Helvetica’s Revolution

February 4th, 2010

I recently heard this great analogy describing how your font should function as a ‘crystal goblet’ in your marketing/presentation material. In the sense that the font type should act like a transparent vessel that holds, shapes and organizes your information without being a feature in itself. In saying this, it is a well known fact that your font choice will subconsciously influence the tone and feel of the message you are tyring to convey.

In the last 50 years we have seen an explosion of san serif fonts in global communications, first popularized by the typeface Helvetica in the late 1950’s. Helvetica brought a new era of pert, friendly, rational and honest fonts. This explains why the so many of the ‘big boys’ in today’s corporate world have adopted this font into their brand identity.

When I did a little further investigation into this typography revolution, I came across a fascinating retrospective film-doco called ‘Helvetica’ that reviews its rise to fame last century. Released in 2007, the film has continued to draw attention to a far wider audience than the ‘typographer’ that you think it would attract.

Check out: www.helveticafilm.com – it will certainly make you think next time you select a font for your upcoming presentation.

Share on Facebook