What the Buzz?

Okay, so here is my question...  What is the buzz about Helvetica?  I mean, I've seen the movie.  Yippidie Dee... It's a typeface that "captures the human essence in it simplicity."  I think it's a clean/ reliable font, but there are more fonts out there that can do the job of Helvetica.  

Arial, although accused of being a bootleg Helvetica, has similar properties to the popular typeface.  It has a slightly more curvaceous look to it, but it's simple enough in the sense that it makes for an easy read.

What about Comic Sans?  Many typographer detest comic sans, but it is a very useful and very simple font.  Comic sans is a dominating font on most cellular phones because of how easy it is to read in such a small point size.

Maybe I'm trying to stir the waters of the type world, but it's worth the risk.  There are thousands of typefaces out there and, while many of them are useless, many more can find there home in the graphic design world.  

What do you think?

The New Alphabet

Hmmm... When thinking of the new alphabet, a few words come to mind. The readability issues up the wall and Far too abstract for my liking... Although the new alphabet is artistic, it wouldn't be a type form that I would recommend a Designer use for more than a display font. According to Ellen Lupton's Thinking With Type, it is a typeface consisting of "no diagonals or curves".
As any typographer would know, a typeface is defined as useful or poor based, partially, on it's readability, legibility, and scalability. The new typeface has a unique style and interpretation of Roman letter forms, but there is far too much negative space which, in turn, reduces the readers ability easily recognize words or phrases. For example, the "W" in the New Alphabet looks much like the "U" in most recognizable type faces, and the "A" looks like a backwards "L". When placed next to other letter forms, some faces of the New Alphabet blend in with others further distorting the reliability of the New Alphabet.

This is one typographer's look on the issue. What do you think?

Check out the New Alphabet at: http://www.papress.com/thinkingwithtype/teachers/type_lecture/history_crouwel.htm

The Matrix

   Okay, for those of us who've watch "The Matrix", we know and understand the underlying meaning behind the film. One of the main principles of the matrix is that it is a program based upon rules. The governing rules help maintain order over the people who live within the Matrix and all other operating systems attached to it. (ie: programs and this of that nature) Even though the Matrix is a creation of the human mind, I find that it parallels a certain aspect of Typography and Graphic Design in general. The aspect of the grid can serve as a mini matrix for all typographical/ graphic-design works.  Much like a line said by Morpheus in the Matrix, "This system is based on a set of rules. Some may be bent... Others can be broken..."  

   The point of this entry is that the grid is a part of Graphic Design that I've been introduced to recently. Many people with intuitive design styles may find grids to be useless or even distracting when, in actuality, a grid can serve as a very useful tool. A grid is can be nothing more than a marker and a set of guidelines within which a designer chooses to operate.  Like the matrix, it's all a game of choice.  

"Now hit me... if you can..."