I went along to the ICA the other week, stumbling over the gravel borders on The Mall and across the wide flagstones to the little, low door, at pavement level, into what would, I suppose, have been the coach houses and mews to Carlton House Terrace. The purpose of the visit was to see a documentary about a typeface so ubiquitous that I hardly give it a second thought when I see it, which must happen several hundred times a day. Helvetica. It was an entertaining summing up of why it is so widely used; how it transformed advertising; why some typographers love it while others hate it and, to an extent, the way that graphics programs on home computers have turned us all (we think) into type "experts" by giving us Arial.It was great, so good in fact that I expected the audience packed in to the tiny viewing room in the basement to clap when it finished. They didn't, but they darned well should have done. It also confirmed my view that a lot designers are wankers, totally up their own holes. I often get this feeling at work and want to dash their grey matter out on the corner of a desk while they waste ages fussing over the amount of white space around a line of 48pt upper and lower. After the film, a couple of pints of Guinness, the first I'd had in a year or two, in the ICA bar. Now I associate Guinness with Helvetica.
Wednesday, 17 October 2007
Sorry, we don't serve your type in here
I went along to the ICA the other week, stumbling over the gravel borders on The Mall and across the wide flagstones to the little, low door, at pavement level, into what would, I suppose, have been the coach houses and mews to Carlton House Terrace. The purpose of the visit was to see a documentary about a typeface so ubiquitous that I hardly give it a second thought when I see it, which must happen several hundred times a day. Helvetica. It was an entertaining summing up of why it is so widely used; how it transformed advertising; why some typographers love it while others hate it and, to an extent, the way that graphics programs on home computers have turned us all (we think) into type "experts" by giving us Arial.It was great, so good in fact that I expected the audience packed in to the tiny viewing room in the basement to clap when it finished. They didn't, but they darned well should have done. It also confirmed my view that a lot designers are wankers, totally up their own holes. I often get this feeling at work and want to dash their grey matter out on the corner of a desk while they waste ages fussing over the amount of white space around a line of 48pt upper and lower. After the film, a couple of pints of Guinness, the first I'd had in a year or two, in the ICA bar. Now I associate Guinness with Helvetica.
