I definitely obsess over details, but I'm no fascist.

Well say what you want but anything that tries to disrupt Helvetica's grab on NYC is simply sinful!

Impose uniformity? No way. Make words readable, beautiful, and in a style suited to the use: yes.

By the way Paul Sher says on the Helvetica movie that she hates Helvetica as representing uniformity and fascism. She says that with a smile.

Contra Alice Hawthorn, I cringe when I see all those Helvetica subway signs in NYC.

Paula was on there? Where did I miss that?

Uniformity?! Quite the contrary.
Impose?! Well, covertly. :-)

hhp

The ultimate stupid type article. Jump on the bandwagon, writing about fonts is cool.

Who cares what Paula says.

Bill, New Yorkers cringe when they see you on the subway!

Snap out of it man!

James Deux: On the Helvetica movie, Paula Sher's bit starts around 45 min.

It's delightful.

She was OK. Fun, but not particularly convincing.
Spiekermann was the star for me.

hhp

Hrant, I agree. Spiekermann really nailed the deficiencies of Helvetica. And Michael Bierut did a wonderful job of explaining its strength and why it was a great success when it came out.

Paula Sher's wild exaggeration made clear why some designers have come to have a revulsion for Helvetica, and I found that delightful.

Her point was not to communicate the technical truth, as Spiekermann did, but the negative emotional connotations that have grown up because of the way Helvetica has been used, and its ubiquity, as well as its original design.

Well that was an irritating read!

…
-=®=-

Paula Scher, dear purists.

Sorry about my irredeemably bad spelling. Thanks for the correction.