{"id":2511,"date":"2014-08-29T06:23:14","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T06:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/?p=2511"},"modified":"2022-09-05T13:44:46","modified_gmt":"2022-09-05T13:44:46","slug":"helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/","title":{"rendered":"Helvetica: The Typeface We All Love To Hate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The creative arts are many, varied, and ever changing.  Neither boundaries nor languages can hinder a truly creative piece of work from  gaining strength and popularity all over the world. And when it comes to  designing, whether it is a promotional banner or a web design, a greeting card  or a logo design, creativity is on another level. There is color, there is a  symbol, and then projecting the company name in the most decipherable, most  recognizable and the most memorable way possible, there comes the use of  typeface, and all of this combined can <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/monogram-design\/create\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">make your monogram<\/a><\/strong> or the logo identity stand out in the crowd of competitors.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top:40px; margin-bottom:40px;\" align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/logos\/search?utm_source=helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate&amp;utm_medium=topbutton&amp;utm_campaign=ctatracking\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"cta-button\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Logo Maker Online<\/a><\/div>\n<p>The fact that there are many typefaces now that are being  used in the designing world can only mean one thing; that it\u2019s the new age.  Everything is done on computers these days and the myriad of selections of  fonts that we have has made it very easy to convey the mood of our message. By  a simple change in the typeface we can go from formal to friendly, from simple  to italic, make it appear anything we want.<\/p>\n<h2>Its Origins:<\/h2>\n<p>The ongoing tussle on the best typeface, however, has opened the doors to many discussions. Helvetica, the most popular typeface is, constantly under criticism, for being not only boring but the fact that it has sustained itself for the past 54 years is simply logic defying. Created by Swiss typeface designer Max Meidenger and Eduard Hoffman in 1957, it was put up against the Akzidenz-Grotesk in the Swiss market. Originally called the Neue Haas Grotesk, it was later on given the name of Helvetica, which is the Latin name for \u201cSwiss\u201d so that it could be used internationally as well.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><iframe src=\"\/\/www.slideshare.net\/slideshow\/embed_code\/38484930\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"border:1px solid #CCC; border-width:1px; margin-bottom:5px; max-width: 100%;\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"595\" height=\"485\" frameborder=\"0\"> <\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>You See It Everywhere&#8230;<\/h2>\n<p>It is true that the Helvetica can be seen on almost every  sign, every slogan, and it is also used vastly in <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/logo-design-guide-for-retail-startups\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the  art of logo designs<\/a><\/strong> of many famous companies. From BMW, Bayer and Lufthansa in Germany, the Helvetica look spread to Bank of America, Knoll, Crate&amp;Barrel, JC Penney, Mattel, Sears, Orange, Target, Toyota, Panasonic, Motorola, Kawasaki and Verizon Wireless .  It is also widely used by the U.S. tax forms, and was also chosen by NASA for the space shuttle orbiters.<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Helvetica-Logos.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Helvetica-Logos.jpg\" alt=\"Helvetica Logos\" title=\"Helvetica Logos\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2512\" width=\"600\" height=\"\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It is an easily adjustable font, its simplistic styling  makes it very easy to be incorporated in almost every design, and there are  countless signs and logo designs that have used it. This leads us to consider  the fact that it may not be so just because it has been around for some time or  that it was easily available on almost every system, though some would have us  believe just that.<\/p>\n<p>If designers are to be trusted then we must look closer to  find out why all they want to use is Helvetica, and consider the fact that it  maybe because it really is worth something. Helvetica is so commonly used  because it works so well. The design embodies the concept that a typeface  should absolutely support the reading process \u2013 that clear communication is the  primary goal of typography. Helvetica is so widespread in its use and has such  a global appeal because it has a neutral outlook, it is colorless, and hence it  can be easily molded into any design. It can be used to project whatever  impression the words and the colors that are used with it desire to project, it  is clear and decipherable in any and every font size. It\u2019s also considered to  be safe by designers, as in using Helvetica can ensure an easy acceptance; it  poses no threat of rejection because it is so easily legible.<\/p>\n<h2>It\u2019s Not What It Seems:<\/h2>\n<p>On the other hand, there are many people who consider using Helvetica sign of bad taste. They believe that not only Helvetica is not an original in its own design, but it also comes off as neutral, and by neutral it seems to be a tasteless, thing which has no character of its own to hold on to. Whatever impression the designer wants to project, he has to depend on colors and images along with this typeface to deliver his desired effect. It seems bland, too easy to ignore or overlook, and forgettable.<\/p>\n<p>What made the matters go from bad to worse, according to the  article in <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.smashingmagazine.com\/2012\/12\/06\/why-wont-helvetica-go-away\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Smashing  Magazine<\/a><\/strong>, was the advent of personal  computers, where systems like Apple could add only few typefaces and they chose  Helvetica among there other few choices, so it became easily available to  everybody, and people could all copy one another because everybody could access  it. Also, it appears to be stiff, and not comfortable to look at, they appear  stiffly erected besides each other, with the space in between giving off an  unconnected feel. A typeface is not a fraction of a word. Letters make up a  word; the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/interactive-media\/principles-typeface-classification\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">principles  of typeface classification<\/a><\/strong> dictate that it expresses a mood or atmosphere.  That is why, the Helvetica is not ideal for any and every sign, especially, if  you consider it for logo design.&nbsp; And the  fact that now there are similar typefaces around, like Ariel, we can only hope  that we have not been so influenced by Helvetica that we never come up with any  improvements, for after all that is said and done about Helvetica, it cannot be  denied that it was a bad idea that just got famous.<\/p>\n<h2>Helvetica vs. Other Fonts:<\/h2>\n<p>When we speak of similar typefaces, there is a long list of fonts that can easily substitute for Helvetica better expression and personality. Some designers prefer using it but many others are finding alternatives such as Akkurat, Neue Haas Grotesk, New Rail Alphabet, Graphik, Replica, Synthese, Encore Sans, Gedau Gothic, Chalet 1960, etc. If you are one of the designers who think Helvetica is being overused and gives a trite feel to your design, don\u2019t forget to check out the other fonts I have mentioned here. For it is true that Helvetica just came out at the right time, with an impressive marketing behind it that overshadowed the deadpan, and made it what it is today \u2013 the most famous typeface to be used.<\/p>\n<p>We can only hope that in the still-young history of the sans serif, things will change in favor of more intelligent, more original sans serif typefaces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The creative arts are many, varied, and ever changing. Neither boundaries nor languages can hinder a truly creative piece of work from gaining strength and popularity all over the world. And when it comes to designing, whether it is a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[246],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-branding"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Helvetica: The Bad Font We Love | DesignMantic: The Design Shop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Helvetica is not ideal for every sign, especially, if you consider it for logo design. It came out at the right time, with an impressive marketing behind.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Helvetica: The Bad Font We Love | DesignMantic: The Design Shop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Helvetica is not ideal for every sign, especially, if you consider it for logo design. It came out at the right time, with an impressive marketing behind.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"DesignMantic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DesignMantic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-29T06:23:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-05T13:44:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Helvetica-the-typeface.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Evan Brown\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/EvanBrownDM\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@designmantic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Evan Brown\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Helvetica: The Bad Font We Love | DesignMantic: The Design Shop","description":"Helvetica is not ideal for every sign, especially, if you consider it for logo design. It came out at the right time, with an impressive marketing behind.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Helvetica: The Bad Font We Love | DesignMantic: The Design Shop","og_description":"Helvetica is not ideal for every sign, especially, if you consider it for logo design. It came out at the right time, with an impressive marketing behind.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/","og_site_name":"DesignMantic","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DesignMantic","article_published_time":"2014-08-29T06:23:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-09-05T13:44:46+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":250,"url":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Helvetica-the-typeface.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Evan Brown","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/EvanBrownDM","twitter_site":"@designmantic","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Evan Brown","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/"},"author":{"name":"Evan Brown","@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6391d01ed964b5a1184066a18d5bb7f0"},"headline":"Helvetica: The Typeface We All Love To Hate","datePublished":"2014-08-29T06:23:14+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-05T13:44:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/"},"wordCount":1069,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Helvetica-the-typeface.jpg","articleSection":["Branding"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/","url":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/","name":"Helvetica: The Bad Font We Love | DesignMantic: The Design Shop","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Helvetica-the-typeface.jpg","datePublished":"2014-08-29T06:23:14+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-05T13:44:46+00:00","description":"Helvetica is not ideal for every sign, especially, if you consider it for logo design. It came out at the right time, with an impressive marketing behind.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Helvetica-the-typeface.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Helvetica-the-typeface.jpg","width":600,"height":250},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/helvetica-the-typeface-we-love-to-hate\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Branding","item":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/category\/branding\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Helvetica: The Typeface We All Love To Hate"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/","name":"DesignMantic","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"DesignMantic","url":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/DesignMantic-Logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/DesignMantic-Logo.png","width":300,"height":58,"caption":"DesignMantic"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DesignMantic","https:\/\/x.com\/designmantic"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6391d01ed964b5a1184066a18d5bb7f0","name":"Evan Brown","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9f661793780701b84d700350db08494bbbc69f4a5a52f3d53abb33f6190085f8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9f661793780701b84d700350db08494bbbc69f4a5a52f3d53abb33f6190085f8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Evan Brown"},"description":"Evan is an Expert in Digital Marketing. He has been working in the social media space since 2008, with a focus on design services, user interface planning, branding and more. Currently, he is leading content marketing efforts at DesignMantic and has played an integral part in the success story of DesignMantic through strategic marketing campaigns. Evan is also a design pro, who has shown a predilection towards DIY design projects.","sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/EvanBrownDM"],"url":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/author\/evan-brown\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2511"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20709,"href":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511\/revisions\/20709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.designmantic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}