Saturday, April 07, 2007

i love your face

well actually i love this face
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/06/AR2007040601986.html
it's an article about the birthday (anniversary?) of Helvetica
i love Helvetica
When i was in school, as a graphic arts student, one of the classes i took was typography.
We'd do all kinds of projects using type
And, inevitably, i'd choose Helvetica
I couldn't seem to help myself
I know my professor got a little frustrated with me
I was totally infatuated
My friend Boo seemed to love anything with serifs
I thought she was crazy - serifs were a stinker to draw
(remember back in the day - and these were the days - we didn't use computers for any of this graphic art shtuff - there were typesetting machines - but not in college thats for sure)
Ah - but Helvetica is sans serif
and although I could do the serifs, none of my designs lent themselves to serifs
no - i was definitely a sans serif kinda girl
After reading the article, I felt vindicated
After all these years, it's nice to know I am not the only one who loves Helvetica
I dearly wish i could get to the MoMA and take a look at that original set of lead

2 comments:

Sue McGettigan said...

I love that you are a print geek, just like me :)

Donna Layton said...

Funny, I always tended toward sans serif and, of course, Helvetica was it. Reminds me of all those years of running that great big typesetting machine. Run out the type into the closed dark box and stick the box onto the processor (I so hated changing those chemicals) then hanging it on the line to dry. The olden days. At least I'm not old enough to have done hot type!
I never liked the smell of those typesetting chemicals. I love a lot of chemical smells, but not that one. Sort of vinegar-esque. Yucky.
I remember when Souvinir came around....People were so in love with that font. Drove me nuts. I'll stop now.