Not My Type
I am not a graphic designer, nor will I ever be, but I do love me some fonts. I have for a long time – at least since I first got a computer in the mid-1990s. You might not think so, but fonts and typefaces have militant advocates and critics. On Flickr, for example, there is a group dedicated exclusively to mocking a font called Comic Sans. On the other hand, I saw a film this year that was all about Helvetica. I had never really given much thought to Helvetica, but the movie made me a big fan. It’s a fine font.
In the New York Times today, Alice Rawsthorne writes about the use of anachronistic fonts in films and television. She quotes a typography designer (that’s a real job?) who points out how odd it is that films in which enormous efforts are made to ensure accuracy in wardrobe and set design do not go to the same lengths to ensure typefaces that appear on screen are period-appropriate. I have never looked for this when watching a movie, but, as I am constantly annoyed by anachronistic music in films (particularly diagetic music), I can’t deny anyone else the right to find font abuse upsetting.
Filed under: Musings on November 15th, 2009
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