Created in collaboration with Monotype by artists from around the world, including Paula Scher and Margaret Calvert, the collection of NFTs has brought the iconic typeface Helvetica to Web 3.0. Monotype’s creative type, his director, Charles Nix, discusses his groundbreaking ‘Helvetica The NFT’ project with Transform.
What did the Helvetica The NFT project want to achieve and why was this particular font chosen?
Helvetica NFT brings together a community of artists and designers around the theme of typography. Helvetica is arguably the most famous typeface of all time. It’s the natural representative of typographic form, but it’s also a very adaptable medium. The concept behind the design of this family was to create the clearest, simplest, most neutral typeface ever. As a designer, the concept is the challenge or challenge to make something unremarkable out of something designed to be unremarkable. Reviewing the entire collection, you can see the different visual expressions each artist has achieved using the same basic design. This project was designed to celebrate print culture while building a community of enthusiasts using new mechanics.
Who were the creators involved in this project and how were the digitized versions of Helvetica different?
More than 20 creators participated in this project, including myself and my creative partner on the collection, KnownUnknown founder James Sommerville. The group was a multidisciplinary group of photographers, sneaker designers, and graphic designers. It also had design legends to be passed down and revered for generations, but also new and emerging names to be recognized for years to come. can see how they are differentiated. They all tell their own stories: each artist is given his Helvetica Now Variable, the most digitally-friendly version of a typeface ever created, and can be used for static or animated artwork. Creative expression is now possible with shapes.
What can owners of these NFTs get?
Individuals own artwork for a variety of reasons. It may be the satisfaction of simple ownership. The work may resonate with them. Maybe they see it as an investment in the particular artist who created it.KnownUnknown is also building a community of design enthusiasts. Over time, the project will grow and evolve accordingly.
What do three-dimensional aspects like those found in Helvetica NFTs add to the art of typographic design?
Dimensionality can make typography more abstract and engaging. Typography is already interesting, but something with unexpected volume stands out. In mixed reality environments such as the Metaverse, typography plays an important role in the user’s visual experience and how they consume and engage with information.
What benefits does rethinking typography bring to the world of branding?
Typography is the visual voice of your brand. It’s the visual tone of the language. Contribute to brand perception (together with language, colors, pictures, illustrations, sounds, and other brand assets). As brands become more and more digital, new typography—a new way to see and experience brand language—makes brands stand out from the rest.
Why is the role of typography in culture worth celebrating?
Language is coded thought. Typography is a coded language. Language forms have their own meaning. Sometimes subtle, sometimes bombastic. Typographic forms are cultures and cultural conspirators. Amazing in and of itself as a marker of our time and creativity, he is doubly effective as his partner in visual voice communication.
How is typography design in general changing in an increasingly digital world?
Typing technology is changing. The new variable font format fundamentally changes the way we think about type families, bringing together all individual font styles into a single font file. Variables also include different possibilities. Not just fixed styles in older font families, but thousands or millions of font styles in fluid design spaces. This means more expressive typography, more refined typography, more animated typography.
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