Helchelsica

For this blog post, my class and I were asked to visit this website and take a quiz that would match a text with our personalities. I got Helvetica as my result.  According to the quiz I am, “an industry standard, classic, reliable, and a little bit boring. I shouldn’t let the haters get me down and that I have plenty of friends who think I’m the best”. This definition of Helvetica as my personality is for the most part accurate. I do consider myself very reliable, I believe classic looks are timeless, and I tend to be boring in my nature.

            Not many people stop to wonder why certain types are used on posters, billboards, or even a simple candy bar. There are hundreds upon thousands of different types of text that we as a society are exposed to though out the day. Some texts are used to make a product recognizable at a quick glance. While other texts are used to help provoke emotion or clear up a message.

            Why was Helvetica developed? Helvetica was created in 1957 to be used as a more readable and easily displayed typeface. This was very important as different media forms and a modern advertising industry was beginning to flourish. Soon after being produced, Helvetica became the most widely used font of its time. With its clean, smooth lines, it reflected a modern look that many graphic designers wanted. At the time, many European countries were recovering from war, Helvetica was the font used to express newness and modernity.

Sadly, about 20 years after breaking the scene, a font called, Frutiger, put Helvetica into retirement. Frutiger was said to be the “humanized” version of Helvetica. The only difference with Frutiger was a slightly jagged and varying widths Helvetica’s once naked design. From there on out designers craved new fonts that were more expressive and energetic. Although, today one of the most used fonts is Arial. Arial was developed by a company called Monotype and was released as a cheaper Helvetica substitute.  They’re vary similar but Arial has replace Helvetica as the digital standard, especially on the Internet.

 Fonts have changed over the years to fit the needs of growing industries. In modern times, each text has it’s own personality and flare. Text can be helpful in conveying a message or emotion. Or it can be simply used just because it’s easy to read.