Helvetica Equals Easy?!!

[dwagener]

Does anybody else disagree with what this guy's saying? :mad:

http://campphotoshop.com/Helvetica-Equals-Easy

[urstwile]

I disagree in the sense that just because a font is widely available makes it inappropriate to use. That being said, if the point he's trying to make is that the font was just "there" and so that was the one that was used, I agree. However, not seeing the design he was critiquing, I have no way of knowing whether or not Helvetica (or Impact) was a lazy choice or a good one.

[Red Kittie Kat]

... and just because there are 1000's of fonts out there ... doesn't mean a lot of them should EVER be used

:D

There is nothing wrong with using a good solid font.

[Two-Toe Tom]

yeah, i also disagree with that article.

[garricks]

I totally disagree. Rent the movie "Helvetica" if you don't believe me.

Yeah, there are thousands of typefaces out there. That doesn't mean Helv can't be a workhorse superstar. For me it's a go-to face, along with Trade Gothic, Hypatia Sans, Optima, Helv Neue, Futura and a few others.

[dwagener]

I'm glad I'm not alone :) The guy obviously doesn't know too much about typography...

[Red Kittie Kat]

Or just thinks highly of his own opinion ;)

[John G]

I can sort of agree. Sometimes (SOMETIMES) helvetica can be the comic sans of the design world.

[Riefnu]

Standards are a good thing to have. If Helvetica fills the Standard Font window leave it be. If it wasn't Helvetica it would be some other font that was widely used.

My friend then went on to point out that Helvetica Neue (http://www.linotype.com/1266/neuehelvetica-family.html) is, in fact, a very popular font and has received a lot of rave reviews. Now, I too am a big fan of Helvetica Neue, but in my initial comments I was referring specifically to the plain old vanilla Helvetica that comes pre-installed on all computer systems.

Remember kiddies, if it comes on your system it must be crap. After all, why would they put anything useful? Those know nothing dunderheads working at multi-billion dollar corporations can't do anything right. Rebel! Rebel because I say it is cool! /sarcasm


And so on and on it went. It was unfortunate that what was meant to be a design discussion had to turn into a semantics issue. The truth of the matter, however, is that any of the fonts commonly found on most systems (http://www.kayskreations.net/fonts/fonttb.html) – be it Helvetica, Impact or Comic Sans – are fonts that should really, for the most part, be avoided (http://www.modernlifeisrubbish.co.uk/article/5-terrible-fonts-that-you-should-not-use-in-print-design). The reason being that these fonts represent the mainstream: these are the fonts that everybody sees every day. The upshot of this being that the use of such fonts will do nothing to make your design stand out from the crowd.


Then again since the mainstream of design, according to this writer, is to buck the system. Wouldn't doing something that looks like a mainstream design be exactly OPPOSITE of the mainstream this guy is following?


I know what will make him happy. Wingdings!

[budafist]

WTF? The writer couldn't tell the difference between Helvetica and Impact? I stopped reading after I read that.

[WannaBrie]

WTF? The writer couldn't tell the difference between Helvetica and Impact? I stopped reading after I read that.

Me too. also, the writer referred to himself and friend as "Photohop users" = Not designers IMO.

[white]

Maybe that's what he does, and assumes that that's what people do/think. Helvetica=easy=lazy.

Am I the only one who thinks Myriad is the best font ever? It's such a favorite but I've never heard of anyone saying that before.

[budafist]

I guess I avoid Myriad because it was the default font. So I thought that if I used it, other designers would think I was lazy! :D

[doctorsax13]

Helvetica is a great font, but I think like all other great fonts, it has appropriate/inappropriate uses. Being that the character shapes are very perfectly geometrical, it seems to find its most powerful uses in very minimalist design (See: Trainspotting Poster / American Apparel logo). I think that ubiquity CAN be a bad thing, or it CAN be a positive thing, lending meaning to its use. ...though I would be hard-pressed to use Comic Sans in an ironic way...

[Samot]

i disagree with the author. the helvetica family is one of my favorite type faces. And also, what does having thousands of free fonts available to you mean you're more "creative"?

[Pointyhat]

LOL, good point Buda.

[Sweet Tee]

This guy's an idiot! So basically, in his mind, I'm not being creative and "working" enough when I go straight to Helvetica as the typeface for an ad I design. I would like to see this guy during a deadline crunch, trying to create functional, legible ads for clients wanting to sell, sell, sell!

Grrrrhhhhh, I'm exhausted from dealing with a hurricane all day and this guy wants to rant on one of the most reliable typefaces around! :rolleyes: