The Importance of Typography in Design

Recently, there has been a lot of well-deserved hoopla about Helvetica. The ubiquitous typeface turns 50 this year and there have been numerous articles, blog posts and even a movie to celebrate this most servicable font. New York's Museum of Modern art has mounted an exhibition in honor of Helvetica. Take note, this level of attention will likely never be seen for another font in our lifetimes. 

Here's an excerpt from Frank Jordans' Associated Press piece on Helvetica's half-century run titled, Oh Yeah, You Know the Type:

Open a newspaper, look at a street sign, type an e-mail and chances are a Swiss design icon is staring you in the face, though you'd be hard-pressed to identify it.

But peer closely at the shape of the letters: If they're easy to read and without unnecessary flourishes, then you might well be looking at an example of the Helvetica typeface, which turns 50 this year.

Helvetica lettering adorns images most people can conjure instantly, from New York  subway signs to the logos of Harley-Davidson, American Airlines and BMW. But much of the time it remains invisible in a sea of print, unobtrusively conveying the message the designer intended it to.

Reading about Helvetica caused me to reflect on the importance of typography in design. You might ask, what has this to do with art prints?  Many art prints have graphic elements in them, knowing about how to use them can greatly enhance a piece.  Further, through decades of experience of seeing the graphic design of artists who self-designed their advertising and promotional pieces, etc. I can emphatically say there was an ocean of difference in the quality of those designs. And, quite often, the best pieces were simple, yet elegant. Exactly the purpose for the use of a font such as Helvetica. (If you are nosing around your Windows computer to find an example, the best most will find is Arial, a very close cousin that MS didn't have to license to use.)