Here I propose an article published in "Il Sole 24 ore" December 17th, 2010
Cyrus Highsmith is a typedesigner who wanted to live one day giving up all those objects that presented themselves as written with the Helvetica font. Despite Simon Garfield, in his book "Just my type: a book about fonts" signals the presence of 100,000 different fonts in the world, the experiment of Mr. Highsmith, has failed. We then asked
Silvia Sfligiotti, graphic designer, to compile a "mini review of character" to be able to better interpret the signs of our daily lives: the omnipresent Helvetica, and all'infantile hate Comic Sans. Here's the manual to get confused and not recognize them. From the signs in the subway and bus systems, from credit card to the TV remote control until the labels of clothes, Cyrus Highsmith, he tells the New York Times, he realized that Helvetica reigns everywhere. The challenge is served to demonstrate the importance of the sign in our daily lives .
Helvetica Helvetica is a bit 'the Beatles of typography: is so popular and loved that have been devoted several books and a documentary. Designed in 1957 by Swiss
Max Miedinger, at the time was not big news, but it was refinement of characters that already existed in the nineteenth century. Helvetica was born at the right time - one in which the new graphics made by Swiss designer to model most of the world - and since then has continued to be used.
Times New Roman
This character was designed in 1931, commissioned by The Times newspaper , by Stanley Morison, one of the largest printers and English scholars, along with Victor Lardent, a graph who worked at the newspaper. The intent of Morison was to create a character while retaining the classic elements that go to meet the needs of a newspaper, or have a good readability, clarity of printing and saving space.
Meanwhile, the British newspaper has long passed to other characters, and Times New Roman has become a standard on almost any computer.
Gotham
Although it was designed in 2000 by Tobias Frere-Jones , Gotham brings back the tradition of American models, specifically the font used for the signs between the years 30 and years 50. Perhaps it is to reassure the American electorate that this character was chosen in 2008 for the election campaign of Barack Obama.
Georgia Georgia, drawn from English Matthew Carter, is the first successful attempt to create a font that has a good yield of reading is on the screen, in print. Commissioned by Microsoft and bundled with its software, is now one of the characters called "default", those which are present on virtually every computer and for this reason, it is also among the most used for Web sites of information (for example, that The New York Times).
Johnston
No one knows the name, but anyone who has been to London knows its appearance: it is the character drawn by Edward Johnston for London Underground , since 1916 and is constantly used for any aspect of communication, from the logo, the names of stations, the famous Underground map, becoming a very characteristic of the urban landscape of London.
Simoncini Garamond
Although, like many others, is named after the French printer Claude Garamond, this character does not make much of the sixteenth century. It was built in 1956 by Francesco Simoncini on behalf of the Einaudi, and since then it has the character to be used for all text books of the publishing house , first up in the lead and now digital. The success was such that over time many more mimicked Einaudi publishing houses, and now a large number of books published in Italy are made with this font.
Futura
When Paul Renner drew him, in 1927, Futura responded perfectly, with its pure forms and geometric, typography and the avant-garde Bauhaus.
the beginning of the twenty-first century we find it a bit 'everywhere, even in the Italian stations signs, which unfortunately does not give its best: the letters look a bit' all, and do not help the traveler to orient .
Comic Sans
The name says it all: it is a character that imitates the writing used in comics, and that's why it was designed. Unfortunately it and its author, Connie Vincent rather than remain in his field, was included in the Windows 95 package and has become the most beloved character from the charts on Sunday, and therefore the most hated by graphics professionals .
Frutiger
If you are walking in one of the most important airports of the world, like Amsterdam and New York, and you're missing, you owe it also to the clarity and readability of a typeface. Designed by Swiss Adrian Frutiger in 1975 for the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, this character was later used in many other airports, thanks to the work of renowned designer Paul Mijksenaar wayfinding, which considers the most effective in these situations.
Sun Serif
As the Times in 1931, the Sole 24 Ore has also felt the need to insert a new character for Sunday commissionado the creation of a new font to Luciano Perondi who created the Sun Serif. Almost eighty years printing techniques have improved, and newspapers have evolved into a communication that integrates text and images. Now a character must not only save space and ease of reading: it becomes an identifying element of the head, accompanying weekly readers become familiar and can be recognized, is recognized as the voice of someone you know.
I find that the article is illustrative of the fact that although there are thousands of fonts, we tend to always use the usual 10, to a greater or lesser degree, but the fonts used are always the same.
I am also very much agree with the explanations and comments for each font, especially for Comic Sans, which, let's face it, is not one of the best fictional characters. Or rather, is an end in itself, since it should only be used for text in the comics, but, as he says nell'artcicolo "charts on Sunday" use it for their work, knocking down the vision of true profession the chart, based on research, harmony and beauty. All the features that Comic Sans Is NOT!
Another small consideration should be made on the Times New Roman font, with excellent readability and a perfect balance, but ruined by the advent of Word. In fact, most of the documents written in Word is Times New Roman 12 pt, exclusively because the user does not want to make the effort to change font and size, and everything I find absolutely ridiculous.
