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This page contains all of the posts and discussion on MemeStreams referencing the following web page: What's in a Font?. You can find discussions on MemeStreams as you surf the web, even if you aren't a MemeStreams member, using the Threads Bookmarklet.

What's in a Font?
by possibly noteworthy at 6:58 pm EST, Jan 8, 2008

Virginia Postrel talks with Gary Hustwit — director of Helvetica — about filmmaking, creativity, and the expressive implications of one of the world's most popular typefaces

See also, from the archives:

In 1995 Microsoft released the font Comic Sans originally designed for comic book style talk bubbles containing informational help text. Since that time the typeface has been used in countless contexts from restaurant signage to college exams to medical information. These widespread abuses of printed type threaten to erode the very foundations upon which centuries of typographic history are built.

While we recognize the font may be appropriate in a few specific instances, our position is that the only effective means of ending this epidemic of abuse is to completely ban Comic Sans.

Typography is not simply a frou-frou debate over aesthetics orchestrated by a hidden coterie of graphic-design nerds. You need only imagine a STOP sign that utilizes the heavy-metal typefaces favoured by bands Dokken or Krokus to realize that clear, clean and direct typography can save lives, or at the very least prevent drivers from prolonged bouts of confused squinting.

Why should you care?

Because everything you read, every sign, book and logo, is in a font.

And don't forget:

The reality is that, despite fears that our children are "pumped full of chemicals," everything is made of chemicals, including Helvetica, and even Comic Sans.

Most of the blame for the obesity epidemic in America rests squarely on the fat font face of Comic Sans.


 
RE: What's in a Font?
by flynn23 at 12:22 pm EST, Jan 9, 2008

possibly noteworthy wrote:

Typography is not simply a frou-frou debate over aesthetics orchestrated by a hidden coterie of graphic-design nerds. You need only imagine a STOP sign that utilizes the heavy-metal typefaces favoured by bands Dokken or Krokus to realize that clear, clean and direct typography can save lives, or at the very least prevent drivers from prolonged bouts of confused squinting.

Oh but it is! The only reason why fonts like Helvetica have survived over something like Hessian script (ie heavy metal type) is because you read best what you read most. Comic Sans will be just as recognizable for anything if it's used for everything.

But I LOVE the idea of STOP signs in Wing Dings.


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