The split in the space-type continuum

Back to the Future Part II

In 1955, Biff from the future hands his younger self the Sports Almanac annual containing future sports results. This creates an alternative timeline where 80s Biff is filthy rich from gambling, and the world is ruined.

I believe we are on an alternative, design timeline.

At the heart of all problems, are two typefaces – Arial and Verdana. These are the fonts of the world. A chain reaction of events has resulted in these typefaces infiltrating the internet, documents, presentations and even brands. How did this happen, and will Marty Mcfly correct the course of time?

Arial was developed by type foundry, Monotype as a Helvetica rip-off for their own collection. It was their rival Linotype who owned Helvetica.

However, it was Monotype who were invited by Microsoft to provide the fonts for their new operating system, Windows 3.1, back in 1992. Arial was one of them.

Its inclusion in Office applications lead to it being the sans serif of choice for the world. It still overshadows Helvetica in how often it’s used. It’s the predominant typeface for the web as well as for word processing, presentations, spreadsheets, etc. It’s absolutely everywhere.

It’s even in brands. This year, web design and development company Namics, revealed its completely dynamic, web driven identity that’s completely Arial. It features a series of randomly chosen words from an ever growing database.

The words are texted and tweeted by the company employees. It’s purely set in Arial so it works on every device with native fonts. It’s a clever use of technology to represent a dynamic company, with a low-fi and very digital typeface.

The painful irony is, Arial is a bad imitation of a great typeface – Helvetica. A cruel split in the timeline knocked Helvetica off the top spot in favour of a cheap copy; Arial. I imagine the Swiss were somewhat ... disappointed. Helvetica is now demoted to be used only by those in the know and Arial is free, it’s easy and, to the common man, it is Helvetica.

Imagine a different story. One where it was not Monotype but Linotype who were asked to contribute fonts to Windows 3.1. Maybe the world would be purely Helvetica as the universe intended.

Next up, Verdana. It was specifically designed for Microsoft in 1996, to be read at small sizes on a computer screen. It was bundled with Windows, Internet Explorer and Office applications and distributed worldwide. It soon gained global adoption as an alternative to Arial.

Verdana is quite an ugly font in my opinion, but it’s pleasant to read on screen. Maybe this is function over form? However, a typeface specifically designed to be read on a screen at small sizes is not necessarily as legible as on the printed page. But, although I think it’s ugly, I’ve come to love it – like an ugly mate.

Since Verdana has a bit more personality than Arial, it too is being taken up by brands. Take Audi for instance. They recently unveiled their new identity with shinier rings and a new logo. The new logo is also the new typeface – one which has letterforms similar to Verdana. It’s used for both body copy and the logo.

The literature system uses the typeface throughout and I take an educated guess that Verdana is used for PowerPoint and internal documents. That’s the power of making brands look like system fonts – visual consistency.

http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/audis_typographic_stylings.php

The number one question asked by clients when designing brands is:

“Will I need to buy my corporate font for all my employees’ computers?”

No. As brand designers, we typically select a nice typeface for professionally produced material, and the closest equivalent from the Windows system fonts list for employees to use.

Using a system font as the primary typeface for a brand means 100% typographic consistency. Start with the lowest common denominator channels on which your brand must appear. Make it work on that first, then build the rest from there.

Lowest common denominator channels include PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, web pages and email. That’s a lot of times your brand is going to be seen by people. Maybe the typeface we use for office use should be the same or similar to the ones we use in print? That does mean using system fonts.

Ikea, for some curious reason, have set their new logo in none other than ... drumroll ... Verdana! This raised many an eyebrow and even a web petition, but to me it makes perfect sense. I could be wrong, but I reckon the corporate typeface will also be Verdana.

Think about it. All internal documents – store tickets, store signs, website, catalogue – can all be consistent all over the world. That’s pretty clever and economical to boot.
http://www.underconsideration.com/mt_bn/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=9&search=ikea

But here’s the rub. They’re not actually nice typefaces. One was designed as a cheap cut of Helvetica and the other for clarity at pixel sizes on screen. They’re not exactly corporate identity typefaces.

I love the idea of using the same typefaces in day-to-day applications as in print. It’s a beautiful utopia. But the default typefaces aren’t up to scratch.

A split in the space-type continuum has left us here. Littered with bad typography. What if we’d had been blessed with beautiful fonts as our defaults. We all know that Helvetica makes a decent identity.

I do however think it’s fine to use Verdana as a corporate typeface right now. It’s new, it’s edgy, it’s digital and it’s very useful. It can be a differentiator. But if more and more brands do this, because of the cross application consistency, then I fear that so many brands will become the same and typography will take a back seat to functionality.

But perhaps there is hope.

With the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft has attempted to reset the world’s default typefaces. Included with Vista are a new suite of fonts called ClearType. They are Constantia, Cambria, Corbel, Candara, Calibri and Consolas. Interestingly, they’ve been coined the ‘C’ fonts. Look them up.

It appears that Calibri is the new Arial, which was the new Helvetica. Is this the right direction for our skewed timeline? I’ll let you decide.

Actually, I’ve been a little cheeky throughout this post. The forgotten secret of Windows typographic arsenal is in fact the serif typeface, Georgia. Web designers have been onto it for years and it’s actually quite pleasant. I think it’s a more modern alternative to Times. Design all your identities with serif typography and your PowerPoint presentations will look sweet.

And also Times New Roman – I left that out too. It’s a good typeface in the right hands, it’s just not entirely relevant most of the time. Nor does it receive the typographic care it requires to make it look good. But it’s not a bad typeface.

So what about the continuum?

Will we spiral off uncontrollably into typographic obscurity? Will another standard save typography, restoring balance to the universe? Will all the Arial in the world one day fade into Helvetica? Or will Calibri be rejected by a world of hard core Arial users?

I think we need to look to our backyard scientists; the tinkerers, the mavericks and the Delorean owners.

We need a time machine.