It may be Swiss, but it’s not neutral
Author of this post: John Kuraoka | About Blog Authors »
Helvetica, the über-ubiquitous sans-serif font, is celebrating its 50th birthday. Here’s a BBC story about why this font has endured despite designers’ love/hate relationship with it.
Now, why should a copywriter care about a type font? Well, type is where the tone of the copy meets the tone of the design. Copy in Garamond Light Condensed (to pick on a popular mid-80s typeface) will feel different from the same copy in Bookman, or Palatino, or Franklin Gothic Book. Or Helvetica.
Typography can enhance the copy or detract from it or even comment on it. That’s why I like to work closely with designers – so copy can be tweaked to fit design and vice versa, depending on what’s needed to best communicate the emotional element of the marketing message.
