For those that haven’t seen Helvetica, I highly suggest giving it a shot. Not only is it one of the better of Gary Hustwit’s design trilogy, it’s a fascinating dive into the process and psychology...
For those that haven’t seen Helvetica, I highly suggest giving it a shot. Not only is it one of the better of Gary Hustwit’s design trilogy, it’s a fascinating dive into the process and psychology of the most common font.
It was built for the modern world, and as such got rid of many serifs and appendices that were holdovers of printing long ago. With better technology became better precision and there was no need to provide additional indicators of a letter’s shape, when it can clearly be discerned from afar.
I find it very interesting that Helvetica is being revamped to fit more recent developments of modern life becoming micro-focused, but I can’t say that I’m all that taken aback by the sample at smaller fonts they shared. Perhaps that’s the magic of how seamlessly they shrunk the typeface, but I couldn’t discern what was so revolutionary about making a logical iteration of the same font.
I’m also not sure we need a typeset that can be read at sizes the human eye struggles to identify. Without advanced technology to provide the precision for perception, it seems the updated font may just be an ambitious marketing effort to get a design company back in the limelight.
For those that haven’t seen Helvetica, I highly suggest giving it a shot. Not only is it one of the better of Gary Hustwit’s design trilogy, it’s a fascinating dive into the process and psychology of the most common font.
It was built for the modern world, and as such got rid of many serifs and appendices that were holdovers of printing long ago. With better technology became better precision and there was no need to provide additional indicators of a letter’s shape, when it can clearly be discerned from afar.
I find it very interesting that Helvetica is being revamped to fit more recent developments of modern life becoming micro-focused, but I can’t say that I’m all that taken aback by the sample at smaller fonts they shared. Perhaps that’s the magic of how seamlessly they shrunk the typeface, but I couldn’t discern what was so revolutionary about making a logical iteration of the same font.
I’m also not sure we need a typeset that can be read at sizes the human eye struggles to identify. Without advanced technology to provide the precision for perception, it seems the updated font may just be an ambitious marketing effort to get a design company back in the limelight.