HELVETICA

I'm becoming a Helvetica freak.

That's what I would have said a couple of months ago. Now I know I am one!

I see it everywhere, I spot it when I'm not looking, it's mad. But I love it. That was up until I learnt just how similar Microsoft's counterpart typeface Arial was to it. So I did some research into the differences between them.

The fundamental difference is the angle at the end of a stroke. Helvetica works perpendicularly whereas Arial has angles. This is most noticeable in letters like c, e, f, r where the letter ends with an unclosed stroke. The a is different too, Helvetica almost flicking off, Arial straight down. The small t is also a giveaway. The top terminal in Helvetica is again cut perpendicularly, but the Arial t is slanted down left. There's more but I won't ramble. I'm Helvetica crazy. I'm currently compiling a list of good examples and bad examples of Helvetica in branding, because quite frankly it is over-used, but having said that, where it is used well it is such a beautiful little font. So it's a little research project I'm conducting, which I'm sure I'll put up here in due course.

This is a beautiful little graphic by swissmiss to pinpoint the Helvetica vs Arial comparisons.

ILLUSTRATING BLOG TITLES

New header images for the DT101TL Blogs, drawn up with Illustrator.
Cooper Black and Helvetica Bold.

Design Project 3 here http://www.tleecitizensensor.blogspot.com

RESPECTING TYPE

[GRAPHICS] OLYMPIC POSTER TASK

To emphasise the importance of computers and the typography that we all have access to, our task today was to make a London 2012 poster using rubbing techniques. That is, laying paper over a ridged bit of existing lettering and rubbing pastel over it to depict the letterform. Seemed a bit like a primary school task but never mind.

The task did have some rules, including compulsory text content (event details), a self-chosen strap line, clear influence of the five rings, and that we couldn't use letters from the same rubbing source next to each other. So having planned a general layout for the poster, decided on a strap line, and counted how many of each letter was needed, we set off in search of rubbings. Letters came from signs around campus and local streets, numbers from house doors, bins, cars, and Os from drains (creative!).

Here's what we came up with.

Not quite the typography class I thought it was going to be. But for sure I'll be looking into it with more depth. I'm gonna be typeface nerd.

[GRAPHICS] INTRODUCTION TO TYPOGRAPHY