![]() "It's … Oh, it's brilliant when it's done well." They could put that on his gravestone. Its letters live "in a powerful matrix of surrounding space," Parker continued, almost at a loss for words. "What it's all about is the interrelationship of the negative shape – the figure-ground relationship, the shapes between characters and within characters," Parker explained in Gary Hustwit's 2007 documentary, Helvetica. To veterans like Parker, though, who appreciated the nuances of type in ways few people can fathom, Helvetica was an all-time classic. Even Wes Anderson has ditched his beloved Futura (a sans-serif font easily confused with Helvetica) in favour of busier, pre-modernist fonts like Archer Bold. There's been a noticeable growth in Avenir-type fonts in new London stores – possibly influenced by the Keep Calm And Carry On poster. Professionals love Comic Sans like a vampire loves garlic, which could explain why it's become the default type for goofy internet memes. Others seeking an anti-Helvetica have settled on the childish Comic Sans. ![]() Purists have sought to reinstate the original Neue Haas Grotesk, restoring almost imperceptible details lost in Helvetica's digital format. Talk to a graphic designer today and they will often admit an intense dislike of Helvetica. Besides which, many of the qualities Helvetica was once associated with aren't quite as enthralling as they were: corporate dominance, machine-like indifference, bland conformity, American Apparel ads. Photograph: Mario Anzuoni/REUTERSīut is its reign drawing to a close? Helvetica is now so ubiquitous, it barely says anything any more. The font itself said as much as what was written in it – which, pretty soon, was everything.Īmerican Apparel has also adopted the typeface for its corporate identity. In 1960s America, the new discipline of corporate identity consultancy used Helvetica like a high-pressure hose, blasting away the preceding decades of cursive scripts, pictorial logos, excitable exclamation marks and general typographical chaos, and leaving in its place a world of cool, factual understatement. Parker describes it as "a landslide waiting to go down the mountain". Parker is estimated to have popularised over 1,000 of them but Helvetica was the one that took off. The company's Linotype machines were the industry standard in news and book printing, and they supplied the typefaces. The place was the Mergenthaler Linotype Company of the US, where he became director in 1961. Parker, a British-born American, was in the right place at the the right time to smooth its serif-free passage to global dominion. The modern lines of the font are used by airlines such as American and Lufthansa.
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