Helvetica

“At least I'm not a font nerd."
"A what?"
Matt smiled. "You know. People who love fonts. There are people who go to a movie and get agitated because, while the movie is supposed to be set in 1962, the restaurant awning shown in the background of some scene is printed in Arras Bold, which wasn't invented until 1991, so clearly the producers of the movie are insane and should be beheaded.” 
― Jessica Park, Flat-Out Love

     About two weeks ago, I read the novel quoted above and thought, what a weird thing to bring up. I bet Park just made up font nerd. 
     And yet, I have just concluded watching an entire documentary on these mythical nerds. When I first put this documentary on, I had 5 other things going on at once, but within 6 minutes I was captivated. I have never given much thought about the font companies use, and it never crossed my mind that state highways, service vehicles, post offices and the like all had to decide on a typeface. I also had no idea Helvetica was the most neutral font, nor that it's so popular! I feel like it's one of those things I never noticed, but now I won't be able to un-see it.
     There are truly some moments of genius within this eccentric documentary. Towards the end, the man speaking about "don't confuse legibility with communication" definitely resonated with me. Working as a graphic designer for the last few weeks has opened my eyes to a lot of details that I would normally overlook, and I have so much more respect for professional artists who deal with creating logos and advertisements for huge companies. Another interviewee stated how font can have personality, just as a drawing or painting could. As someone with extremely horrific handwriting, I only ever saw my sketches as art, never anything involving text, but the interviewees argue against that notion. I agree with one of the interviewees, "if you don't have the eye, no program will help." Hopefully I got it!