Helvetica cartoons

There was a key cultural moment, I'm guessing it was sometime around 1988, when sans serif became more authoritative than serif fonts. You just get a feeling from certain sign boards: I trust what they're telling me. I think this information is current. The people who made this sign have both the technical and human knowledge to get me where I'm going with efficiency and, if not actual warmth, at least a friendly sympathy for my confusion. Because authority is no longer just about knowing. It's about the ability to communicate knowledge in a useful, human way.

Of course, the mack daddy of sans serif authority is Helvetica. Its viral spread is attributable to its oxymoronic combination of modernity and cheerfulness, as well as the practical benefit of flexible legibility. I know that when I arrive home in Amsterdam, the signs in Schiphol airport (which use the Helvetica-like Frutiger) immediately make me feel that I'm in good hands. Though both Helvetica and Frutiger come from Switzerland, they feel very Dutch to me: rational with a dry sense of humor.

I'm beginning to see a Helvetica-like visual style spreading through the web, particularly on the Web 2.0-ish sites of young tech companies. I think of it as "soft cartoon" because the icons are usually a simple, old-style physical tool (e.g. truck, pencil, compass, everything on 37 signals) that's brightly colored and looks deformable, slightly smushy, like a firm plush toy. They're sometimes made even softer by a very slight feathered haze around the edges. Significantly, they are never anthropomorphized.

Icon Factory has added the ubiquitous glass effect to its soft cartoon factory logo to create a superdense signifying bomb of postmodernity: workmanlike, friendly, transparent. But then you'd expect this kind of cutting edge symbological gene splicing from people who are in the business of icon design.   

Like Helvetica and its brethren, soft cartoons communicate both competence and humanity. They illustrate the effort to make technology simple and usable without condescension. They tell you something about the character of the people behind the product (smart, flexible, sense of humor) as well the product itself (does what it says, simple, reliable). More than just Web 2.0, soft cartoons might be the new face of the kinder, gentler Geek 2.0.

Comments

[martin cole]

hi jeffry.

i love this. overall, i would describe them as making progress playful.

if "new stuff" seems like a toy, we're more likely to break the seal - and try something. in my view, this is what makes these things useable to many people. some of like investigating craft tools - most of us like to piss about with neat toys.

now - is this because they remind us of when we were young (implication - they might be culturally specific, and chnage over time and childhood toys and experiences change. If you grew up with different toys, you'd have different references)

or...

...do they appeal to something inherently playful (implication - they are shared by all people and enduring)?

Maybe it would be cool to look at the thinking that goes into tellytubbies, or spongebob. I know there's a lot of knowledge here.

M

ps - the new nintendo wii rules in this human playfulness. Very innovative. They are a great company.

[Jeffre Jackson]

Hey Martin. How are you doing?

I think "toy" says a lot about this visual style. It says that this product is simple, fun and you don't have to worry about breaking it.

Different cultures have different toys and tools, but I imagine the soft cartoon filter applied to any of them would have the same psychological effect. Which isn't to say that every culture would evaluate the effect positively. I can easily imagine some cultures, particularly some business cultures, that would call it "unserious" or "childish". Certainly I've seen enough focus groups reject playful work in those terms.