For the last half of class on Wednesday, we began watching "Helvetica". Since I was signed up for this class last semester, I had already seen most of the film. However, I took more notes this time around and found some interesting things that I had overlooked originally.
Interesting facts about the typeface, Helvetica:
1. It emerged in 1957, when there was a need/want for a new modern and classic type face.
2. The font was created by Max Miedinger, who worked as font salesman.
3. Helvetica means "the Swiss" type face in Latin.
Helvetica is the chosen font for a number of well known businesses around the globe, including American Airlines, the NYC subway system, Jeep, BMW, Target, Verizon and The North Face.
One characteristic of Helvetica that was mentioned in the film was the use of horizontal letter slicing. For example the way to lowercase "e" is cut so cleanly.
Although I'm not as enthusiastic when it comes to fonts as the individuals highlighted in the film, I do understand the importance of font selection. Typefaces have the ability to give your words a mood, emotion and feeling. They can make a company look more professional and clean cut, or give something a slight edge.
P.S. If you didn't notice, I specifically used Helvetica has my font for this blog post!
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