The rules of
Hitvetica.
An extract from the official trailer for Helvetica, a documentary film by Gary Hustwit. Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture that includes interviews with some of the most illustrious and innovative names in the design world, including Erik Spiekermann, Matthew Carter, Massimo Vignelli, Wim Crouwel, Hermann Zapf, Neville Brody, Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Bierut, David Carson, Paula Scher, Jonathan Hoefler, Tobias Frere-Jones, Experimental Jetset, Michael C. Place, Norm, Alfred Hoffmann, Mike Parker, Bruno Steinert, Otmar Hoefer, Leslie Savan, Rick Poynor, and Lars Müller.
Helvetica is everywhere.
Why not gamify it.
Created by Anthony Bass and Alex Decker, Hitvetica (also called Hardly Neue or Swiss Miss) is a typography game played by graphic designers in which participants punch each other on the arm upon first sight of an instance of Helvetica (specifically Helvetica Neue) while calling out “Grotesk!" or “Kern!" and the brand of the sighted piece.
Once a use of Helvetica has been spotted and called out, it cannot be used by another player until it leaves line of sight or for five minutes, whichever is greater.
Spot some Helvetica?
Pow! Call out “Grotesk!" or “Kern!” and the brand you’ve spotted. Then punch your buddy. But not too hard. Y’all gotta work together.
What if it’s modified?
It’s a twofer! Call out “Grotesk!" or “Kern!" just like normal, but add how the typeface is modified. Then punch your buddy twice. ‘Cause you’re amazing.
Hold up. That’s Arial.
Dayum. You've fallen for one of the classic blunders! The first being Comic Sans. But only slightly lesser known: never call out Arial when you’re playing Hitvetica! Get a punch back.
Nobody to play with?
Ouch. But never fear, you can play solitaire and count your punches as points. Then text your score to absent friends and trash talk about your mad type skills.
The Atlantic Airlines logo is inspired by Massimo Vignelli’s classic 1960s American Airlines logo. The Microsoft “Pac-Man logo” was designed by Scott Baker. Icons include “punch” by Greg Ellinger and “Chat” by Gregor Cresnar, for the Noun Project. Concept and compositions by the author.
