On Typeface

Perhaps one of my quirkier interests is my love of fonts. It would make sense perhaps, if I was involved in graphic design, journalism, or any sort of seemingly related field where the selection of serif or sans-serif means everything, but the truth is, for some reason I just can't get enough of typography.

Folks may quickly glance at a font without giving it much thought, but there is an incredible amount that goes into each character.

Just some of the different variables that form a font.

It probably isn't a surprise, then, that I was much too overjoyed when the documentary Helvetica came out last year. The font Helvetica is essentially the benchmark of 20th century typeface. It is a gorgeous sans-serif font created by the Swiss in the 1950s. It is impossible that you haven't seen it before. Shown below on the film's poster, it is basically the identity of neutrality as far as fonts go. Without serifs, and looking very clean and consistent, it serves as the logo font for Microsoft, American Airlines, BMW, Toyota, the New York Subway, and countless others.

One of the really interesting aspects about Helvetica and Microsoft, which is listed above, is that it is not included on PC's by default. Microsoft was not willing to pay Adobe the rights to use Helvetica back in the 1980s, so it created Arial, which is a cheap knock off. Unfortunately, we now often see Arial as a default font for things since so many people use PC's, but there are a lot of imperfections. For instance, it isn't consistent with the angles of many of its lines such as the top of the t and middle of the C.

It may seem like something small, but it really does make a signicant difference when we want something to clean clean and professional. This article serves as a helpful guide to see the difference, so you can be a font elitist as well...

Whenever given the chance to explain why Apples are different, Steve Jobs will always find some way of bringing up the typography class he took at Stanford, and how that has allowed Apple computers to be much more aesthetically pleasing. Helvetica is typically the default font on Macs. It is hard to take issue with the typography choices of Apple:

Ironically Helvetiva's beautiful simplicity led to its overuse which has caused many in the field to believe it has lost its value.

While fonts may seem like something left to graphic artists, or college students trying to extend their essay from 12 to 15 pages without having to write more, (or an odd kid writing in a blog) they are gaining a lot of attention in political news this primary season. Much has been made (and applauded) of the Obama campaign's choice to use the sans-serif Gotham in all of its campaign posters.

This interesting political article looks at the Obama's, Clinton's and McCain's choice of fonts in the campaign for clues about messages. The New York Times just recently had a piece that is an interview with a branding expert dealing with Obama's choice of Gotham. And the Boston Globe had an article back in January with a nice visual examining which of the various campaign's fonts most evoked the idea of CHANGE.

It is making a significant difference in the feel of the campaigns. While Clinton's New Baskerville is "commonly used by book publishers, law firms and universities", Obama's Gotham was developed specifically for GQ magazine. One of the creators of the font said that GQ wanted a "sans-serif on a geometric structure that would look masculine, and new, and fresh, and be versatile". Is there any surprise then in the campaign's selection?

Meanwhile, McCain employs Optima, the font used to engrave the names of the dead soldiers on the Vietnam War Memorial; the intended message can easily be read. Indeed, fonts are in every sense political.

The Campaign Font Battle: Gotham v. New Baskerville v. Optima

Though I am not selecting the font for a presidential candidate, I always spend a great deal of time going through different options when designing a cover page for a paper, flyer for a program, or navigation bar for my web page. Sites like identifont and whatthefont become odd and frequented destinations when I see something that I know I like. It is a mysterious, dark world of subtlety, where one angle or serif can make all the difference.


Colophon for matthewdelja.com
Times New Roman
Trebuchet MS
Elephant
ITC American Typewriter STD