Ian Noble goes blonde. See previous post.
Talking of type heads
Helvetica the movie.
In my opion there is only one cut of Helvetica and that's Neue. 45/55/65/75
(85 is just pushing it too far and 35 is just Orange noddy.)
The opinons of Wim Crouwel and Neville Brody sum up the dilema.
Broady says that Helvetica is neutral in the way GAP is, safe, you know you won't offend anyone with it. My interpretation of this is bland. The font has been so over used in the wrong way and context that it's become the magnolia of fonts.
Crouwel seems to be pointing at the idea that it's almost the only font to be used as it's neutrality makes it remain the quiet element in the design. It leaves the design to be the message and you can ignore the font. I agree that fonts are so badly used by designers, it's currency has become cheaper and easier to use. The craft of typography has all but vanished from most agencies /practices. Even to the point where clients somtimes decide on fonts to use, they have forgot what fonts were invented for, serif easier to read in smaller columns easier on the eye as you read. Gothic condensed to squeeze more words in the coloumns, sans serif for headlines for clarity.
I'd like to see the sequel to this film, room 101 of fonts. First in line would be Arial, Optima and Chicago I could go on but why bother. I love neue as much as the next designer but to only design with one font is like eating porridge ever day, good for you, neutral and long lasting but ultimately like the GAP a bit bland when over used.
Bring back classic modern favourites like Univers, Zurich and Berthold Akzidenz as well. Dust them off and and kern the buggers as these fonts won't set themselves.
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