Graphics Gals: Response to Meanings of Type Article

Until this year, I hadn't really given much thought to typography. I usually just picked one I liked to go along with whatever project I was working on at the time. Lately, I'm beginning to learn that typefaces all have histories and they look a certain way for specific reasons. This is what Eye Magazine's article "The Meanings of Type" is about. It goes through typographic history and provides background on some of the most well known typefaces.

In the past couple of months, I've learned a lot about Helvetica, so I decided to focus on that part of the article. If you would have asked me about Helvetica a few years ago I probably would be indifferent to the whole thing. Now, I have a deeper understanding of why it looks the way it does. Helvetica is purely neutral, and it is either loved or hated. Eye Magazine's article states that it was designed in 1957 by Max Meldinger to represent a Platonic ideal and a generic sterility; it embodied the Modern mission to democratize visual communication. It is modest and reaches a diverse audience. I never before realized how much it was and still is used. I discovered a blog which listed 40 logos that use Helvetica. Below are some pictures of those logos. Others on the list included: American Airlines, Staples, American Apparel, Nestle, Toyota, BMW, Sears, Microsoft, Panasonic, Scotch, 3M, Evian, Energizer, Harley-Davidson, and JCPenny.