Watching documentary Helvetica and short clip Trajan is the Movie Font both bring to light the intents of designers when they attempt to communicate simple pieces of information, while I blankly pass over it all. I think I will now forever be haunted by these typefaces at my every turn. I just browsed to the web site for music artist Bitcrush (who have a new album Epilogue in Waves, coming out in January!), glaringly seeing the obvious usage of Helvetica in the act’s logo. It’s the same aesthetic used in Cadoo’s prior project, Gridlock, and even seems to be the central theme of their record label. Knowing the music has a lush layering of pads and acoustic sounds, with modern glitch cuts, they decided on a thick typeface that expresses it as bold and passionate while firm and solid, so we don’t doubt its statements. It all reminds me to pick up Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, and Student, especially since I work in web development; mostly back-end, but I’m always reliant on graphic designers to finish the product whereas a higher level of workplace autonomy would be more optimal.
While Helvetica is usually used to promote overlords as comforting friends for consumption, at least some of them have a sense of humour like Amazon and BMW.
… and The Rolling Stone somehow manage to publish a decent article summarizing “How America Lost the War on Drugs”. Maybe the DEA needs to hear David Cross’ comparison to a War on Jealousy?
