Helvetica is younger than John McCain.
One of our more ubiquitous typefaces, Helvetica is a sans-serif font designed when John McCain was in the early twenties. (Incidentally, McCain uses Optima for his campaign materials… and here’s an interesting article that speaks about how Optima is the ultimate “noncommittal” typeface.)
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
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Why graphic artists shouldn’t read posts like this:
I was drinking a bottle of water while I was reading this.
When I saw the helvetica entry, I promptly spat water all over my screen and keyboard and spent the next 30 minutes drying the keyboard out.
Bravo!
Comment by Smeagol92055 — May 12, 2008 @ 4:51 pm
Obama’s campaign doesn’t use Optima. All of the sans stuff is in HFJ’s Gotham. See http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/to-the-letter-born/?ex=1207886400&en=340d15647f28525f&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Comment by abpend — May 12, 2008 @ 6:25 pm
Oops, misread the original post. McCain does, in fact, use Optima. Disregard my last.
Comment by abpend — May 12, 2008 @ 6:26 pm
Smeagol92055,
thanks - as a graphic designer by trade myself, your comment made my day!
Comment by admin — May 12, 2008 @ 7:41 pm
Interestingly enough, Optima (created by Hermann Zapf in 1958, according to Linotype’s page at http://www.linotype.com/223/optima.html/), is _also_ younger than John McCain.
Comment by Stefan — May 14, 2008 @ 12:02 am
I thought McCain used Optima to subliminally evoke the lettering on the Vietnam War Memorial.
Comment by acb — May 14, 2008 @ 12:48 pm
I just want the mug.
Comment by ridl — May 19, 2008 @ 2:33 am
And Ron Paul’s quixotic campaign used a dingbat font for his campaign graphics.
Comment by Steve S — May 21, 2008 @ 6:45 am