Helvetica (2007) is a documentary centered around the typeface Helvetica and how it changed graphic design, multimedia as well as marketing when it became international. The documentary features several well-known designers that have made a huge impact in graphic design and typography, such as Wim Crouwel, Michael Bierut, David Carson, Stefan Sagmeister, and many more and their experience, love or hate as well as how they view the typeface Helvetica and the changes it made to our society.
The History of Helvetica
Helvetica, first called Neue Haas Grotesk, is a sans-serif typface created by the swiss designers Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann, in Switzerland 1957. The thought behind the font was to create a font much like and inspired by Akzidenz-Grotesk, but more neutral without a personality. As previously mentioned it was first named Neue Haas Grotesk, but to reach a more international audience, they changed the name to Helvetica, based on the Latin name for Helvetica, Helvetia.
What the Documentary is about
The Helvetica documentary is not only about Helvetica, shockingly. It’s also a documentary about typography as well as graphic design and how we express ourselves using said mediums. David Carson, an American graphic designer, speaks during this documentary about how you can express yourself with type, and it doesn’t necessarily need to be legible, because the type can be expressed in many different ways. It’s a documentary that teaches us about expression from many different points of view from several designers, and how they used it, and their opinion on how it’s being used.
What Helvetica did to the world
When Helvetica reached the international market, it made a massive impact very quickly. A typeface that had no personality and could be everything became everything. It was used in Swiss Style graphic design to a simple logo for an American clothing company. At one point in the documentary, Michael Beirut, an American graphic designer known for his clever designs and solutions, such as the re-design of The New York Times logo on their building, shows magazines before and after Helvetica was first introduced internationally. How designers would use different typefaces for everything trying to convey a feeling and sell a product, and after Helvetica blew up with was used for almost everything. The reason why Helvetica could and was used for everything was because of the neutral design it has. It can be anything depending on the brand. It could be bold, at the same time it could be expressed as playful and elegant, if not professional. Even though that Helvetica might be everything and nothing in terms of design, it can’t express everything. Typography is powerful in a way, that it can express emotion with its shapes. While Helvetica is a great font it can’t be used for everything, and wouldn’t work with everything.
As of today, we can still see Helvetica everywhere we look, popular brands such as The North Face, BMW, Lufthansa, Panasonic, The Ordinary, and many more uses the font in their logos. What’s interesting with the typeface is that each of these brands is different from one another. The North Face is a clothing brand, their brand and logo give off an adventurous professional-feeling whilst, Panasonic, a company for electronic products. Their logo conveys a more modern and futuristic feeling. These companies have successfully used Helvetica to portray their brand in different ways, using the very same font, which is impressive with a font with little to no personality.
Conclusion:
I might have not mentioned everything said in the documentary, because they’re talking about a lot of different things regarding the typeface. It’s a documentary I’ve seen several times before and is a documentary I will return to because of how well it’s done and how much you learn from it. There are several great designers expressing themselves, not only about the typeface Helvetica alone but how you can use graphic design and type to express yourself in many different ways using different mediums. There is both love and hate for the typeface, which is refreshing and neutral, just like the typeface itself.
I chose to write about what struck me the most in the documentary, and that’s how Helvetica can be used to convey different feelings and how it was used in marketing and branding. How the typeface was used in such a vast variety of brands and yet be seen in different lights and still look the same. Helvetica was everything and nothing at the same time.
Thank you for reading.