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  • TUESDAY MAY 17 2005 4:00 PM

"I Have Met Arial, and You, Helvetica, Are No Arial" *

Submitted by Christopher

Edited by Christopher

It’s rare but when issues of typography appear in the New York Times, it is always insightful.

Mr. Simonson, who sells original fonts on his Web site, is the author of an online article called "The Scourge of Arial."
Arial, he explains, is a bad imitation of Helvetica. "At a glance, it looks like Helvetica, but up close it's different in dozens of seemingly arbitrary ways." What's odd, he writes, is that an exact copy of that typeface could have been made with no legal consequences because only the names of fonts are really protected.


Where have fonts been? How have they been used? How has a font’s history informed our conception of how it is used? These questions are cornerstones of typography, and (sometimes) typography is the bastard, red-headed stepchild of design.

The best work [a recent graphic design graduate] showed [Michael Bierut, a partner at the graphic design firm Pentagram] was her design for an imaginary CD package. "All of it was Futura Bold Italic, knocked out in white in bright red bands, set on top of black and white halftones," he said. "Naturally, it looked great. Naturally, I asked, 'So, why were you going for a Barbara Kruger kind of thing here?' "

She said, "Who's Barbara Kruger?" He said, "Um, Barbara Kruger is an artist who is, um, pretty well known for doing work that, well, looks exactly like this." She said, "Really? I've never heard of her."


While typography rarely makes waves in popular culture in the same way that Goudy or the Caslons once did, I still think type is one of those things that are surpassingly important because we are constantly interacting with it but rarely acknowledge. Some fonts are so subtle that we take them for granted. Others are...well..."so frilly that you want to stick your dick in them, " as a designer once said.

*PS Title comes from a direct quote in the linked story.

 

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LizFitts

LizFitts

USA
May 2003

MAY 18, 2005 02:56 AM

This is a hilarious - yet esoteric - thread! I love font people.

Friz Quadrata holds many fond memories for me.....

Luis

Luis

Preston, ID
February 2004

MAY 18, 2005 06:24 AM

Arial > Helvetica

Everything > Times New Roman

Flux

Flux

SUICIDEGIRL

North Carolina, USA

MAY 18, 2005 06:57 AM



When it comes to font rants, though, nothing is quite as bizarre as the Ban Comic Sans movement. Comic Sans is a jaunty-looking font, offered gratis to rebels and free spirits by a little outfit called Microsoft. According to the Ban Comic Sans Web site, the spread of this childish font in inappropriate places threatens "to erode the very foundations upon which centuries of typographic history are built."

What is to be done? The Ban Comic Sans manifesto summons "the proletariat around the globe to aid us in this revolution" and "to rise up in revolt against this evil of typographical ignorance."



Liberation! When I got new underlings on my old literary magazine staff, I warned them that if they ever tried to use Comic Sans for anything, I would feed them their own genitals.

sadisticmika

sadisticmika

I'm lost
July 2004

MAY 18, 2005 07:06 AM

That's what people pass as a manifesto these days. tsk tsk tsk.

Skryche

skryche

New York, NY
January 2003

MAY 18, 2005 07:50 AM

Flux said:
Liberation! When I got new underlings on my old literary magazine staff, I warned them that if they ever tried to use Comic Sans for anything, I would feed them their own genitals.

Damn straight. Comic Sans should be used only -- if ever -- in speech bubbles. And nowhere else.

What bugs me is when people use WordArt to hideously S T R E T C H a font in order to fill a space.

Marge

Marge

Davis, CA
July 2003

MAY 18, 2005 08:19 PM

I'm fond of Courier New. On the surface it looks like a small font, but it is wide, so it easily stretches a 15 page paper into an 18 page paper without being obvious like Verdana or bold-type.


My classmate turns her papers in written in Comic Sans. She says it is "whimsical." This is a graduate student. I think after high school "whimsical" font should be strictly verboten.

Ada

Ada

SUICIDEGIRL

Maryland, USA

MAY 18, 2005 09:10 PM

This is easily the most entertaining/amusing thread I've read on this site in months.

(I wonder what that says about me, though...)

fatdavid8

fatdavid8

Cook Islands
June 2004

MAY 18, 2005 09:36 PM

Ada said:
This is easily the most entertaining/amusing thread I've read on this site in months.

(I wonder what that says about me, though...)



That you hope to drink at the knowledge of font? wink


Hmmmm...that's not quite a true Spoonerism, is it? I could have pulled it off if your name were Ann instead of Ada. Oh well.

frown

Attack_Macaque

Attack_Macaque

Mesquite, TX
September 2004

MAY 18, 2005 10:22 PM

Flux said:


When it comes to font rants, though, nothing is quite as bizarre as the Ban Comic Sans movement. Comic Sans is a jaunty-looking font, offered gratis to rebels and free spirits by a little outfit called Microsoft. According to the Ban Comic Sans Web site, the spread of this childish font in inappropriate places threatens "to erode the very foundations upon which centuries of typographic history are built."

What is to be done? The Ban Comic Sans manifesto summons "the proletariat around the globe to aid us in this revolution" and "to rise up in revolt against this evil of typographical ignorance."



Liberation! When I got new underlings on my old literary magazine staff, I warned them that if they ever tried to use Comic Sans for anything, I would feed them their own genitals.


"Putting the sans in Comic Sans." I love it! But yeah, Comic Sans sucks my wingdings. ooo aaa

Olivia

Olivia

STAFF

San Francisco, CA

MAY 18, 2005 10:25 PM

Vincent Connare needs to be publicly whipped until he begs for mercy for ever creating that bastard font Comic Sans MS.

Helvetica is a sexy bitch.

Anonym

Anonym

Sarnia, ON
January 2005

MAY 19, 2005 09:55 PM

Oh thank the gods. I thought I was alone in my font freakishness.

rottenart

rottenart

Norman, OK
February 2004

MAY 20, 2005 06:38 AM

christopher said:

rottenart said:
i always thought it was only the certain type of eccentric madman who could devote his life to creating the perfect font. pretty wild stuff. it's like deciding to write a dictionary or something.




It is exactly like that.



ha! i knew you'd read that book. it's been on my to-read list for a while now...

i'm assuming it's awesome.

Skryche said:
What bugs me is when people use WordArt to hideously S T R E T C H a font in order to fill a space.



heh heh. god bless the auto-kerning.

karaokejihad

karaokejihad

Saint Paul, MN
December 2002

MAY 21, 2005 07:26 PM

Olivia said:
Vincent Connare needs to be publicly whipped until he begs for mercy for ever creating that bastard font Comic Sans MS.

Helvetica is a sexy bitch.



helvetica neue ultra light? love love love blush

and times new roman can suck it.

SupremePizzaMan

SupremePizzaMan

Seattle, WA
September 2003

MAY 21, 2005 07:39 PM

FUCK, the secret is out about ultra light. You people keep your damn dirty hands off of Helvetica Neue 23 Ultra Light Extended, she's mine.

DON'T TOUCH HER! PAPYRUS LOVER!!!

karaokejihad

karaokejihad

Saint Paul, MN
December 2002

MAY 21, 2005 07:45 PM

i got paid to use papyrus once.

but i was only experimenting. shocked

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