The film Helvetica is asking questions about the nature and meaning of type. Is it a "crystal goblet" that simply conveys information? Can you write "dog" in any typeface? Is "caffeinated" only caffeinated in a caffeinated font? Is Helvetica responsible for the Vietnam war?
Having watched the film (and given your own experience), are fonts simply tools that convey information or is additional meaning layered into the font itself? Or both? Support your position with examples from the film as appropriate.
due 11/3
As the film suggested, I feel as though Helvetica is commonly used simply because of its widespread clarity and is usually greeted with an indifferent reaction, if any at all. I am of the opinion that Helvetica is not nearly as ‘untouchable’ as the film portrays. While I agree that there are not many, if any, improvements that could be made to the font, this is not due to stylistic choices. In terms of precision and clarity, Helvetica is indeed fairly perfect. In terms of visual appeal however, I feel Helvetica to be lacking. Some people faun over the idea of Helvetica’s simplicity and beauty but seem rather close-minded to any other font. While I’m by no means a fan of the 1950’s era text presented in the film, the starkness of a font such as Helvetica can be equally overwhelming and stale. In terms of the whole ‘dog’ and ‘caffeinated’ issue, I feel literally any other font would be more interesting than Helvetica. While I don’t need my fonts to ‘bite’, I do need them to make me feel like somewhat vaguely put some form of effort into it.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, I feel Helvetica’s main purpose to be that of clarity and generalness, which would explain why the font is found in many public spaces. When found in public, absurd and decorated fonts are mostly tedious and unnecessary, potentially resulting in miscommunication. In terms of practicality and ease of digestion, Helvetica is fantastic. If a designer is attempting to create a pivotal piece of work only to settle on Helvetica, I feel he is not only wasting his own time, but that of the eventual viewer. I suppose I might be too ADD for Helvetica, or maybe I just don’t “get” the appeal of the typeface. In the long run, content is far more important than typeface. If you are concerned about the typeface more than the content, you will have issues.
Helvetica takes a deeper look into the ways that font can affect society. Text and font have a large contribution to the strategy of advertisement, as we learn through this video. Because of the wide range of advertisements and fonts used in those advertisements, our eyes are constantly wandering everywhere. Although there are plenty of fonts to choose from, Helvetica is one that seems to be widely recognized as standard. The standardization of Helvetica helps to signify common places like trains, bus stops, airport signs, restrooms, and etc. I believe that common places should be recognized by a widely known and accepted font, like Helvetica. Just as the expression on someone’s face gives meaning to the words they say, the way words are typed also give meaning to the overall statement. Many times, font is not a “crystal goblet” that simply conveys information. Helvetica, however is one of the only fonts that doesn’t prompt people to put any thought into the design itself. While many people see the advantages of Helvetica, others argue that the design is too standard. A gentleman in the video argued that a font should represent it’s caffeinated message or etc. Otherwise, the audience will not be able to verify that the message is intended to be caffeinated. Many people do blame Helvetica for Vietnam, but I would argue that it only contributed to the war’s tension because of the difference between fonts and their expressiveness. In conclusion, I believe that many fonts are “over the top” and can be used in purpose to persuade the public eye. While many fonts are “too standard”, I believe that Helvetica fits somewhere in the middle of these extremes. Helvetica has become the most widely recognized font within countries in result to the standardized design for common places.
ReplyDeleteTo a degree, typefaces do add a flavor to your text. however for the most part I simply cannot tell the diference between different fonts. I feel like most people can not. for the entire length of the movie I was trying to determine whether or not the examples they were using actually were helvetica or not. I feel that if I notice the font in a text, it's usaully since I'm having difficulty deciphering the text. Spending so much time on fonts is somewhat similiar to building a house, but spending monthes on the doornobs. Yes, if you have a huge and ridiculous doornob on every door it would be a huge hassle. A font and a doornob both serve a simple purpose and putting so much emphasis on the font is putting the cart before the horse.
ReplyDeleteAlso the documentary structure was extremely hard to follow. I could see how they tried to build a narrative by following the font through time, but it was very weak. In my opinion the movie boiled to a series of interviews. but after the first few interviews the amount of new information in from the interviews falls off and It's basically redundent.
When watching Helvetica in class this past Tuesday, I learned some interesting things about a font that I didn’t know anything about. Helvetica is a font that is very standardized and used all over the world because people can easily read it and understand the message. Helvetica doesn’t convey meaning or make you feel a certain way. It’s a standardized font that gets the point across and gives you the information as fast as possible without questioning the information given.
ReplyDeleteHelvetica isn’t a font that conveys meaning by itself. If you put Helvetica in a graphic design and put a picture or graphic by it then yes it does have meaning. But by itself, like for example in a subway, I think that it doesn’t convey meaning. I think that other fonts can easily express meaning and convey a message better than Helvetica. For example, the font Broadway has a meaning behind it. This font is used to advertise Broadway plays and what exactly the play will be about and convey a message to people so they will come and watch the show. Now you can use it on your computer and make Broadway looking messages with it. I think that people don’t think Helvetica doesn’t express a message anymore because it’s a standard font and it’s used everywhere.
I do think that Helvetica can convey meaning but it has to be in a graphic to do it. It can’t be standing by itself on a billboard. When the movie showed the New York City subway, I don’t think that had any meaning because it was just trying to get the information to people about which subway is which. Another example from the movie is a sign for a store. I don’t think that has meaning again because it’s trying to tell you information and not trying to persuade your opinion to anything. I also think that Helvetica is a good thing. I think it’s a good thing to have a standardized font that everyone can read no matter what country you live in.
I think that font is just font. I do not look at things and try to interpret any type of meaning by how it is written I just read the information. When that guy was talking about how “caffeinated” or “explosive” didn’t make him feel any of those words it was still just words to me. I think images/color play a much bigger role in how an advertisement is perceived than the font does. People notice the kind of contrast an image has before they notice how the typeface was being used. Thats why I feel like this movie just reminded me of the Visual Rhetoric Analysis paper and how important images are to everything, much more so than the text and typeface.
ReplyDeleteI guess the film did make me think about how a lot of things are written in Helvetica but I never noticed before. Now I realize that it might be on the verge of overuse but it definitely seems to be the most accepted type of font. It seems like it is something that people can read much more simply than other types and it just flows together nicely. I just think of font as being a kind of typeface that people use but I do believe that the people using the typeface are trying to convey a message with their font. I’m sure they think about what kind of message a certain type of font is going to send across because I’m sure some people do analyze things that deeply.
I just don’t feel like I am that type of person that reads that deeply into ads. I don’t usually see an advertisement for something and get influenced to buy it. I just see the information and decide whether its something that I need or not. How the letters are formed or printed does not have a significant impact on me.
I found that font/typeface has huge importance in the professional world. If you want to be taken seriously you should carefully select an appropriate font. Also, certain fonts were made to have a specific purpose. Some fonts are more pleasing to view on the computer screen rather than on print. Aesthetics are everything when displaying a visual rhetorical argument. In order for you to get a visually pleasing message across you must select the right font for your audience’s eyes. The readings and Helvetica movie made me realize that in my profession I am going to have to over analyze each font structure for every piece of advertisement I do. Fonts hold so much more value than we realize because of the misuse that can occur. You have to select appropriate font for each situation you’re in and act professional in every instance. Fonts are only really noticed when it is a bad selection so we always have to choose wisely.
ReplyDeleteThe movie Helvetica asks a lot of questions about typeface. I believe that font and type face are this “crystal goblet” described in the film. Since we are living in this digitized age the computer, email, and internet are all widely being used. The kind of typeface that we encounter through technology is only a handful of selections. These handfuls are only a small portion of aesthetically pleasing typeface. I believe if you want to write the word “dog” you can get it across better by using a more childish font. Since dogs are considered playful, a playful font would be a correct correlation. The word caffeinated is different. When a consumer is selecting coffee or soda that has the word “caffeinated” on it, the typeface must be selected carefully. These specific consumers are looking for that word exactly and it must be in the same style as having caffeine or being energized. I don’t believe Helvetica is responsible for the Vietnam war and I believe Helvetica as a great font for a lot of businesses in our world. I stumbled upon a website that outlined the importance of Helvetica font when used to display outdoor advertising. I thought that the font spoke for itself in terms of importance and conveyed information regarding font and deeper meaning.
http://thechive.com/2011/08/18/maybe-you-should-try-helvetica-14-photos/
I felt that the film very overstated the importance of fonts. I have no doubt that Helvetica is a widely used font, and its design makes it easy to understand and easy to use amongst all different areas of our society.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the main importance when it comes to writing is what is written. If you write a horribly racist paper, but use a respected font, it isn't going to make the paper more easy to believe. You see all these commericals and ads using different fonts to make a point, but in my own case, I don't look at the font when I consider the ad. I look at what the ad conveys. I feel that fonts may be important, but the way the movie talked about Helvetica, it made it sounds like the font has taken over the world and we can't live without it.
While I do believe the importance of font is overstated, there are points where fonts are crucial. When one wants to present an important business strategy, you don't want to be using ridiculous fonts like windings or comic sans. Such fonts would only distract people. Also, a font like comic sans carries stigma where people automatically see it as a childish font. However, if one uses a font that looks normal at first glance, then one shouldn't overly worry about font.
Helvetica does have that great look where it just seems so balanced and professional looking, that it can be accepted by a wide variety of people, and the movie did do a good job conveying that.
Even before viewing the movie Helvetica, I felt that fonts could be used in either way. Simply a way to convey text or as a statement of character or style. The reason text was created was to allow people to convey words through a visual medium, so at the very least the text should be readable. If it has been abstracted so far that the letters are no longer recognizable, then they can't really be considered text. As long as the text is readable then creator can choose if they want to add something to the text by changing the font. Helvetica is essentially the most boiled down character set of the English language. If you try to simplify the Helvetica characters any further then it becomes more difficult to discern which character represents which letter. Because of this Helvetica is a good choice of default font, as the film stated. It's like the color black "it goes with everything." You can use it in just about any situation an it won't look out of place. Perhaps the font doesn't add anything to the words it represents, but at least it conveys the words to the reader.Now there are other fonts which function just as well as Helvetica, and the same could be said for them. In short font's don't have to be a crystal goblet for the text they contain but they shouldn't obscure the text.
ReplyDeleteIn the film Helvetica, they discussed the use of fonts and different typefaces to portray a certain image. In my opinion, the film was actually very interesting. I didn’t realize how much the font style Helvetica was actually used until I watched this film. I also didn’t realize how much font style really affected whether I read it or not. However, after watching this film and thinking about it, I agree that different typefaces and font styles can make a specific word portray different images based on the font picked.
ReplyDeleteIn the film, a man discusses how the word “caffeinated” doesn’t look caffeinated because of the font style it was written in. He claims that certain font styles can make words come alive and portray different meanings to the reader. I agree with him in that certain words need to be written in specific font styles to get across the correct message to the viewer. For example, the font Helvetica is very simple and easy to read which makes it perfect for being on street signs and on bathrooms. It is a very universal font that is easy to read and gets across the simple message. However, the word “caffeinated” would look much better in a font that has some energy and uniqueness to it. It would change the meaning of the word to the viewer, especially on a advertisement or sign. The font style chose can portray how the author wants the viewer to view it. Some fonts portray a professional purpose while others are used in design to create a flow or a certain energy. In conclusion, font styles are critical to the viewer because it is a little preview of what the ad, sign or paper has to say. I think that font styles do convey information based on the style that is chosen.
After watching the film Helvetica, it makes me look at fonts in a different way. I see different kinds of font’s everyday but never thought of their meaning or why that specific font is being used. It is like a font has a hidden message in a way. I think that fonts can convey information and additional meaning is layered into the font itself at times. Depending on what the font is being used for will determine the information conveyed. As seen in Helvetica, Helvetica has been used through the years for everything from road signs to simple business advertisement to signs about the Vietnam War. People associated the Vietnam War with the font Helvetica. The Vietnam War was so publicized with protest and people against the war that everyone seen writing about it on a daily basis. Due to people using Helvetica I think that it is associated with. Not until watching Helvetica did I even know of a font called Helvetica and how often it is used. Helvetica seems to be a generic font that everyone uses because everyone recognizes it and it is easy on the eyes to read. When font is used other the written from left to right and in straight lines I think that additional meaning is layered into the font itself. Different fonts have different styles of letters making them more artistic or making them stand out and catch the by standers eye. In Helvetica someone created a font that is used with pictures and streaming lines of font but not necessary lines of font you read. Although the font style was artistic the font had a meaning behind what one was actually seeing. With the font not being in a specific order it makes the reader think about what is actually being said or meant.
ReplyDeleteI think that font can act as both a conveyer of information and a medium through which additional messages may be delivered. However, I do not believe that every font can do this. That is not to say that it is impossible or that the fonts that do contain both properties always deliver there desired message, but the illustration of a font can be used in certain ways to add all sorts of meanings even if it is not meant to mean something.
ReplyDeleteFor example, in the film, one lady spoke about how she believe Helvetica was a font used by big wig corporations who supported the Vietnam war. She never used the font because the message that was conveyed to her through the text was one of a faceless, illegitimate war supporter that was trying to make itself look friendly. This is more of a representative meaning since the illustration itself does not convey this, but this is what that woman saw.
Another example would include a typeface designer from the film who saw the word “explosive” (or “explosion”, I cannot remember) in Helvetica font and claimed that the word seemed anything but. He viewed Helvetica as the plainest way to say something and without adding illustrations to the font to make the font itself explosive, that word held no meaning. In this way, typeface cannot convey its meaning because some people would see it as a word and not for the word itself.
In the film, however, they do talk about Helvetica as a symbol of unity and progressivism and idealism during its first years. While it may have been overused after many, many years, this meaning was tied to the word in that the typeface Helvetica was efficient on its own and that showed progressivism. After World War II, the country kind of needed that to help move past those events. So this is a way that typeface can convey meaning.
I believe that it all depends on the context and what is appropriate and what is not appropriate. I believe that any typeface is capable of having meaning and conveying additional messages, but those messages may not always be interpreted the same way by every member of its audience. I also believe that the context in which the typeface is used give the message its meaning. If a large corporation is using Helvetica, are they hiding their corporate face to be more friendly to the people? Or are they as innocent as a high schooler using Helvetica for a paper just because its a default font? That is up for interpretation.