Helvetica

This was my first time watching the film 'Helvetica' which shares a brief history of the typeface from when it was first designed in 1957 (the same year that Helvetica completely changed the look of adverts) to the present day where it is still the most widely used font in the world. In fact, before watching this film I never realised just how widely used it was and still is with almost every shop sign written in Helvetica. It was said in the film that Helvetica is designed so well that it invites open interpretation which is probably one of the main reasons that it is so popular, because it fits with almost every design possible.

However, all was not happy in the film. There were many examples of designers who disliked the typeface because of its overuse and rejected its use completely. I found these designers work to be much more visually exciting and much more inspiring. Among these were the works of Émigré, many examples of ‘grunge typography’ and the works of Paula Shcer who even went as far as to blame Helvetica for starting the Vietnam War which I found amusing. There were other amusing parts to the film such as the part when the designer (I didn’t catch his name) was talking about his experience designing wedding invites saying it was the most stressful job he has ever had because of dealing with a mother-in-law. Another part I found myself chuckling away to (mostly because of my immaturity) was when I noticed one of the phrases sliced into Stefan Sagmeister’s body read ‘style = fart’.

Throughout the film, the typeface was described as being neutral and efficient making it fit perfectly to the majority of designs. As mentioned before it was said that Helvetica invites open interpretation but doesn’t always have to be legible to communicate the desired mood or message, e.g. when the font ‘Dingbats’, which is made up of various different symbols, was used to communicate how boring and dull a passage of text was. Something which I didn’t know beforehand was that the design of Helvetica was based around the sliced off terminals in the letters, ‘e’, ‘c’, ‘g’, etc. This seems to be crucial in the way the typeface is designed.

I am not one hundred per cent whether I am pro-Helvetica or anti-Helvetica mostly because I am just properly discovering the extent to which Helvetica extends. The fact that this typeface fits almost every mood or feeling inspires me to include Helvetica in some of my designs. However, the ‘punk’ side of me wishes to avoid the font just because it is so widely used and so popular within everyday life, and perhaps look further into those designers (mentioned before) that inspired me from the film.

That Font Sure Is Saucy

Getting Around

Transport is the typeface that was designed specifically to be the main typeface used on British road signs. In this case, Transport Heavy has been used as the road sign uses dark text on a light background. Transport has been used on British road signs since 1964, the year when all road signs in the UK were redesigned. It is a clear, bold font that can be classified as being a humanist sans serif type face. The font does its job very well as it is very clear, distinctive and friendly but is also easy to read from a distance in a moving vehicle. Together, the phrase, the type face and the colour choice give the sign a warm and friendly feeling. As stated before, it was designed specifically for road signs making it the perfect font for the job.

The hierarchy of the road sign is very simple and effective. The green ring draws the viewers eyes to the number which is the most important thing in the sign. Then the viewer reads the phrase at the bottom which is less imoportant. The difference in scale and the placement of the number at the top of the sign help communicate the hierarchy.

The main users of the sign are obviously going to be drivers of any vehicle and they need to obey the speed limit which is clearly stated in an easy to read and easy to understand manner meaning the road sign fulfils its purpose very well. The sign is so well designed that there should not be a single user that cannot understand it. The sign's message could not be clearer therefore in my opinion, no changes to the sign's design would be needed.

Modular Grid

&&&&&&&&&&&& what?

The ampersand I have chosen is built around geometric forms which distinguishes it as a geometric sans serif. The 'E' is quite recognisable whereas, in my opinion, the 'T' is much less recognisable because of the fact that it could be mistaken for a cross. The 'E' has no stem but instead 2 curved bowls that join together but not with the 'T'. Each bowl is a continuous curve of equal thickness at all times with the lower bowl curving slightly more than the upper bowl. Overall though, I am not sure how clear it is to someone that doesn't know it is an ampersand.

The design is simple enough that this ampersand would probably work well at a really small size in amongst body text or at a very large size in a headline or something. Because of the use of shapes it makes the ampersand feel quite informal and if it were a person I would imagine them as the fun, playful type who doesn't take things too seriously.