Liberal Fascism: The Font
While I was flying back from New York City a couple of weeks ago, I finally got around to watching the DVD of the 2007 movie Helvetica. Simply put, this is The Greatest Movie Ever Made About a Type Font, but then, the roster of this cinematic genre wouldn’t take all that long to assemble. (Hopefully someone is shooting Font Wars: The Zapf Dingbats Strike Back even as we speak.)
Helvetica certainly does a fun job of explaining its titular subject’s history, and interviewing those who have used it in design work from the late 1950s through the present day. But to better place the font into context, it helps to go back a few decades from when it was first created in 1957, to understand the design world in which it functioned, its architectural ideals, and the politics from which those aesthetics flowed.
Bear with me for a few moments; I promise we’ll get back to Helvetica the font and the documentary in just a bit. But first, as Tom Wolfe has noted on a few occasions, one of the leitmotifs of the last 100 years was the idea of “Start From Zero.” The communists who took over the Soviet Union in 1917 believed that they could start from zero, and that history no longer counted. Shortly thereafter in Germany, as it emerged from the rubble of the First World War, the Bauhaus was founded, the fabled architecture and design school, which similarly banished the past. The stated goal was to provide architects, designers, and artists of all sorts with creative freedom, but as Wolfe noted in From Bauhaus to Our House, a few decades on, the result was a stultifying architectural conformity:
The country of the young Bauhausler, Germany, had been crushed in the war and humiliated at Versailles; the economy had collapsed in a delirium of inflation; the Kaiser had departed; the Social Democrats had taken power in the name of socialism; mobs of young men ricocheted through the cities drinking beer and awaiting a Soviet-style revolution from the east, or some terrific brawls at the very least. Rubble, smoking ruins — starting from zero! If you were young, it was wonderful stuff. Starting from zero referred to nothing less than re-creating the world.
Of course, in 1933, the Bauhaus was shut down after an infinitely more oppressive socialist Start from Zero campaign swept through Germany. Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus’s founder, Mies van der Rohe, its last director, and other Bauhauslers decamped to America, and re-re-started from zero again after World War II.
This is what happens when a society goes all sans-seraphim.
Heh! (TM)
“sans-seraphim” -ain’t that the truth!
Is it Helvetica or Mr. Bierut that gives it that liberal facist ‘or else’ quality?
It’s the real thing. Period! Koolaid. Period!
Any questions? Drink Koolaid. Period!
Eva,
It’s the font’s ability to blend the corporate and government world so seamlessly. Thanks for your comment, it jogged my memory of something I meant to post: a photo of the front of the IRS’s 1040 form. It’s Helvetica as well.
Ed
Glad to be of service.
How convenient that Mr B picked that particular ad. It’s more like a mandate than an advertisement especially the way he was reading it.
It’s ironic that the government uses a font that is so clear and easy to read for documents that are generally as clear as mud.
To call everything spawned by the Bauhaus an example of “liberal fascism” is absurd. Please see my blog on Jonah Goldberg’s awful book here: http://clarespark.com/2010/03/10/jonah-goldbergs-liberal-fascism-part-one/. I don’t like the sexist phrase “nanny state” either. How did paternalistic social democracy get to be associated with mommy or surrogate mothers? Anyone who looks at the working class housing in Germany between the wars would have to be impressed by the beauty of its design. And women architects were designing elsewhere interiors that required less housework. Do these anti-modernists also condemn the spare simplicity of Japanese gardens? Do they have any idea how many servants are required to keep up the Victorian or even Georgian styles of architecture and decor? And early America also produced furniture we now prize as proto-modernist. Order and authority? Only to someone who still resents his mother and wishes that she keep that polishing cloth in her hand instead of hassling her slob of a son. Now if you want to see clear cut perverted classicism, check out Eric Gill whose designs celebrated the most reactionary forms of Catholicism.
Nice posting, Clare. Not sure if you’re doing complete justice to Eric Gill (not to mention Jonah Goldberg), but for the readership of this and other PJM blogs, he’s definitely worth Googling.
Jonah’s book is excellent and if the phrase “nanny state” offends you, I will have to use it more often. The connection between the artistic movement called “modernism” and fascism* is explicit in the writings of the movement’s founders.
I understand this term to include all of the anti-liberal, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, anti-Western, political movements that flourished in 20th century Europe, including Fascism (Italian fascism), Nazism (German fascism), Communism (Russian fascism), and Environmentalism (Misanthropic fascism).
Anyone clueless enough to term communism “Russian Fascism” is self-evidently completely ignorant of the last two hundred years of political history.
“I understand this term …” just stop there, because you don’t understand the term at all. You are (by your own admission) just making up your own definition. That’s at the same level as “what I think the law is” instead of actually reading the language of the statute in question.
There are certain similarities between Fascism & Communism; for example, they’re both totalitarian, and they’re both single-party states. In other ways, they’re at right angles to each other. Fascism is avowedly nationalist, while Communism has always professed an allegiance to international solidarity of the workers. Communism is highly rationalistic. Fascism is highly irrationalistic, and so on.
Spend a half-hour with a real history book. A good start might be Contemporary Europe: A History by H. Stuart Hughes.
Casey,
I’m having a tough time wrapping my head around the idea that “Communism is highly rationalistic.” Starting from Zero, and hitting the CTL-ALT-DLT buttons on history doesn’t seem like a vary rational act to me.
Ed
Your comment is pure genius.
And to the direction the meaning is aimed? Is it any wonder naming these innocuous headings such, are the same thoughts that have birthed the voice of words and deeds that will finally kill what is left of our Republic? “We the People”, the backbone of our country, continue to allow career politicians placed in sacred positions of leadership to lie to us and distort the truth! How can we have the respect of other countries and citizens, or even the press, while allowing the “bitch slapping” of ourselves into submission rape by the hands of our guardians? Can we stand together and adjust the wrong that has been perpetuated upon us? Or, will we be victimized for all eternity? I for one(as in only one voice)when passed into eternity and understand the depth of the lies foisted upon us and done nothing to stop, will surely turn in my grave for allowing this! Here is a video we all must see! Take care, and may your “God Bless you”! http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173#
I see your point about Helvetica and liberal fascism. The font, and the new advertising style are as simple, clean and forceful as a swastika.
I find the guy showing the difference between 50s advertising and subsequently to be a bit frightening. Such direct, forceful advertising represents a command to do something, not a reasoned argument. Great way to get people to used to being herded.
We just opened a sign shop and helvetica is freaking everywhere. Sure its easy to churn out masses of straight lines and clean curves but it’s not nearly as creative and fun as working with other fonts.
As a young student at the “Institute of Design” the tattered remnant of Gropius’ and van de Rohe’s Bauhaus in the late ’60a, which had been absorbed, Jabba the Hut-like by Illinois Institute of Technology at the time, the rule was IRONCLAD: Helvetica.
Type selection still comes down to: Times New Roman, Georgia, Arial, and Verdana.
Why?
1. They’re safe, nobody but some arty-farty marketing director is going to criticize them
2. You can virtually absolutely count on them being on the computers of the audience for your website (when nifty and sporty fonts like Fraktur and Playbill may not be, and you don’t want to hassle with the workarounds).
Sterile, you bet, but the client/printer/production house doesn’t want it good, they want it Friday.
“Sterile, you bet, but the client/printer/production house doesn’t want it good, they want it Friday.”
Heh. Truer words were never written.
Good. Fast. Cheap. Choose only two. You can have it good and fast, but it won’t be cheap. You can have it good and cheap, but it won’t be fast. You can have it fast and cheap, but it won’t be good.
Type selection still comes down to: Times New Roman, Georgia, Arial, and Verdana.
Why?
1. They’re safe, nobody but some arty-farty marketing director is going to criticize them
2. You can virtually absolutely count on them being on the computers of the audience for your website (when nifty and sporty fonts like Fraktur and Playbill may not be, and you don’t want to hassle with the workarounds).
Okay. Perhaps, some small acts of rebellion to the Helvetica dominance are called to the front – let’s change default computer fonts from the stock items to ones that disturb to the status quo moderne, and erode it keystroke-by-keystroke. I lack the font knowledge to select one with an ironic impact. Suggestions please? The worm will turn only if it arches itself.
Ahhhhh….When I see those two words together…
A long time ago, I heard that H.G. Wells hated humanity. This seems to be a common thread among Cranial (Narcissistic) Giants. Jacques Cousteau, hated mankind as well.
http://jch.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/4/541
H.G. Wells’s ‘Liberal Fascism’
Philip Coupland
During the 1930s H.G. Wells’s theory of revolutionary praxis centred around a concept of ‘liberal fascism’ whereby the Wellsian ‘liberal’ utopia would be achieved by an authoritarian élite. Taking inspiration from the militarized political movements of the 1930s, this marked a development in the Wellsian theory of revolution from the ‘open conspiracy’ of the 1920s. Although both communist and fascist movements evinced some of the desired qualities of a Wellsian vanguard, it was fascism rather than communism which came closest to Wells’s ideal. However, in practice, despite the failure of approaches to parties of the left and centre as possible agents of revolution, Wells rejected the British Union of Fascists. The disparity between Wells’s theory and his actions when faced by the reality of fascism echoes the unresolved tension between ends and means at the heart of the concept of ‘liberal fascism’.
Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 35, No. 4, 541-558 (2000)
DOI: 10.1177/002200940003500402
I’ve got to think, that our home grown Succubus, Saint Maggot Sanger, is quite possibly the most evil woman who ever lived, if you quantify evil by the number of innocent souls, extinguished…
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=71868.0
Holdren: Sterilize welfare recipients
Obama boss suggested ways to save planet, said fetus not a person
Obama science czar John Holdren stated in a college textbook that compulsory, government-mandated “green abortions” would be a constitutionally acceptable way to control population growth and prevent ecological disasters, including global warming, because a fetus was most likely not a “person” under the terms of the 14th Amendment.
Holdren further suggested government-mandated population control measures might be inflicted in the United States against welfare recipients, writing on page 840: “There has been considerable talk in some quarters at times of forcibly suppressing reproduction among welfare recipients (perhaps by requiring the use of contraceptives or even by involuntary sterilizations). This may sadly foreshadow what our society might do if the human predicament gets out of hand.” (Parenthesis in original text.)
In the lead in to the war with Iraq, I heard all kinds of talk about leaving a “Power Vacuum,” in the region, once Saddam was history.
The truth is, that there has been a Spiritual Vacuum in this country,(AmeriKa,) since the Stalinist/Marxist/Maoist coup, in 1968.
Prior to that, Believers were TOLERATED.
Marx/Stalin both said…There will be peace around the world, when there is no more resistance to Communism/Socialism.
I received my screen name by a brilliant, Satanic, Self Appointed demi-god. IQ, makes one, DEVINE.
Ted Kaczynski is a tragic hero, to many on the Left. Tim McVeigh, was just a Red Neck Christian Monkey. As, all of us are, who twirl the propellers on the tops of the Leftist, Mensa-ite’s pointy little micro cephalic gourds.
Where does Comic sans fit?
Ѿ Depends on who kerned first, the Arial or the Times Roman Numeral. I think Comic Sans is somewhere in the middle (typical class clown).
Just to show I can stay on topic, here is something in Wingdings…
Well, I tried, but that’s how it translated, when I pasted it, I MEAN IT!
You know what? I think you’re being a little too hard on yourself here and I think I’m partially to blame for jumping down your throat when you didn’t deserve it and I just want to apologize for that. We’re all hurting. This world sucks sometimes. God bless you. I’ll keep you in my prayers. Don’t give up on humanity.
Dear Delia,
Thanks. I believe you are about the 4th person who has ever apologized to me in 58 years. I almost fell out of my chair. God bless ya, back.
Am sincerely happy, that I haven’t been banned for life on PJM. Lefties tolerate me for a week or 2, then it’s off to the guillotine, then to the electric chair for a few years, on L.
If it’s any consolation I’ve been her since January 2009 and PJM has given me a lot of rope (I manage to hang myself at least once a week with it heh).
I’m a typeface designer btw so this subject is cracking me up and yet all of my super geeky font jokes have escaped me. I’m so feeling deflated er…’lowercase’. Pffffft.
Well…I’m thinking of going into a business on my own…Inflatable Dartboards!
Dartboards and darts, for $3.55 American.
You, if you wish, could sell the Patch Kits, for $14.95 American…Let me know. Talk about a hedge against inflation!
(Note: I had to reply to myself in order to reply again).
“Inflatable dart-boards”? Dude, that is seriously funny (yes, I know my oxymorons)! Isn’t there a Raquel Welch joke in there? “Those aren’t buoy!” That patch kit is gonna cost ya, son! Oh but whatta way to go.
You sank my battleship! I’ve got a patch for that (feature, baby, feature).
I was so dumb, a while ago, that I thought that an Oxymoron, was an idiot with bad skin…Bar-ump bum…
Stick with me, Toots, I want to be alone.
I have to tell you, Delia…I had a fairly promising political career, that was cut tragically short in my first campaign…I was working the crowd…Shaking babies and kissing hands. Dammit..
Shaken baby syndrome is nothing to laff aboot, soldier.
Don’t make me go all UPPERCASE on you (font-wise).
To me, fonts are works of art. So beautiful. Scripts are like lovely, frilly, freely hand -written expressions of the alphabet and Sans/Serifs are perfect angular achievements unto themselves which are profoundly bold and professional and stately. Sans/Serifs are mighty and understated, scripts are expressive and telling. You could even say, one’s soul escapes a little in their hand-writing, just enough to show beauty or anger or sadness or love. Sans/Serifs are stern and unyielding in their strict adherence to the lines and curves that can be read tiny or large in utmost clarity.
One could say fonts are beauty and math, tragedy and comedy, past/present/future all rolled into one.
The letter. So beautiful and unique in every language.
It was an old/stale joke, D, sorry.
At the risk of sounding maudlin…I’ve not seen my 2 beautiful children in about 19 years. Yesterday was my little boy’s birthday…he turned 22. His sis with be 27, on the 29th. It was a little bit of gallows humor.
Just buried my surrogate baby, last week…Miss Kitty…
My Sweet Miss Kitty…Rest In Peace
http://4merly-a-person.livejournal.com/183465.html
I’ve been a hurtin cowboy, for many moons. And, NO I haven’t given up on humanity, but I’ve been damn close to it…You put a little air back in my sails by seeing me as human. Doesn’t happen often.
BT, I’m glad you haven’t given up the good fight. Your children deserve you (and NEED YOU) as much as you deserve them. I wish I’d had a father that wanted to be my Dad as much as you want to be a dad to your kiddles. Good on ya, soldier. Don’t ever stop. Good children require two good people.
(psssst) One thing about me, I’m really sarcastic, so iffin’ I tease ya some it’s meant in good sport. I’m notably an asshole on occasion (not on purpose, I’m just drawn thattawayz).
Hold up! Just holllllllllld up! I already know what yer thinkin’! If Delia were a font she’d be a ‘dingbat’. BOOOOOOOOO. I resemble that remark! (Wingnut)?
Pair kerning is a nightmare. Especially with ‘special characters’. Yes, Studio 5 can do some nifty auto-stuffies but in the end, ya gotta do it by old skoooool rote. Hate it! Do I really need to make a squiggly? Can’t I just make ‘merican fonts? Why do I have to have all the extra stuff? Per chance a Frenchy buys my font? GAHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Ms. Delia,
With you, I think it is a toss up betwixt, Black Chancery and Waltograph 4.2…That’s just the way I feel, now, GET OUTTA HERE…
Going to lie down for a bit and read a little of my Elizabeth George, mystery. Been a great night, thanks for the encouraging words…I engage sometimes,in what I call…Weapons Grade Sarcasm. It ain’t pretty!
Later,
BT
Night, BT.
I lost two fur-baby cats last year. I’m still mourning their loss. They…oh God, I still can’t talk about it.
Anyway, I’m working on a font to dedicate to them and I’m going to donate the money to animal shelter’s in their name.
I have one fur-baby left. He’s my heart and soul. I get choked up even thinking about the day when I have to bury him.
One amazing thing about fonts is, if you just want to input artwork/photos it’s fairly simple with the right software and a bit of expertise via Photoshop. I’ve made some really cute cat dingbat fonts just for fun that are basically cat-outlines. I cut them out with the lasso tool and then fill them in with black so they are just a ‘shape’. I’ve come up with some really cute dings.
People underplay grief when it comes to a loss of a pet. My critters were with my husband and I for over 12 years! Hell, some marriages don’t last that long! I have their ashes and we are still undecided about where we want to have their final resting place. It’s kind of “Where the red fern grows” situation in that we want our two boys buried together under some gorgeous tree.
*swipes tear*
Okay, Delia. Cut it out!
‘Tis a comfort to know that someone else out there thinks and feels about type the way I do — it’s a kind of madness, really. The Crystal Goblet makes me verklempt.
cheeflo.
Glad I ain’t the only typeface addict! Every once in a while you find a DaVinci.
Figures. This is all part of the helvetica scenario with calcium. I just didn’t realize it would occur so soon.
in the early 1970′s, I studied to be a typographer. I could not bear to give up Garamond and Baskerville. I still hate sans-serif anything, especially Helvetica, which is why I refuse to see this documentary. Just the thought of thinking of ” “Koyaanisqatsi” meets “Lost in Translation” ” means I shall never see “Helvetica”, having almost survived those two films.
I now realize I was born at the wrong time in design history in addition to the wrong time in all other history.
AAGH, the tyranny of sans serif extends to Google searches. Just try typing serif type fonts, and Google wants you to go to sans.
Still, had no idea even typography was politicized. leave it to pjm!
Beware the trojan horse Neue Haas Grotesk . . . on little cat feet it comes.
*fanned*
What?
‘Huffpo’ joke and all it meant was “good post!”. In udda woids, I thought your post was funny anyhoo!
Thanx! Don’t read HuffPo, so sorry didn’t get it!
I wish I could find an open-source replacement for Garamond. That and Caslon are my favorite. From another country. They did things differently there.
NO. Definitely not.
What is there about “It is not nice to make fun of mental cripples” that warrants any special exceptions for Donito Eddie de Driscoll-Padxama y Podhóretz?
Write on your G. L. Beck Memorial Colourblindboard fifty times,
Wir wollen deutsche Wingnuts sein / Wir lesen nur FRAKTUR!
With a ‘ding’,
And a ‘dong’,
And a “hey dingaling!”,
Sweet wingnuts love the spring!
Col. Klink (AKA John McCloskey),
Liberal Fascism? You’re soaking in it! And if your email address (jhmccloskey@post.harvard.edu) and Blogger profile aren’t false, so are your students and/or employees. (John’s IP address (72.85.158.103, 10.2.116.10) puts him in the Boston area, as does his Blogger profile, for what it’s worth.)
By the way, nicely done Alinsky hit & run style.
Ed
Brings a whole new meaning to ‘going green’
!
Oh poop. You removed your “soaking in it” comment. Which made my polmolive reply totally irrelevant. *pout*
Delia,
Nope, just pulled it temporarily as I looked up John’s data, based on the email address on his comment.
Ed
JHM,
You only fear people who can lock-n-load until your waggly ass is in a crisis (i.e. ‘those people’ who riot and don’t live in your ‘hood’).
Who riots? Who is violent? Who is going to kill you first?
Who is going to take your life?
1. A thug?
2. A gangbanger?
3. A tea-party participant?
If you answer ’3′ you must be afraid of people having a calm, clean assembly or even a family barbecue.
What do Lefties do when they be cell’bratin’ they homey up in the hizzy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMrJE7J3fWU
You have some audacity, jackwad.
It’s the Jihadis that are going to be your demise, dimwit. Grow up for fuck’s sake. This ain’t Kansas any more. This is WAR.
It may just be the engineer in me, but the Barcelona Chair looks like a collapse waiting to happen.
If you really want minimalist, I’d say something like the Navy Chair is a much nicer design.
Phillip Johnson is an interesting figure. He was quite an admirer of Hitler in his time, even traveling to Germany to bend a knee to the monster. Despite living to a ripe old age, he never quite managed to put that behind him. But I think even he was beginning to have second thoughts about the brutal and inhuman International Style before the end. One of his last buildings in San Francisco’s financial district had mystifying robed statues spaced near the top. Of course maybe this was an eff you to the critics of sterility.
As it happens, sans-serif fonts (of which Helvetica/Arial is the paradigmatic example) are very readable when displayed at low resolution (e.g., on computer screens). This has only strengthened the position of Helvetica in the computer age.
At high resolution but small font sizes, serif fonts (like Times) win out in readability.
Personally, I’m quite partial to Gill Sans and to Optima.
OTOH, many of us don’t find anything amusing in the actual Socialism that has gripped our nation…
Even if we do like our fonts a bit Avante Garde
Oh, you used Amtrak as an example?
Go look at British Rail’s 1960′s rebranding from “British Railways” (nationalized 1948) to “British Rail” with the double-arrow logo.
“Shortly thereafter in Germany, as it emerged from the rubble of the First World War,…”. There was no rubble in Germany after WWII. Except for rural eastern Prussia in August 1914, all WWI battles were fought outside of Germany. This is what gave the ‘Stab in the Back’ Legend its credibility. German Armies were everywhere in foreign countries, apparently undefeated, when the socialists, communists and Jews stabbed the Army in the back and created the defeat. To say Germany was crushed by WWI is an exaggeration.
The blockade of Germany continued after the November 11, 1918 Armistice and contributed to the famine in Germany after the end of the War, when millions died.
In German History, the Jahr Zero is 1945, where everything in Germany was in rubble. However, there was no argument over Germany’s defeat. Germany was crushed.
I was a graphic designer in New York when Helvetica appeared and it took over because, for a sans-serif face, it has such beautiful and balanced “color” — that is, the relationship between positive and negative space. In looking back at my work during the 60′s, I did rely on Helvetica quite a bit. I have to say though, I’ve always loved Century Schoolbook which is probably the best of the “Egyptian”, or square-serifed type fonts.
Back to font: I’ve found COMIC to be the easiest font to read vs. Helvetica, Dutch, Times, etc.
Says something of the free market doesn’t it?
That what evolved from experimenting with fonts in order to better market to inchoate readers is easiest on the eyes for inveterate and aging readers?
Rather than those “designed” by “experts”?
Ludwig von Mises vs. Mies van der Rohe?
So let me get this straight. This insipid twit, churned out a pointless article, in order to have a reason to post a headline, with the words “Liberal Fascism” in it. Then all the mindless Teabigots, lap up the drool like it was manna from heaven.
Of course it did give BT a reason to post a link to a screed on M. Sanger, and the evils of birth control. Hey BT, are you a Christian Reconstructionist? But here’s the good part, Delia tells him how much his children need him, and how badly he wants to see them, although he hasn’t seen them in 19 years.
Clicked on BT’s name, and was transported to a place that is “Totally Nutsville”. Wow, what a crazy link!
K>”I see your point about Helvetica and liberal fascism. The font, and the new advertising style are as simple, clean and forceful as a swastika.”< From what I've seen, Teabags and Swastikas are interchangeable.
Teabaggers "claim" 2/3 of them have attended college. I guess they consider anything above 4th grade, college level. In Teabagger land, if you can read, it means you have a masters.
One last thing. Been a graphic designer for years. Helvetica is used a lot, because it's very easy to read, is timeless and it works well with most design ideas. Maybe I'll do a pointless article about it also. Headline, Teabagger Racism and Intolerance: The Font
Margaret Sanger wanted believed in eugenics and aborting black babies:
http://www.citizenreviewonline.org/special_issues/population/the_negro_project.htm
You don’t think that is evil?
Who’s the ‘bigot’ again?
My regular Joe typeface of preference is either Tahoma or Comic Sans. I’m not sure if someone can be a ‘font’ snob? Are people application snobs? Hmm. I can’t afford to upgrade Adobe Photoshop every year (still have version seven). I guess I ain’t rich and Leftist enough to be an App-Snoot.
Doncha just love the way liberals demonstrate their love and tolerance for anyone who disagrees with them.
Mark, having differing opinions/views means being an individual (scary). Leftists don’t like it when people break from the Borg mentality/hive-mind/group-think.
The blue pill/kool-aid is less painful for a lot of peeps apparently.
Just a quibble: those quotation marks around “claim”? I do no’ think they mean what you think they mean.
And your lack of self-awareness, at least as evidenced in your comment, is breathtaking.
Not to get all pedantic or anything, but this is a pet peeve. Helvetica is not a font — it is a typeface. Helvetica 12-pt bold is a font. The computer industry screwed up the meaning of the words.
Among other things. I’d like to get my hands on whoever came up with “auto leading”
m
I hate font snobs. They are maddeningly pedantic. But on point, I saw this documentary and there’s this sequence where a woman talks about not liking Helvetica because it’s the font of corporations and they were behind the Vietnam war. Font snobs/political idiots.
Hey, people love typefaces so much, they make parody videos about them!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHCu28bfxSI
tbggr: Got the vein all ready for the needle and your dealer got busted?
I spent 17 years working for my state Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and every time we got a new Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner we would “start from zero” including the infamous Carter inspired “Zero Based Budgeting” in the 70′s.
I now think that all those “promulgations” resetting the zero mark must have been printed in Helvetica font. Now it all makes sense.
Deja Vu: My uncle’s an architect. (He ended up as the Dean of Architecture at a large American university.) In the 1950s, I used to visit his family’s boxy, glass house in a swanky bedroom community.
He was pretty well off, but yes, I remember the tiny living room with the stryrofoam-cloth-covered-mattress-on-a-plain-wood-frame “couch”—and the Barcelona Chair. There was a semi-wall, open at the top and bottom, between the living and dining areas. In the dining room were Saarinen chairs and table that looked like they were growing out of the white linoleum floor. There was a galley kitchen, and all the bedrooms had built in furniture—like 1970’s university dorms. Fortunately, the house was on a cul-de-sac, because, even with a sort of courtyard space, the floor to ceiling windows in the main living areas made the house feel like a goldfish bowl.
It’s the most uncomfortable house I’ve ever been in. (Is it any surprise that after my uncle and aunt went their separate ways, her houses were always elegant traditional: chintz and comfy furniture?)
Your uncle just didn’t want to dust! I abhor every stupid little knick-knack I’ve acquired throughout my lifetime. I wouldn’t want to live in a fish-bowl or a sterile environment but I find it freeing to rid myself of my own amassed fortune of clutter.
just don’t unclutter that baroque brain o yorn, Delia –por favore –
It ain’t da brain dats baroque (cluttered, nah, compartmentalized, yeah, still no flatline). It’s just ol’ Delia’s heart that’s baroque.
Did anyone else find those old 50′s ads to be a breath of fresh air? They seemed so happy and whimsical compared to the cold dead helvetical world we find ourselves in.
you need to put down that bowl, Baby.
In that clip with Michael Bierut, at 0:53 he says “Paducah, Iowa”. Maybe they didn’t teach geography in the Cleveland schools, or maybe he’s being hip and ironic. No matter, it all looks the same when all you do is fly over it.
Are people serious….. whats next, Sex with Fonts – Vol I, avoid STD.
Good point! Be careful out there; always avoid Sanserif Transmitted Diseases!
I work for a commercial printing company. Now I know where all those fonts come from… it’s Delia.
I don’t design fonts; I just uses ‘em. I use Helvetica and Times a lot because they’re simple and readable for business forms. I do find them kind of boring, though, just because they’re so common. I do like Garamond and Caslon. They’re nice and classic. But there are a gazillion different versions of Garamond, and that sometimes causes “issues” for output.
FWIW, I recently did a little research and determined that the font used in Obama’s campaign materials and signs is Gotham. That font is also used in the logo for one of the Soros-funded organizations whose name escapes me at the moment. So I figure that Gotham is George Soros’ favorite font.
Ain’t nobody fontin’ around! No APB out on Delia!
Come bask with me in Baskerville!
I have always resented American Airlines changing their font/logo/paint scheme. I remember well the old one, which was far superior. Now I know why I resent it.
I actually think the forerunner, Akzidenz Grotesk, is a more interesting sans-serif typeface…
LUCKY STRIKE used something like Helvetica in .. the 1920s.
Greg,
Right. It wasn’t Helvetica, but it was an early sanserif font. (And it was “toasted” long before they hired they hired Sterling-Cooper in 1960.)
Did anybody else notice how hard Mr. Bierut had to work to keep you from noticing the wonderful trademark script “Coca-Cola” written on the glass in that ad? Without that expressive writing on the glass, the ad might as well have been placed in the classifieds.