Helveticize
v. To make bland, boring, or generic; to set text in, or convert text to, the Helvetica typeface.
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2016
It was rather a skirmish between a bunch of young designers, like your age now, who were called New Wave, Postmodern, Swiss Punk, whatever, and believed it necessary to reject the status quo for something freer and more contemporary. Doing that meant criticizing old-guard designers, who believed design should be simple—clean on tight grids and Helveticized.
—Steven Heller, “The Legibility Wars of the ’80s and ’90s,” Print, December 05, 2016
2015
Helveticize your nostalgia with Regret Sans, Regret Light, Regret Bold.
—Forrest Eth, “Helveticize your nostalgia…,” Twitter, March 11, 2015
2011
Simple and memorable. I don’t think the old Unimark wordmark was any kind of work of genius, it was one more company to Helveticize, and it reflected a visual dogma of the time.
—Armin Vit, “A Penney for your Thoughts,” Brand New, February 23, 2011
2008 (earliest)
Although there was no mention of any change in the official typeface some of the sample illustrations used Helvetica instead of Standard. Whether actual signs were prepared with Helvetica as a result is unclear, but Helveticization was around the corner.
—Paul Shaw, “The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica and the New York City Subway,” American Institute of Graphic Arts, November 18, 2008