I've always been interested in text; I've played around with it in the past, and gone out of my way to include it appealing ways within school assignments that involved digital media. I found that I was able to adjust it to better fit the mood of an image or article - by widening the font or changing spacing between letters - and my peers nearly always agreed with my decisions. The thing that did not register with me over the years is the fact that I've been drawn to use "Arial," which is a modified version of Helvetica.. which is the most widely used font on the face of the earth, mostly for its simplicity and its ability (or lack thereof) to be recognized.
"Helvetica" (the documentary) completely captivated me. Learning about the origins and the reasoning behind the widespread use of Helvetica and other fonts has revamped my understanding of text as a whole. What I was doing with Arial throughout the majority of my high school experience was explained in "Helvetica." The reason that it is so universally accepted is not only because of its readability, but its history; in the late 50's, it completely swept the media and advertising scene, replacing anything previous to it with its crispness and, steadily, its popularity.
No comments:
Post a Comment