I found Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica documentary to be extremely insightful and eye opening. I never knew how important and influential a typeface could be to the general public and to the graphic designers of our world. This video comes to me at a very poignant time because in one of my other classes (VS Seminar 2) I am writing and illustrating a kid’s book that requires me to pay attention to what font I use and how I use it because it could change the atmosphere/vibe of the piece.


I learned a lot by watching this video as well. My understanding of typeface and graphic design was broadened by exposure to this documentary. I never realized that typefaces express a mood and atmosphere. Typeface give words a certain coloring. I found this quote important, “Graphic design is the communication frame work through which these messages about what the world is now and what we should aspire to. It’s the way they reach us.” I never realized how crucial text is to the advertising world.


I’d also never really heard of the word “Typography” before, which is “the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading (line spacing), adjusting the spaces between groups of letters (tracking) and adjusting the space between pairs of letters (kerning).” I liked how Massimo Vignelli compared the space between the letters/words to music notes and breaks. I thought it was interesting how he described the life of a designer and how it is a job of fight. His main objective as a designer is to cure the visual disease with design.


Helvetica is the type that we see the most because it is very ubiquitous. I never realized how opinioned people could be about typeface. It never seemed to be that important to me but as I continued to watch the documentary I soon discovered its importance especially because it was conceived post World War 2 as a solution to a world problem. Helvetica’s history is very intriguing. In 1950s (post WW2) idealism spread among graphic designers as a need to rebuild, reconstruct and this was embodied in typography. It is a Swiss style that was born in, none other than, you guessed it, “Switzerland”. Helvetica means the “Swiss” typeface. The Swiss pay more attention to the background/ the white space then the black of the letter which is the very opposite way of thinking in America. “It is a letter that lives in a powerful matrix of surrounding space”. I never realized how much of an art form typography is.


I found it interesting that even our taxes are done in Helvetica and that big corporations and ads use it because it is so ubiquitous, friendly, calming, neutral and human. I like the way the typographers (Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones) describe typeface. They used very qualitative terms that are entirely subjective.


I also found it interesting when they started to interview people who were not so happy with the sensation of Helvetica. The flip side is that Helvetica is so ubiquitous and uniform that all the letters look the same like an army. This is important to take note of because it was created right after WW2. Typeface could be used as a weapon to implant bad ideas by big corporations into our heads. Some said it was the typeface of socialism because it is available all over, inviting everyone to typography/ to create. For example Paula Scher (a design graduate from Tyler School of Art) had a vendetta against Helvetica because those who used it were sponsors of the Vietnam War. Another problem with Helvetica is that it is so formatted and so over used that it is not unique anymore. There was a movement called Post modernism where people went against Helvetica. Grunge typography was an example of this. Then in the late 90’s there was another change from grunge/chaos in text to more order (back to Helvetica).


Wim Crouwel also touched on the Stijl movement which I’ve never heard of which in turn led me to do some research. It is Dutch for "The Style", also known as “neoplasticism”, and was a Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917. In a narrower sense, the term De Stijl is used to refer to a body of work from 1917 to 1931 founded in the Netherlands.


All in all, I took a lot of notes while watching this documentary and did a lot of research to broaden my understanding of graphic design and text so that I can improve my own work and to become knowledgeable of the topic.