I just finished watching a documentary called “Helvetica” on Netflix. It always amazes me when something so seemingly simple turns out to be quite complex. I just don’t have the kind of eye required to care about fonts. When I was in college using the first generation Apple Macintosh computers in the computer lab, I remember using New Century Schoolbook for all my papers. Now I just use whatever default font Bill Gates happens to choose. The movieĀ reinforced how much the right expert can add to a project. I can’t imagine looking at fonts all day long, but these people really love it; makes the world go round.
This is another aspect of the IT field that I love. IT either encompasses or touches many professions; it is impossible to know them all, and in order to be effective, we rely on collaboration to get the job done. It isn’t important to know all those professions, but it is certainly nice to appreciate them.
Watching an 80 minute movie about a single font is a new experience for me. I am not sure that I’d recommend you watch it, but if you do I’d like to know what you think. Will you be using Helvetical exclusively from now on? Is there another font you prefer? Are you quitting your day job to go design fonts?