FONTS!
In my opinion, fonts are some of the most fascinating elements to printing and design.
They are all around me: the Internet, on the road signs I pass everyday going to work, in the current novel I’m reading, in my iPhone, or on the packages of food I purchase.
Fonts evoke particular emotions of excitement, or hesitance, whether we are aware of their effects, or not.
Fonts are used to relay information, and more importantly to set tones and meaning.
I could write a very long blog post on the power of fonts and actually not-so-boring-but-interesting facts about typography; however, today I will refrain from such a lofty urge and commit to discussing only one of Hucul Printing’s favourite fonts.
Helvetica.
Designed in Switzerland in 1957 by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffman, this font has been successful for good reason – it has been used in logos for the likes of Toyota, American Apparel, The North Face and NASA (just to name a few)!
So what makes a font a good font?
In the printing industry, we want designs to look good in print. Meaning, the content must be legible and evoke a positive reaction from the viewer.
The reason why Helvetica has been so successful, is not only is the font legible, it is very neutral and versatile.
Helvetica is neutral because it allows the message to speak for itself, instead of the font speaking for the message. It’s versatility hinges from the range of Helvetica fonts you can choose from to set the tone.
Here are two excellent examples of different designs using Helvetica:
Helveti-soup by Paykhan Paykhan
love-hate1 by www.smashingmagazine.com
What you can do with Helvetica is limitless, and there are so my different types to choose from, such as: bold, italic, oblique, heavy, bold, oblique, and so forth.
This is not to say that Helvetica should be used in every design. There are so many other great fonts that can be used to really make a design stand out. But as we are advocates of simplicity and clean printing, we have to name Helvetica as our all-time favourite.
Take a look at this short video on how Helvetica revolutionized the world of design and advertising, to make messages much more sophisticated and clean.