"Helvetica Causes War" (apparently)

   So this week we watched a documentary about Helvetica which is the most common type face known to man. There is this big controversy on whether or not it is over used and boring. I know for myself I like Helvetica, it is simple yet in its simplicity there is a certain finality about it. Not only that but it comes with multiple versions of it, bold, semi bold, italic ect. which is nice. In the documentary we were watching, simply titled Helvetica, many views were shown and insights shared, but what really got me thinking was the pictures it had. Helvetica is used everywhere, road signs, corporate logos, pamphlets, billboard advertisements, warning labels, everywhere you look there is Helvetica. Not just in North America but in Europe and where ever they have a Latin based alphabet. It is amazing to me that I never noticed this. The reason for that I suppose is that Helvetica speaks so many emotions, it can be the boss or it can lend a helping hand. Helvetica really can change it's colours to say anything without looking awkward, which can not be said for many type faces.

    For our assignment this week we had to go looking for Helvetica and take a picture of it(which I must say is not a very hard thing to do). So I decided "Hey since the world is filled with Helvetica, why don't I just find as many corporate logos or signs and see how many I could find that have joined the Helvetica band wagon." I started my epic journey at a strip mall down the street from my house. Not to my surprise there were only a few businesses that had decided to go with out Helvetica. To name a few that I could photograph, Staples, Long and McQuade, Superstore, The CAA, BDC Canada, Coast Capital Savings, Pennington's Superstore 14+, and most of the government buildings around the area are all in some way on the Helvetica band wagon. Later I went down town and found that Subway, Shoppers Drug Mart, and Starbucks also uses Helvetica. I find this interesting though, that every logo or advertisement that I came across looks different and really does give you a different message. The government signage makes Helvetica soothing and seem like the business has control of situations. Where as Coastal Capital Savings seems clean and enduring. Even Subway manages to make Helvetica seem playful without ruining the finality of it. That is what I really like about Helvetica, one can play around with it and come out with different meanings. You can mix and match Helvetica and it looks amazing or you can leave it alone and it will still look right. 

Here is some of the businesses I could take good pictures of:

I like how they used the different types of Helvetica here to show hierarchy.
"Penningtons" is read first then the less important "Superstore".

Staples brings in the use of two types of typography, serif and non serif
together to make it more interesting. They also brought in the paper clip idea
into the "l" to make it different.

Coast Caplital is dynamic by not using capitals in the "coastcapital" part and 
then using only capitals in "SAVINGS" then also bringing in the bold font to 
make the Coast Capital readable when it has no space between the words.

BDC is bold so that it creates a contrast between it and "Canada"

Superstore brings in Hierarchy and makes it more dynamic by using 
colour and bold and regular Helvetica to show that Superstore is more important.

Long and McQuade keeps it simple with black but then uses colour in 
"Musical instruments" to bring in harmony with the logo next to it.

Subway uses arrow addons and italic bold to make it seem more welcoming and playful.

Shoppers uses hierarchy with bold and semi bold.