Helvetica

The documentary had people who argued that Helvetica is everywhere, lasting, "socialist" (because it is democratic). The presence of it everywhere was developed through the lens of the videographers who highlighted the presence of the font on street signs, advertisements from the sides of buses to American Apparel stores, and a host of other places. This connected back to the introduction of Part VI in the Media and Cultural Studies book. There is a debate about globalization as being "simply a synomym of 'Westernization'" (p. 580). As much as this font is present, the entirety of the people in the documentary were Western whites. What if you don't live in western Europe or North America? Take these scenes: Tokyo, Beijing, Manzhouli?

I do not find it surprising that the font developed in the late 1950s in a world obsessed with modernism. A goal of the modernists was to reject tradition, which in advertising had been the multiplicity of font types as seen in this (probably) antebellum advertisement here, this circa 1890 advertisement here, and these 1945 advertisements here. The streamlining was seen in art, in the make of cars, and in the construction of televisions.

One of the comments I found interesting was that the font was to be "neutral." That I find difficult to put faith in. Everything is constructed, even "neutral" Switzerland. The passion that the one man who was angry with the 19th and first half of the 20th century illustrates it is not "neutral." The font is intended to be modern, to streamline, and to attempt to make words legible for all who are literate. Therefore it communicates a message that modern is better than the older manner of typefaces.