Journal Entries
Helvetica
Posted Jul 31, 2002
I have this weird typeface fetish.
Designer Massimo Vignelli said a designer should only use these 5 typefaces: Bodoni, Helvetica, Times Roman, Century and Futura.
I'd add another two to the list: Franklin Gothic and OCRB, the former because it is very well-designed and legible, and its serif font like forms make it a good crossover sans-serif font, and the latter because in modern design situations a monospaced font is often called for, and OCRB is the best, if you ask me.
However, Helvetica is a strange and beautiful beast. Its strangeness is partly that we use it everywhere, on everything, and never see just how lovely it is.
I just bought the entire set of Helveticas (thin, normal, bold, condensed and extended, and one outline version!) from Linotype -- a present from me to me as I left my last job with a lot more money from redundancy than I'd believed would ever pass through my fingers as a single chunk -- and I will never regret this. Designed in 1957 by Max Miedinger, followed shortly by Univers by Adrian Frutiger in 1958, it has become probably the standard sans-serif typeface, if such a thing exists. It is everywhere.
Don't ask me why, but sometimes as I write instant messages, the letters forming on screen, I suddenly do something -- like type "juice" -- which reminds me how wonderful it is. The austere descender on the j, almost a right angle bend without curve, and the almost perfect ellipse of the c or e, with the perfect proportion of the u ... I sit there and gasp. How can something so beautiful be used so casually every single day by millions without their even noticing? (Well, actually, if you're a Windows user you're probably stuck with Arial, which is a bit leaden. But you know what I mean.)
Before you think I'm an absurd trainspotter (I know ... too late) I am not advocating we all go around collecting typefaces and gasping at lettering, but perhaps something worth taking away is that many common objects we use every day and take for granted are elegantly and usefully designed, and that this is something to enjoy for its own sake.
As is the word juice.
Now if you'll axcuse me, I have a date at the water cooler.
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Latest reply: Jul 31, 2002
America
Posted Jul 26, 2002
How come the most litigious nation on earth has electrical sockets in its bathrooms?
Discuss this Journal entry [20]
Latest reply: Jul 26, 2002
GUSTY WINDS (may exist)
Posted Jul 16, 2002
As I can't put a picture directly on a my personal space, I've pointed at a picture.
Pointless, yet well-appointed, evil destiny.
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Latest reply: Jul 16, 2002
New leafblower
Posted Jul 15, 2002
I have a new leafblower, with which I am turning over new leaves left and right.
The leafblower is unquestionably a better leaf-turning instrument than the rake I have allowed myself to become.
From laziness and cynicism engendered mostly by my dismal failure to get off with any of the people I have ever been in love with (between one and three over a period of six years) coupled with a lack of direction in my life's activities caused by my failure to find anything in common with the Mathematics course in Cambridge, it was only a short slither downhill to here.
Well, no more. Half a loaf is NOT always better than no bread, nor a bird in the hand worth two in the bush, because there are some things to which it is worth aspiring properly.
Even if you never attain them.
I am going to have to be very strong indeed.
This new direction and rotation of leaves will initially take the form of trying to regain contact with all the people I lost touch with through laziness, stupidity or the inability to write. It will also involve a lot of bass-playing.
Wish me luck.
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Latest reply: Jul 15, 2002
Two Kinds Of Person
Posted Jul 3, 2002
There are two basic kinds of person: Kenneth Williams, and everybody else.
Discuss this Journal entry [11]
Latest reply: Jul 3, 2002
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Andrew Wyld [kt:'Burning Pestle', kp:'Mutamems, Ideodiversity', Zaph.]
Researcher U196900
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