LET'S TALK ABOUT TYPE. LET'S TALK ABOUT HELVETICA

Banyak deainer beranggapan bahwa Helvetica adalah huruf paling sempurna. For me, it's not. Helvetica memang memiliki bentuk yang ideal sebagai salah satu dari kelompok san serif, tapi tipografi sendiri adalah kebutuhan, jadi bagus dan tidaknya ya memang tergantung kebutuhan desain itu sendiri.

Kenalan sama Helvetica yuk!

Helvetica was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei (Haas type foundry) of Munchenstein, Switzerland. Haas set out to design a new sans-serif typeface that could compete with the successful Akzidenz-Grotesk in the Swiss market. Originally called Neue Haas Grotesk, its design was based on Schelter-Grotesk and Haas’ Normal Grotesk. The aim of the new design was to create a neutral typeface that had great clarity, no intrinsic meaning in its form, and could be used on a wide variety of signage. (Wikipedia)

Helvetica banyak digunakan untuk desain seperti dalam penggunaan signage di public area dan juga banyak digunakan dalam beberapa brand terkenal. Tingkat keterbacaan yang baik menjadi pertimbangan tersendiri mengapa Helvetica ideal dijadikan signage.

Helvetica is among the most widely used sans-serif typefaces. Versions exist for the following alphabets/scripts: Latin, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Urdu, Khmer and Vietnamese. Chinese faces have been developed to complement Helvetica.
Helvetica is a popular choice for commercial wordmarks, including those for 3M, American Airlines, American Apparel, BMW, Jeep, JCPenney, Lufthansa, Microsoft, Mitsubishi Electric, Orange, Target, RE/MAX, Toyota, Panasonic, Motorola, Kawasaki and Verizon Wireless. Apple Inc. has used Helvetica widely in Mac OS X (as default font for sans-serif/Swiss generic font family), iOS (previously iPhone OS), and the iPod. Helvetica is widely used by the U.S. government; for example, federal income tax forms are set in Helvetica, and NASA uses the type on the Space Shuttle orbiter.Helvetica is also used in the United States television rating system. (Wikipedia)

Helvetica memiliki beberapa famili, antara ain: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica Compressed, Helvetica Rounded, Helvetica Narrow, dan Helvetica Inserat. Pada akhirnya, bagus dan tidaknya penggunaan Helvetica adalah sangat bergantung pada komposisi dan keseimbangan treatment kerning dan size nya dengan komposisi layout desain yang kita buat.