100 best typefaces

[jeffrey 0]

http://www.100besteschriften.de/

 

you best brush up on your deutsche.

[Guest Sao_bento]

http://www.100besteschriften.de/

 

you best brush up on your deutsche.

They did mention all the good ones, but there are about 25 extras I don't agree with.

[fishface 0]

if comic sans doesn't make your top 100, you have to seriously rethink your decision to become a designer.

[butler 0]

if comic sans doesn't make your top 100, you have to seriously rethink your decision to become a designer.

LMAO

 

the site would be nice if it was in english looks like it has some interesting stuff on the history of each font

[drnz 0]

yummy!!! Nice find....lots of good sans I've forgotten about...the list does get kind of arbitrary after the first 50 or so....

[jeffrey 0]

if comic sans doesn't make your top 100, you have to seriously rethink your decision to become a designer.

 

yeah, yeah. insert obligatory 'yeah! papyrus sucks too!' comment here.

[javier g 0]

wow intersting find!, i was hoping to see my favourite DIN a little higher

[SermonOfMockery 0]

the rugged, yet versatile, akzidenz grotesk

[graymachine 0]

Helvetica is #1!!!!

 

 

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28261

Edited February 7, 2007 by graymachine

[javier g 0]

yep, we could start a discussion about that, does helvetica deserves n 1??? it seems the obvious choice, but im not completely agree

[govinda 0]

Optima?? Kinda neither fish nor fowl, that one, kinda wants it both ways, that little whiner, Optima. I'm happy to see that Bembo, that girl who never drops her pencil in class and always colors within the lines, got up there pretty high. But DIN should be top ten. If this poll was done in the US, I bet Trade Gothic would be much much higher, maybe even as high as Palatino and...Zapfino.

[Guest Sao_bento]

yep, we could start a discussion about that, does helvetica deserves n 1??? it seems the obvious choice, but im not completely agree

But, you see, Helvetica is designed not to care where you rank it - it has no opinion on the subject.

[graymachine 0]

Being the place of DIN in German history and typography, I'm not surprised to see it ranked low. They are probably sick of seeing it.

[Guest Sao_bento]

Being the place of DIN in German history and typography, I'm not surprised to see it ranked low. They are probably sick of seeing it.

That's exactly what I was thinking.

[anthonyc 0]

what no HOBO!?

[Carey 0]

What is this list? Does someone know what the actual qualifications are?

I mean, the value of any letterform is totally contextual (Modernists' heads are fixing to explode with rage). I probably wouldn't rate Helvetica very high for a "get well" card for my chemotherapy-bound grandmother.

[Guest Sao_bento]

What is this list? Does someone know what the actual qualifications are?

I mean, the value of any letterform is totally contextual (Modernists' heads are fixing to explode with rage). I probably wouldn't rate Helvetica very high for a "get well" card for my chemotherapy-bound grandmother.

It all depends. Helvetica is a declaration that the style will come from the design rather than a wacky typeface. Kind of like the Dogme 95 self induced limitations to inspire creativity.

It kind of puts you in the driver's seat, rather than letting you push the need for thought off to someone who makes wacky versions of letters and calls them a typeface. With helvetica, you have to do the work.

[mete_shop 0]

why would a site dedicated to splendidly designed typefaces have such a shit layout? over active background images? didn't we get over that after html 101? kinda hurts the trustworthiness of their recommendations.

[C.Smith 0]

Iron Maiden font should be top ten. What they did with a captial 'A' was nothing short of genius. Although I only use Helv being that the Maiden font is too powerful a weapon.

Edited February 11, 2007 by C.Smith

[C.Smith 0]

Seriously, where is Arial? Is it too close to Helvetica to count?

[a2visual 0]

Seriously, where is Arial? Is it too close to Helvetica to count?

 

I think Arial is the red-headed stepchild to Helvetica.

[Narate 0]

Bank Gothic above Mrs Eaves?

 

deary me.

[Carey 0]

It all depends. Helvetica is a declaration that the style will come from the design rather than a wacky typeface. Kind of like the Dogme 95 self induced limitations to inspire creativity.

It kind of puts you in the driver's seat, rather than letting you push the need for thought off to someone who makes wacky versions of letters and calls them a typeface. With helvetica, you have to do the work.

 

So it's a whip for slackers AND a crutch for elitists?

That's an idea, for sure, but it kind of ignores the cultural relevance of things like serifs and slabs, script, calligraphic modulation, etc. I'll admit to being an idealist in the sense that I don't think anyone who does this professionally should need training wheels in the form of a typeface that reminds them to consider what they're doing. And I also kind of feel like a segment of the design community adores Modernism because it's relatively easy to create modernist works on a computer (you practically get a foundation for modernist layouts by default), and thusly has come to fetishize Helvetica in its own defense. Not that it's not a great typeface. It is. I'm a sucker for really tight usage of it in spare environments. But to suggest that it somehow has the magical quality of not having any qualities, as though it were a blank slate that said nothing on its own, is kind of erroneous. I mean, this whole idea, tracking back to Moholy-Nagy, about concept reigning over execution (as if concept even mattered without execution), and likewise stressing the importance of clarity in visual communication, without aestheticism... what? Well, that's just kind of an outmoded idea... it may have worked for post-WWI Germans trying to get some power back for themselves, but it's a desperate ploy. Oh wait! I can invoke the MographWiki!! (Praise be to the wiki.)

 

I guess my point is that Helvetica is no exception to the "wacky typeface". It carries its own connotations just like Clarendon and techno fonts carry theirs. And those connotations always have to be considered because they'll always be perceived on some level by viewers. It doesn't have some magical purity that allows for universal clarity. So it's appropriate in some contexts and not so much in others.

 

...here i go with the long-winded shit again.

[SermonOfMockery 0]

[Guest Sao_bento]

...here i go with the long-winded shit again.

Yeah, and you didn't make much progress except to say that Helvetica has accrued association with a particular style in a niche within a niche. Driving to work today, I saw Helvetica on a mini golf/go kart sign, Jack in the Box drive through, etc. None of them struck me as attempts at staunch modernism. We all probably see Helvetica used at least 20 different times a day, but I rarely see things I attribute to a modernist aesthetic, so I don't think that holds up.

 

I'd also disagree that it's easy to make modernist design on a computer or anything else. You can mimic it, but that's not really the same as being able to reduce a complex idea to simplicity while retaining and sometimes amplifying it's core meaning - that's requires brains rather than computers. Copying Armin Hofmann - easy. Doing you own original work on the same level as Armin Hofmann - not so easy.

If it's as simple as making a minimalist shape on a computer and using Helvetica, why isn't Steven Heller knocking your door down?