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Aasawari Kulkarni on Helvetica

In an article entitled Why We Need to Stop Advocating Helvetica as the Best Typeface (February 2021), Aasawari Kulkarni writes: Every good typeface---in my opinion---has been designed with the intent, to be used to fulfill a certain purpose. That might be one of the answers to the question why do we need more typefacesâ (if not the ultimate answer to the question). Living amidst a thousand fonts then, why do we still keep spotting and using just a few "normal" ones time and time again? Why do we keep falling on Helvetica's (and its counterparts') back for safety, like going back to an ex merely for the sake of familiarity and comfort? We put hours into making full proof concepts and sketches for our designs, spend waking nights selecting the perfect color pallets, making original forms. And yet when it comes to tying it all together, we simply select a beautiful, no-nonsense, Swiss typeface from our back pocket of the many Helvetica-like typefaces. There is no way we can go wrong with that. But must "not going wrong" be the only ultimate aim for a designer? We have been taught to keep things simple, to use proportions that work, and use forms that are comfortable, agreeable to all. And using Helvetica-like typefaces reinstates this need to be conventionally correct. It also helps that these fonts complement the rest of our careful considerations. As Jen Wang says in Helvetica, Modernism and the Status Quo of Design, "Although design contributes to the culture it perpetuates and reflects upon, it is seen as the stage for the message, not as part of the message itself." Even today, many Neue fonts masquerading as rebrands and brand refreshes are plastering on to thick layers of, excessively prim, Swiss, barren walls of redundant, monotonous design. To me, this looks like a missed opportunity, to not let type do the talking, beyond just the words it has been set in; to not let your type choices truly elevate your design on top of that indistinguishable wall. Why would you paint the town all in yellow when there are in fact a thousand different colours that could be more appropriate for different parts of the town?

References: Jen Wang: Helvetica, Modernism and the Status Quo of Design, Dangerous Objects, Medium, 8 December, 2016. Peter Bilak: We don't need new fonts, 8 Faces Magazine, issue 3, 2011.

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