Helvetica

Helvetica is a Swiss typeface that is celebrated for its ability to be neutral. It emphasizes the color and design aspects, without drawing attention to itself. However, it generates a range of responses among the design community. Some adore the simplicity while others find it over-used. Many consider it a timeless font because it is over 60 years old but still relevant today.

In "Helvetica: Love it or Leave it," Roger Remington explains that Helvetica started with the Akzidenz-Grotesk font from Munich. It was adapated and the name was changed to Helvetica in 1957 in order to market it world wide.

The Swiss had an existing reputation for excellence in graphic design and the Helvetica name promoted the Swiss sensibility.

Helvetica was a great success, quickly adapted into serveral formats. IBM followed by creating a similar typeface called Arial.

Helvetica is used for a number of logos because it is changed through color and size and does not compete with additional elements such as in North Face below.

The Stendig Calendar and variations by Massimo Vignelli are adaptable.

Karlsson flip clock and others were popular in the early 1970's.

Helvetica now stands as "the designers' font." Some people argue it inhibits the creation of new fonts. Others suggest new fonts are too easy to make using computers, like one below called "Koolhand" created from Rem Koolhass' studio, and the result is a pollution of typefaces that needs the simplicity of Helvetica.

Decide for yourself. Watch a segment on the documentary on Helvetica.

And keep in mind there are always new ways of seeing old things. Read this article on 13 ways to look at a typeface.

Communication Design

Communication design is two dimensional visual imagery that encourages human action. Daily life includes a full range of invitations, competing for our attention.

One historic moment in communication design mentioned by John Heskett in his Short Introduction to Design is the 1972 Olympics designed by Aicher. Otl Aicher was a resister to the Nazi movement in Germany and consequently jailed. After the war he studied design and eventually developed many important German logos such as Lufthansa and the pictograms of the 1972 Munich Olympics. While pictograms had been tested at the 1948 London Summer Olympics and again in Tokyo for the 1964 Summer Olympics, Aicher was the first to design a total system that is maintained to this day. He also worked with a specific color palette to create relationships across systems. You can see the complete identity design package at http://www.1972municholympics.co.uk/

Heskett mentions that “graphic designer” is a term from the 1920’s that suggests two dimensional imagery. The term is broad including in house designs and top consultants. “Communication design” is now a more accepted term, mainly because of internet and digital forms. “Computer aided graphic design” or “communication design” creates the appearance of three

dimentionality.

April Greiman, 1991

Organization design and non-profit design can change the world. The “peace symbol” was designed in 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a graduate of the Royal College of Arts. He showed a sketch to a small group of people in the Peace News office in North London and to the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War. The Direct Action Committee had already planned the first major anti-nuclear march toAldermaston, where British nuclear weapons were and still are manufactured. It was on that march, that the symbol first appeared in public. Gerald Holtom explained that the symbol incorporated the semaphore lettersN(uclear) and D(isarmament).

Design for a Cause: Luba Lukova is a Bulgarian communication designer who created a social justice poster campaign, as a book and exhibition

Despite the internet, publications are still essential

Marshall McLuhan was a theorist about communication who created a pocket book called “The Medium is the Massage." The title was a typo they kept, designed by Quentin Fiore. It was based on the premise that the medium influences how you receive a message. When you receive a message you first receive the medium then the content.

In some ways it is like the medium is an environment.

The cover of the Medium is the Massage was re-designed in 2001 by David Carson, creator of End of Print about the end of books. Carson was an innovator of computer aided design and began with Transworld Skateboarding and surf magazines in California.

One important distinction for communication design is application design and information design. Applications like those for I-Phone, engage us and involve us in computers.

Information design concerns businesses with excess information such as financial firms, that require organization.

The main difference between propaganda and advertising is that propaganda advances particular ideas, not things. Advertising promotes objects or services for sale.

Some communication design may not need words. In the case of Legos and Nike the products are so familiar that images alone succeed.

Signage is a form of communication design associated with environment design. It can however become legendary because it becomes fixed in society. There are also ways for singage to be temporary and innovative, demonstrated by the Red Cross campaign below.

Robert Binghurst writes in "The Elements of Typographical Style," that typography clarifies, honors and shares meaning. It began as a type of idealized handwriting and can carry all types of meaning. It rises above fashion as it must last, especially for publication durability.

Instructions to designers!

-read the text first

-discover the logic of the text, map it

-make a clear relationship between text and elements

-select a typeface that honors the text, consider language

-attention to details

He summarizes that communication design is a great responsibility. You must invite the reader into the text, reveal the meaning of the text, clarify, balance elements and create space.

In the second section he describes the origin of typography as wood block in China, then Gutenberg. Capitalization comes from Monastic scribes who used large type for important words and beginnings.

Communication Design Principles

Consistency

Perhaps the most essential aspect to effective communication design is consistency in various ways.

Aesthetic consistency involves maintaining the same form and appearance over time.

Functional consistency involves the continued use of symbols associated with function.

Internal consistency is the integrity of design within a product.

External consistency concerns design across systems. It is most important when a brand goes global.

Legibility concerns how well the typeface communicates the message.

There is no performance difference between serif and sans-serif.

Anti-aliasing can be used to improve appearance, this concerns any diagonal or curve which can appear jagged in digital display and can be smoothed through “anti-aliasing.”

Contrast between background and text should be high, patterned backgrounds should be avoided

There is no performance difference between justified

and unjustified, but be aware of length

Figure Ground Relationship

Based on Gestalt principle that people normally recognize figures versus ground. This is a natural tendency and designers can use it to create stability. When it is disrupted, often for artistic purpose, communication decreases in legibility.

Wolfgang Weingart

Wolfgang Weingart

Iconic Representation

Similar: resembles what it represents, use for simple situations

Example: represents the thing exactly, use for complex relations

Symbolic: Associated images understood over time, use for existing recognition

Arbitrary: Socially determined, must be learned, use for standards

Storytelling is important for all categories of design not just communication. It includes

-setting

-characters

-plot

-invisibility (the author fades, the story rises)

-mood

-movement

Good communication design, especially for websites and flash, is able to achieve all these elements

Hitchcock relied on the communication design of Saul Bass to start the story for his films with particular settings, mood and movement. This also included the promotional posters which in many ways serve as the cover to the book of film.

One website offers tips on transforming your images into Saul Bass-like animations using After Effects

Louis Vuitton “Journeys Campaign,” since 2008, print, web, commercial and film short using celebrities