Studio 360

Helvetica's now all around us and we hardly notice! Quite the insight--or at least it was when the Village Voice ran a lengthy feature saying precisely that sometime in the late 1970s.

We at Purgatory Pie Press hate Heilvetica. Dikko Faust had a nightmare about relabeling it NOODLE-RONI when he worked in the metal type shop of a major American design school (that was run by the Swiss). We made a postcard about it: HEILvetica.

Dikko can't come to the computer right now to rant about Helvetica. He is at our studio hand setting metal type--a few typefaces by Lucian Bernhard--Bernhard Modern Roman and Bernhard script that he's letterpress printing over some big old wood type for an edition that's running late.

And by the way--we don't call typefaces "fonts". When he has a little time, I'll get Dikko to explain the difference.

There is a font called Chiselpoint that mimics a form of handwritten block style an architect might use. This architect doesn't! And finds this font extremely annoying, to say the least.

When a simple font like Helvetica, among many other sans serif fonts --abundant in every program using text (even the drawing kinds like AutoCAD for example) its really ridiculous to see it used at all--especially by another architect.

While I am complaining, autoCAD also defaults to something called: "txt" that is equally annoying...looking like some kind of pre-computer age version of computer text writing. ick.

I LOVE FONTS. Not Helvetica, although I flirted with using it a decade ago. I'm not a graphic artist, though I get to be one sometimes, but in contrast to Gary Hustwit, I love to notice fonts ie: when NYT on line switched to Georgia.

Unfortunately, I get lost scrolling through fonts when working on a website or for other reasons -- flowing or hip or clean or contemporary etc etc. -- which also means losing time on a project. Tried Espresso (the font) lately, which I enjoyed, for awhile. It's even worse when one's fickle.

Your radio spot requested that we enter what fonts we cannot stand - and as a Typofile, the font I'd like NOT to see is Times & Times New Roman. They are overused and ugly. Too bad it's the default on so many PCs. That's one reason I use Mac & change any default to whatever font I fancy this month. Now it's Mrs Eaves, by Zuzana Licko. There are SO many millions of great fonts out there now other than Times or even Helvetica (I'd prefer Futura - (go with the retro 1920s classic!).

Well, no one gets more prickly than a typesetter if a critic doesn't get everything exactly right. First, type (the old fashioned kind) doesn't come in steel, it is lead.

Being doomed now to only computer typefaces my favorite sans serif (or the one I overuse the most) is Gill Sans and the serif type I use is Palatino.

Gill was designed by Eric Gill in 1927. The London North Eastern Railway wanted it for its sign lettering and timetables. Gill Sans combines simplicity and function while retaining classical elements.

You can't really consider yourself a typesetter until you have worked with lead type. Everything else is play.

I help scientists to communicate their work and I have noticed a trend towards increased use of Comic Sans.

I just don't get it...

My clients are extremely smart people who need to communicate very important, complex ideas... why would they ever choose Comic Sans? It just makes them appear unprofessional or worse, not serious about their work.

I blogged about this topic here: http://www.artofspeakingscience.com/2007/12/09/65/

The font I use most at work is Century Gothic. I do not know anything about its history, but it is one of the few fonts in which the "a" looks like the "a" in handwriting. I teach preschool and use Century Gothic for all of my labels in the classroom and for words to classroom created books. It is important to me that the font looks like the letters the kids are just learning to write. Why do so few fonts have that "a" that people write? Where did that squiggly "a" come from (or is it even older)?

I lke Copperplate Gothic Bold for email reading. Not sure why, but I keep adjusting programs to show it as it is not ever a default setting. (^:

Jonathan

I'm on a personal quest to replace Courier with Garamond and Arial with Verdana as the world's favored serif and san serif fonts.

AvantGarde BK BT is a pretty sweet font as well.

Papyrus should be banned from all style sheets. I think it's the second most annoying font (Comic Sans being the first, of course).

Great story, I look forward to seeing the film. I work at daily newspaper and I've taken some work home this weekend. The irony here is that this radio spot came on just as I am working on upgrading our fonts. The more I learn and study fonts and typefaces the more fascinated I am with typography. Every typeface has a story to tell.

Our Helvetica font family includes 22 unique typefaces (condensed, bold, extended, etc.) which is probably more than the law should allow. But the deal with Helvetica is that its a "pole in the wind-storm". It communicates without adding or subtracting any of the mood or tone of the message. And it allows other fonts act up and be flashy. Not having Helvetica would be like not having "average" people. What would we do then?

I agree with Rhea that Papyrus is my most hated typeface. It is used by way to many small businesses trying to look quirky. It's so distinctive and ubiquitous that it undermines the unique/artistic/classy impression the user is aiming for.

In response to Lisa, I am scientist and an ex-Comic Sans user. I'm not sure why that font is so popular. I think people are looking for a readable sans serif that is cross platform and widely available (otherwise your presentation is likely to get garbled when you use someone else's laptop at a conference) but not Arial/Helvetica (because Helvetica is used by Cell). I used Trebuchet for a while, but not all computers have it, so now I'm back to Arial. One advantage to Helvetica is that many journals will only accept figures that use Arial, Helvetica or Times, so, in a pinch, you can use the same figures for presentations and publication.

My new favorite typeface is Centaur, which I learned about in a letterpress workshop. I love the diamond-shaped punctuation marks.

First of all, Comic Sans is a very nice font when used in an appropriate context (never, ever in official documents or anything longer than a letter).

I find Ariel actually seems a bit smoother than Helvetica, and is my favorite font for reading.

Old Century Schoolbook and Copperplate (certain modes of it anyway) are very nice for titles, signage, and text embedded in graphics.

I completely agree with the gentleman who says Times and Times New Roman are UGLY!

As soon as Helvetica appears when I start up appleworks I distance myself from it. Not slowly, not casually, but with great urgency. Funny, huh? I'm Helveticaphobic. My basic pleasing typeface to write with is Gill Sans when I'm in a san-serif mood and Century Schoolbook or Baskerville when I'm in a serify mood. When I want a big bold letter for some design idea I'm playing with I'll take Helvetica and make it bold. Then and only then do I like it.

The concept of "fonts" was first presented to me back in the late 1970s with dry-transfer lettering. Does anyone remember that? Way before word-processing and typesetting for the masses, one could buy plastic sheets from the art store with letters, numbers, symbols, and halftone on them that one could "transfer" onto almost any solid surface by rubbing the sheet with a pencil. That was a revelation and a liberation. I think I still have some stuffed in a drawer somewhere.

I'm not a graphic artist, but I've long dabbled. An anomalously large fraction of my high-school pals went into fields related to graphics and print. It seems most of us had an epiphany with dry-transfer lettering.

Favorites? I'm particularly fond of Futura Light.