Quotes & Sayings About Helvetica

Lower case Ss are notoriously difficult to get right. But in Helvetica it's not straight - you want to go in there and tighten it up. And the 'a' looks so woolly and ill-conceived, it really winds me up. — Bruno Maag

I guess if there was a desert island scenario and I only could take one font with me, I guess it would be Helvetica, though it has it's limitations, I think it's incredibly versatile and gets the job done and I also think it's one of the typefaces that will really survive the test of time beyond the next several decades if not into the next century. — Khoi Vinh

I discovered that I never really used Helvetica but I like to look at it. I like the VW beetle, too, although I've never driven one. — Stefan Sagmeister

I don't think that type should be expressive at all. I can write the word 'dog' with any typeface and it doesn't have to look like a dog. But there are people that [think that] when they write 'dog' it should bark. — Massimo Vignelli

Helvetica is the font of the Vietnam War. — Paula Scher

Helvetica is the jeans, and Univers the dinner jacket. Helvetica is here to stay. — Adrian Frutiger

Anyone who uses Helvetica knows nothing about typefaces. — Wolfgang Weingart

I remember a time at Yale when my work was being critiqued by Paul Rand. Mr. Rand told me only to use Helvetica as a display face never in text, then he squinted, leaned in, and whispered in my ear, "because Helvetica looks like dogshit in text". — Kyle Cooper

The meaning is in the content of the text and not in the typeface, and that is why we loved Helvetica very much. — Wim Crouwel

The government ought to intervene in flag design the way they have in cigarette-packet design. Flags kill far more, and make the air around them far filthier. All flags ought to be blank white rectangles, with the name of the country printed in Helvetica in the centre at a strictly regulated size and weight. — Momus

If you think of ice cream, it (Helvetica) is a cheap, nasty, supermarket brand made of water, substitutes and vegetable fats. The texture is wrong and it leaves a little bit of a funny aftertaste. — Bruno Maag

If you have no intuitive sense of design, then call yourself an "information architect" and only use Helvetica. — David Carson

And Helvetica maybe says everything, and that's perhaps part of its appeal. — Jonathan Hoefler

The mockup of the poster in Lady Gloria's London flat was the same size as the ones plastered up in tube stations, and it nearly filled the space between the heavy damask drapes and her massive stereo speakers. The poster's design featured bold, red, Helvetica type printed on a gray background of random letters and nonsense words. The message was, "Illiterate? Can't read? Call this number: 944-READ."
"I believe your contribution could be more wisely employed, Lady Gloria," Glynis Mortimer said. — Richard Tillotson

It's not a remarkable note except for one thing. The typeface Tony used to print it is the exact typeface Kubrick used for the posters and title sequences of 'Eyes Wide Shut' and '2001'.
'It's Futura Extra Bold,' explains Tony. 'It was Stanley's favorite typeface. It's sans serif. He liked Helvetica and Univers too. Clean and elegant.'
'Is this the kind of thing you and Kubrick used to talk about?' I asked.
'God, yes,' says Tony. 'Sometimes late into the night. I was always trying to persuade him to turn away from them. But he was wedded to his sans serifs. — Jon Ronson

What makes Helvetica more beautiful is the word "Helvetica" as a logotype in its typeface. It just makes the rest of the alphabets effective. — Shawn Lukas

Helvetica was a real step from the 19th century typeface ... We were impressed by that because it was more neutral, and neutralism was a word that we loved. It should be neutral. It shouldn't have a meaning in itself. The meaning is in the content of the text and not in the typeface. — Wim Crouwel

You can say, "I love you," in Helvetica. And you can say it with Helvetica Extra Light if you want to be really fancy. Or you can say it with the Extra Bold if it's really intensive and passionate, you know, and it might work. — Massimo Vignelli