For my first real entry here, I figured I better not beat around the bush and just address the elephant in the design studio: Helvetica.
We've all heard it before - Helvetica's purity and simplicity make it the go-to typeface whenever you need something without "personality". Many prominent and fantastic designers make this exact argument in the very well-made 2007 documentary Helvetica. Objectively, I can't argue with most of those assessments. Helvetica is uncompromisingly clean, legible, and flexible. Where I get stuck is the assessment that Helvetica is without personality. I can't help it, but to me it feels loaded with personality.
Pretty much any time I'm out and about in the world where we're inundated with signage and advertisements and flyers and all the rest, I notice Helvetica pretty much every time it's used. It's kind of hard not to - it announces its un-stylized presence with a Swiss mid-century scream. So, rather than feeling like it blends into the background, I'm instead reminded of all the thousands of times I've seen it used; from American Airlines 1960's corporate sameness to the American Apparel "look at how much we don't care!" plainness of the current century.
Whoa there, Helvetica, don't go all crazy us.
So, it would seem that the very reason designers in the 50's and 60's fell in love with Helvetica is the very reason that I cannot view it as an "invisible" typeface. It's burdened with the associations I make with the era in which it rose to prominence, and saddled by its ever-prevalent use today. However, my problem seems to go deeper than just that. After all, the same argument about overuse could be made for a handful of other long-standing typefaces. Futura certainly isn't going anywhere, and I adore Futura, so there's something else going on here. When I try to step back even further and really ask myself why I'm not a fan of Helvetica, I'm left with an almost inescapable feeling: Helvetica is boring.
Maybe at the end of the day, I'm just not a designer that likes completely utilitarian type. I almost never use Helvetica or similar typefaces, and when I do I'll tend to go for the condensed versions or something like that, just to give me a little something to bite on to (hello there, Franklin Gothic Condensed). I'm going to keep giving Helvetica a chance. Maybe a decade of mostly ignoring it will rekindle some long-dormant affection that will make me see it in a whole new light. But for now, I'm going to stick with some typefaces that don't feel hampered by the near-existential weight of their history and pedigree. Maybe I'll put all my efforts into Comic Neue.
CB