Love/Hate Helvetica

Instructor: Ryan Clifford

Project: 1: Binary Typographic Poster Design

Criteria: The two posters must be conceptually dependent upon one another. They may also be physically dependent upon one another. Poster must be purely typographic. Paper may count as third color. You may only use the Typeface Helvetica for your solutions. NO other typefaces maybe used for this project. Poster must have THREE levels of hierarchy. Drawing the view in, keep them there, then reward their viewing with detailed subtlety.

Audience: Design professionals. This will be viewed by a sophisticated design audience.

Solution: After learning about the history of Helvetica and watching the movie Helvetica by Gary Hustwit. I came to the conclusion that: 1. helvetica is widely used, perhaps over used. 2. It is a beautiful typeface, which not only let to its wide usage, but its simplicity made it a design default (I am guilty of it, although it’s a bit tricky for online solutions). My posters represent these 2 ideas in poetry. Love helvetica expresses its beauty and neutrality, which is why people love it. Hate helvetica expresses its wide use, especially by government and big corporations. Check them out Below. You can also download the pdf version of Love and Hate.


Poster 1: Love Helvetica



Follow the link to see the Hate poster.




Poster 2: Hate Helvetica