HELVETICA AND THE COLD SANS SERIF
In the documentary film, Helvetica, graphic designer Michael Bierut sums up the mid-century modernisation of graphic design by describing a single Coke ad from 1969. “It’s the real thing. Period! Coke. Period! In Helvetica. Period! Any questions? Of course not. Drink Coke. Period! Simple.”
McKann Erickson’s campaign exemplifies a 1960s revolution of clean, modernist typography. The short, bold, sans-serif statement was a stark reaction to the hand-rendered script lettering and long-winded copy that cluttered print advertising of previous decades.
FUTURA AND THE CLINICAL SIDE OF MODERNISM
The credit for sparking this shift could go to Doyle Dane Bernbach, whose “Think Small” ad for Volkswagen turned heads in 1959. Designer Helmut Krone used a traditional ad layout: two-thirds image, one-third copy, with a headline between them. What made the ad so striking (besides the spare photography and Julian Koenig’s clever copy) were the short paragraphs punctuated by single-word lines, all set in a typeface rarely used for text: Futura.
Geometric and uniform sans serifs are indeed typographic symbols of modernism. But Futura, Helvetica, Univers, and Eurostile were by no means the only typefaces favoured by mid-century designers. To me, they represent the colder, clinical, machine-made side of modernism. More metal than wood.
A REFLECTION OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE
At its best, mid-century modernism married two moods: cold and warm. The strict, straight, and mechanical was tempered by a human touch and the imperfection of natural forms. And despite the emphasis on functionalism, the movement also had a sense of humour and whimsy. This was reflected as much in mid-century typography as it was in furniture and architecture.
