En Garde!

Let us just get the Helvetica counter-argument out of the way at once: Helvetica is just as overused, but the sheer quality of the Helvetica, means that it’s still possible to make creative stuff with Helvetica.

The same, unfortunately, is not true for the old Herb Lubalin-relic. Whilst I love the simple idea of the perfect constructed sans-serif, and I do like my Avant Garde in small doses, some people, especially from 2005 to present day, keep pushing too much of the stuff into their designs.

The best example in that respect is probably Grafik, the graphic design mag. Based almost entirely on Avant Garde, the design suffocates on itself, in its “constructed coolness”. The 70s are over, folks! The experiment was fun, but you can all stop playing now…

The Failed Experiments

And here’s why the experiment failed: Avant Garde was the Bodoni of sans-serifs. Just as Bodoni pushed the borders of how high-contrast you could make a typeface, Avant Garde is pushing the borders on how constructed you can make a typeface.

And both Bodoni & Avant Garde has the same problem, in terms of being a successful typeface: They exist for the sole purpose of being the experiment. We don’t need such high-contrast typefaces, nor do we need such constructed typefaces.

That is why, still today, Garamond is the most frequently used serif, and Helvetica is the most frequently used sans-serif. They are high-quality typefaces. They are not the first anything. They are not the most anything. They are just high quality.

Avant Garde is like whistling in a way. It may not be devil-worshipping, but it’s still quite annoying if you do too much of it.

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