100 years of Helvetica

Reviewing the last 50 years 
of Helvetica
[&&.] 5 pieces from it.

50 years of Helvetica is a exhibition where 
designers from around the world had come 
together to work with Candy and Blanka. 
The concept is to make a callaboration of 50 pieces with Helvetica itself being the perspective, imagined in a world where it highlights things it has seen, such as events and inspirational things its seen and has been influenced by during its lifetime, which is from the lunar moon landing to the first British nudist camp.

One. Vince frost:a popular face. 1958

This uses Helvetica to mark the birth of michael jackson and his future as to be "king of pop" similar to how Helvetica will see itself being used in the future with the type has been displayed on overhead of entrance to a show/cinema like display that was used to display its showings in that period of time.
I think the artist has captured the event well, its almost fools you in to thinking this is a photograph taken at this time because of the time and Helvetica is used in a way that would mark it in a way that would be used then in relation to Michael Jackson's birth.








Two. Bleed: Xerox 914. 1959

This uses Helvetica in a poster/old advert like appearance to show that to be able to copy something was something people didnt take notice and did not realised they needed untill they got the xerox 914 which revolutionised the document copying industry being fast and economical. they found and never turned back on this need.


The link between  Helvetica and this event is not clear about the relation but i think its where Helvetica shas seen this event happen and it could allow someone to quickly copy the font in the xerox








Three. Ros Shiers: Butterfield 8. 1960

Ros shiers uses Helvetica to mark the film Butterfield that was released and made it big, being quite a famous film in the year of 1960, by using Helvetica as the 60 to mark the year of that event.
Butterfield is linked in to the illustration by using the actors who starred in it such as liz taylor, with their face of diffrent scenes drawn in together in to a montage type style.


I quite like this image because of the way shiers uses handles Helvetica in this way to portray this event. It follows the feel of the year with the way the actresses are drawn with that hairstyle that fit that period but it is quite modern looking in terms of the illustration being drawn in that style.






Four. Antoine+Manuel: I have a dream 1963

for this event is marking the day of martin luther king, that give the speech of 'i have a dream' and being that Helvetica being alive then and using Helvetica in this imagery to portray this event by having Helvetica in the centre in this quotation with the paths leading off this in to scenes of the dream and political and current events that where happening from it, as the dream being for racial equality and to end discrimination.


I think its good how it uses the quoatation with Helvetica in the middle and tells the story of it of the diffrent things happening because of the racial equality and with the paths leading off from it to show this.








Five. Ian wright:Sam cooke (1931-1964) 1964

Sam Cooke a 1960's pop,soul,gospel,r'n'b singer and song writer, considered one of the founders and pioneers of soul music as well as being commonly know as the king of soul for his unmatched vocal abilities and influence on modern music.


To portray this event of Cooke, Ian wright uses Helvetica in a repetitive way of overlapping the text to create dark tones and light tones with less over lapping and a lighter colour tone to create the features and detail to the face of Cooke, so that typography is being used as a illustration.
The words used in the type is from a song he sang last ever sang before his death.
I think its a nicely well thought out concept having all the elements in this link well in with the event and the way Helvetica has been used in with it.