Helvetica questions DS

Helvetica
1.Describe Helvetica – what are some core visual characteristics of the font?

-It is very neutral
-it’s THICK IN THE middle
-it is narrow in the T and in the F
-the lower case “a” looks like it has a droplet in it
-square looking “S”
-plain and simple


2. provide a history of the typeface.What was so different about Helvetica from other typefaces?


-Helvetica was made in 1957 by Max Miedinger
-it was developed in Switzerland
-Helvetica originally came from the Latin word for Switzerland which is Helvetia
-the original title for the font was die neue haas grotesk
         Helvetica is different from other typefaces because it initially doesn’t convey any emotions to it. It is referred as to most people a neutral font that is plain and basic but also has a lot of detail in it at the same time.



3.Choose one of the people in the film, who supported Helvetica, explain his/her argument.

The one guy that kept saying coke period (Michal bay ruth). His argument is that Helvetica is like a refreshing drink and those fonts from the fifties aren’t refreshing at all. He thinks that Helvetica is so straight foreword and to the point hence the period.



4. Choose one of the people in the film who dislike Helvetica, explain his/her argument.


The laughing woman’s argument for not liking Helvetica is that she thinks that it is the font of the Iraq war.



5. Having just watched an entire documentary devoted to a single typeface, what is your position on Helvetica? Explain.


I think that Helvetica is not really that impressive. I think that it does hold some importance in the way that it is so popular and that so many organizations and corporations use the font for their advertizing. It really is a neutral font however there is more neutral fonts that can be found than Helvetica such as the font that I am using (Trebuchet MS). In short helvettica is just like any other font.