To a non-designer like me, the difference between Helvetica and Arial is like the difference between competing brands of a certain crème-filled sandwich cookie. Oreos are the preferred choice—obviously—but Hydrox will do in a pinch. (And, to be quite honest, few of us could really tell the difference.)
When it comes to fonts, though, people get weird.
So weird, in fact, that David Friedman took twenty logos that were originally designed in Helvetica, recreated them using Arial, and presented the results side by side in a fun online quiz. Things got a little dicey around here this morning when Shirlee and Skooch each scored 19, Courtney 18, and CK, well…perhaps it’s best if we not mention it right now.
The real tragedy here is that, while type nerds are fighting over font supremacy in what amounts to a battle between vanilla and French vanilla, the arrival of the “world’s first genetically engineered superfont” has been largely ignored.
by charles