In reply to Helonia VS Helvetica - Curious dearth of information:
John*, you make some valid points, and defend them eloquently; there is
no shortage of cases of people unduly shunning something simply because
it's popular. Consider all those who disdain Barcelona's football club; and
I myself could never support Scuderia Ferrari - it's just too easy.
* And please call me Hrant. :-)
However certain opinions, such as the ones Spiekermann expresses in
the movie, are founded on more than mere emotion. Helvetica is used by
too many entities that represent too broad a spectrum of connotations
to maintain the focus necessary in a good font. Also, the spacing is indeed
off (it's too tight), and -as Joshua states- this is not simply a matter of
taste; one of the dark secrets of typefaces that you will be discovering is
that a font's various attributes -specifically here its vertical proportions,
color (meaning weight) and spacing- have to be in sync for it to click for
continuous reading, something which furthermore can only happen for
a narrow range of point sizes (for a given font).
I would suggest that you enjoy seeing good qualities in Helvetica simply
because -via the movie- it has become your personal gateway into this
fascinating new world, and turning your back on it seems a betrayal.
If you'd like to explore other sans fonts, and delve deeper still into this
black craft (because it's not an art) you might want to study the unique
Legato, concerning which I once wrote a review - see the last entry here:
http://typographica.org/2005/on-typography/our-favorite-typefaces-of-2004/
There's also much good discussion on Legato on Typophile.
--
BTW, related, and recent:
http://typophile.com/node/88647
hhp
