Helvetica

Before watching the film 'Helvetica', I knew very little about the typeface other than it is used everywhere in the store American Apparel. However afterwards, my knowledge of this font was increased greatly.

'Helvetica' was developed in 1957 in Switzerland by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffman and was originally called 'Neue Haas Grotesk'.'Helvetica' is currently owned by the firm Linotype.
I was surprised to find out that the negative space around the letters used in this font play a big part in creating the type and making it appear as it does today, resulting in the letters looking firm and solid.

I found Erik Spiekermann's reference to the way he sees type amusing as he compares the way he looks at type to the way some people may see a bottle of wine, showing he has a strong passion for type. I also found Matthew Carter's reference to a particular plane journey experienced by him amusing. He mentions a discussion about employment with other passengers where they quote "I thought all type designers were dead?",in return to his answer of a type designer. I found this amusing due to the passenger's stereotypical opinion of type designers.

A new designer to me, was Lars Müller. I really enjoyed watching him justify his definition that 'Helvetica' is the 'typeface of the city', where he is seen standing next to various examples of 'Helvetica' in use in city signage. Another new designer who inspired me and I would like to find out more about was Michael C Place. I found it interesting to see how he designed, without knowing much about the main principles of typography such as type anatomy. I also enjoyed hearing how he found ordinary things beautiful and how he tried to incorporate this in his work. I particularly liked his piece where he uses lots of symbols to create the word ' symbolism'.

The designer Paula Scher, whose work I studied in the previous project featured in this film. I learned how she wanted to be an illustrator and began to learn to illustrate the type to give it personality. She describes 'Helvetica' as being very clean but does also blame it for starting the war!

There are varied opinions of 'Helvetica' by the designers in this film. Erik Spiekermann describes it as being dull and thinks it has become a default whereas Michael Place describes it as still being as fresh as it is now as it was 50 years ago. The emotional aspects of this typeface were featured often: neutral, timeless, modern, beautiful, legible and clear. The technical aspects were mentioned less, an example is where Michael Carter mentions the horizontal terminals and it is described as being "more machined and less manual".

I would say I am pro 'Helvetica' as I agree with Michael Place's explanation of this typeface being timeless. The film mentioned the fact that this typeface can be used to say both "I love you" and "I hate you" which shows that 'Helvetica' can be used in any context and still look appealing.

I really enjoyed watching this film and found it really interesting. I learned a lot from the designers.

That font sure is saucy

Getting Around

The example of type for transport that I have chosen to analyse is this car parking sign.

Font Choice

The sign uses the same Sans Serif typeface throughout the design which comunicates clearly and easily to the viewer especially when the viewer is likely to be driving at the same time. This is achieved by the typeface's simplicity and lack of character which I think is why it was chosen for use in this sign.
It communicates meaningfully as the clear display of information allows the viewer to understand the content immediately when looked at, allowing them to act accordingly. The typeface colour is also altered to communicate different sections of information to the viewer.

                                                          Information Hierarchy
Hierarchy is achieved in this sign through the use of colour and text size- the larger text displying the most important information. I find the various background colours behind the text a bit much and inappropriate as it distracts from the importance of the text information. However the use of various text sizes is appropriate as it allows the most important information to be seen first.

                                                      Usability
The users for this item are people who are driving in the area who enter the car parking zone. This covers a large range of individuals such as students or business people. Thier needs are fufilled as they would be able to read the sign quickly when driving and take the appropriate action due to the clear layout of information. The smaller text at the bottom of the sign may not be so easily read by individuals that are partially sighted due to the large quantity of text this size.

The design of this sign could be improved by varying the weights of the type and by removing the various blocks of background colour behind the text to improve the overall clarity of the information on this sign.

Modular Grids

&

I chose to analyse this ampersand, from the 'Coming Together' font. The ampersand appears quite traditional and organic due to the 'calligraphic' style used in the letters, particularly in the curves of the 'E'. It belongs to the Humanist classification, due to the these features.

The baseline of the 'T' extends lower than the baseline of the 'E' which creates a contrast to the top of the letters where the cap height of the 'E' extends further than the 'T'. The cross bar of the 'E' forms the uppercase line of the 'T' which creates an almost distorted cross bar but this doesn't effect the clarity of both of the capital letters.

The 'E' almost looks as if it it catching the 'T' to stop it from falling....this resembles that the bond between to the two letters is strong- Due to the extended cross bar of the 'E' & the joining of the baseline of the 'E' to the 'T'. This creates a sense of security in the ampersand.

If this ampersand was a relationship, it would be a relationship where a strong sense of trust is present due to this sense of security present in the ampersand.