Saturday, January 2, 2010

Helvetica

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It's no secret; I love type. There's something about letterforms that I find absolutely mesmerizing. As a I child, I would spend hours pouring over type specimen books, drinking in their subtleties of form. And my favorite was always Helvetica.


Later on, when I was off at college studying typography, I learned that Helvetica was the favorite of a lot of other folks, too. In fact, its use is "universal." (Pardon the pun, typophiles. :)

Think you DON'T know Helvetica? Check out this PBS short video: Helvetica. It's actually a clip from a movie about the type face. (See? I told you there were a lot of other Helvetica enthusiasts out there!)

Think you DO know Helvetica? Try this fun game, where designer David Friedman found 20 logos originally designed with Helvetica and swapped them out with Arial (blasphemy!). Your job is to pick out the original. Have fun! (I got a perfect score! How about you? :)

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