Some of my thoughts on the Helvetica film:

I’ve seen Helvetica a few times before, and every time I see it and hear the people talk about it, something inside me sparks and lights up. I love this stuff. It’s how I know I’m meant to do graphic design.

I especially like when a couple of people in the film state that Helvetica is “like air.” It’s always around us. It’s such a neutral typeface, open to interpretation. People insert their own context into it. That is what makes it such an important typeface. It’s very accessible.

However, with it becoming a default typeface, it invites amateurs to slap it on a page and call it typography. That ain’t gonna look pretty. But I like to think of Helvetica as a gateway typeface. Amateurs cling to it for its ease of use and readability, but if they truly love what they’re doing, they start to branch out and try new things with different typefaces.