Do they not like the curved leg? It’s unique, that’s for sure, though I’m not sure that makes it a crime.
Most criticisms are subjective and rather general.įor example, one person said that the capital R is “criminal,” but the crime is not explained. Something that you hear over and over about Helvetica is that it is overused or misused.Īnd it’s hard to argue with these indictments.īut rarely are there specific comments about the actual design of Helvetica letters. And since among the many thousands of letter styles there are plenty that are worse, why does Helvetica provoke such intense ire? Why is Helvetica Disliked? Some are respected voices in the field of typography. My initial reaction to all the Helvetica deprecation is that surely it’s tongue-in-cheek. He marvels that, “like cockroaches, Helvetica seems to be poised to survive time and space, no matter what,” and then concludes, “no business, service or product deserves Helvetica in the 21 st century any more than anyone deserves to sit in a dentist chair in the 1960s.” Having sat in a dentist’s chair in the 1960s, I feel his pain. Īrmin Vit, another detractor, wrote an article entitled, “ Why I Hate Helvetica,” wherein he likens the letter style to obsolete 1960’s technology, like rotary-dial telephones. Read about the backlash to Apple’s use of Helvetica in its first release of Yosemite at. Helvetica can prove particularly problematic in interactive interfaces.
This is strong commentary, even without the political innuendo.
HELVETICA NOW IS NOT HELVETICA MAC
Is that why Johnston describes the self-enclosed nature of the letters as “constipated-looking.” Too much cheese? He also compares using Helvetica to eating foods that are downright unhealthy, stating that when people prefer Helvetica to Arial because the latter is a bad copy, it’s like asking if there’s a difference between a Big Mac and a Whopper-and would you honestly feed either to your kids? He says “everything about Helvetica is repellent.” He calls the typestyle a “wretched mass” that signals that the “bland new world feared by Huxley, Orwell and other writers of the last century is one step nearer.” I will admit that lines of letters with tall x-heights and open counters, like Helvetica, can give the appearance of being riddled with noticeable holes of negative space, kind of resembling Swiss cheese. He continues by explaining that there is more internal space in the counters than around the words, creating “ugly and standoffish silhouettes.” Well, this does sound un-neighborly. But how bad are they, really?Ī particularly bitter commentator, Alastair Johnston of Smashing Magazine describes Helvetica letters as “square and squat and don’t communicate with their neighbors.” Okay, that seems to make sense. Still, the virulence of the indignation toward Helvetica leaves me a little baffled. It was easy to do, it was available, I didn’t have to think. In my youth I used it inappropriately, wildly. I’ll admit, though, that this has not always been the case. It’s only a letter style.īefore anyone accuses me of being a Helvetica lover-well, I’m not.
It’s not about politics, religion or broccoli, the traditional hate-button issues. One person I know made the striking comment that using it “betrays a lack of integrity.”Īm I the only one who thinks this wrath a bit odd? This is just a typeface, right? And among those who dislike it, there are some for whom the feeling is almost hatred.Īnd while many describe Helvetica as a neutral or boring letter style, emotions toward it are anything but neutral. Yet there has been a growing and vocal anti-Helvetica backlash for quite some time now. This is understandable, since Helvetica, or a clone, was packaged as part of so much software.
HELVETICA NOW IS NOT HELVETICA PROFESSIONAL
Historically, Helvetica has been popular among professional designers-as well as amateur end-users, the desktop publishing crowd. What has never failed to amaze me, however, is the depth of feeling this typestyle engenders. Or to quote Erik Spiekermann, “you have to breathe, so you have to use Helvetica.” People who may not know much about lettering or graphic design-who may not even know the name of any other letter style-know what Helvetica is. It’s everywhere, as ubiquitous as gravity. It’s the typestyle you either love or love to hate.Įveryone has an opinion about Helvetica.
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