring”, and “It’s just the default font in Word”.
Helvetica is a sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss graphic designer Max Miedinger and has earned its respect with designers because it’s simply one of the most versatile font sets in existence. With an extensive range of weights and styles it can span many applications from industrial signage to fashion brands. And in practical terms, Helvetica’s small ‘x’ height makes typography ledgible at smaller point sizes, which in turn allows a greater word count per page.
Most people’s experience of Helvetica will probably be as a system font on their PC, where they don’t have access to the full range of weights Helvetica offers; which is a real shame, as it deprives these users of its true strength – its versatility.
In some respects its popularity has been its undoing. The general consensus is that the decision to use Helvetica is one that ‘lacks creativity’ in itself, and in many ways that’s true, given that is has been used so badly, so often. The truth is, however, that any design can carry a thoughtful typographic use of Helvetica.
I’m not saying Helvetica is the solution to every problem, but it’s difficult deny the font’s usability and longevity. I’ve grown to appreciate Helvetica the more I work with it, not only for it’s sheer range of usable weights but for it’s pure simplicity and clarity. I love it.
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Trevor Morris
Wed 12th Sep 2007 at 15:37
The Creation website uses Helvetica as its main text, however, the majority of users will see Arial as they do not have Helvetica installed. The minority of users will notice a difference. The use of Helvetica in web, compared to print, is a lot different because of this lack of control.
I think a lot of people do not realise the difference between Helvetica and Arial. Arial has been packaged with Microsoft Windows and therefore has gained great market penetration. Because of the general awareness and lack of understanding of the font differences, people regard Helvetica as being over used, when it’s not!
Helvetica, on the surface, looks like a very simple typeface. However, because of its many weights the font is very versatile and can be used in numerous and exciting ways as Rich pointed out in his article.
Tim Webley
Fri 14th Sep 2007 at 11:54
Back in 1987 I got my hands on a Letraset Catalogue. It was absolutely crammed with every bizarre typeface you could imagine. I took it to college for inspiration, desperate for that project where I could let loose on fonts like Calypso, Shatter and Zipper!
Our tutor was way past it, probably in his forties, and warned us of the dangers of badly designed typefaces and spent two full terms trying to guide us to the conclusion that classic fonts like Helvetica were popular for a reason. Boring!
Once in the industry it didn’t take long to realise that typography was a tool to make information accessible. Combine the placement and proportion of text with the right typeface and the possibilities are infinite.
It is naive to think that creativity relies solely upon the ‘inventiveness’ of a font. When you read Helvetica you see the message not the typeface - a great example of how ‘good design should be invisible.’
Where was I…?
Ironically the cover of that Catalogue had the word ‘Letraset’ written vertically up the right hand edge in… (well what do you think?)
I’ll give you a clue; it wasn’t Calypso, Shatter or Zipper.
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