The Great Helvetica Debate

Is the typeface with “no intrinsic meaning” an aesthetic ideal or a detriment to modern design? I must confess, thanks largely to the Helvetica documentary by Gary Hustwit, I have become a bit obsessed with this sans serif font. I find the debate of its semiotic and aesethetic virtues to be endlessly fascinating. On one hand, it is a refreshingly clean Swiss design that looks good in just about any application. On the other hand, its ubiquitity in modern advertising and trademarks has made it synonomous with corporate greed.

Last spring, I orchestrated a debate at an academic conference in hopes to achieve some further insight on this topic. Ultimately, the discussion seemed to result in a draw, but I had a blast arguing my chosen stance for the forum that it has become "the font of capitalism."

Drop me a line if you want continue the debate or are looking for a panel expert to speak on the subject: bdknutson@gmail.com.

It's Time For Tea - Flash Banners
A banner ad campaign created in Stuart Grais' Digital Page Formatting class at DePaul.
Helvetica - Poster
An homage to the font I love to hate, this project was created in Shiro Akiyoshi's enlightening Principles of Graphic Design course at DePaul.
Helvetica - 5 Page Layout
A 5-page print layout constructed in InDesign that served as my final project for graphic design class.

Experiments in Design
Some additional design layouts created during my graduate studies.