Thanks for the thoughtful comment, and you’re absolutely right about my CSS file. When recently changing to Helvetica, I didn’t go so far as to change the other fonts to match. That’s now taken care of.

I think as an actual result of reading your comment (I didn’t have time to reply yesterday), last night I dreamt of returning to my student days, and having a conversation about the lack of attention to typography (at least that was my experience). Sorry to learn of the conflict you’re discovering, but I’m very glad you’re enjoying the University of Ulster programme. It’s one I’ve little knowledge about.

I see the anatomical diagram you have above continues this trend, and again, is incomplete, and contradictory to other sources. What’s a VisComm student to do?! It was suggested that we rely more on printed books than websites, yet when the printed books contradict one another, then clearly there’s something wrong somewhere!!

On a postive note, typography is a strong core element of this 1st year 1st semester course (viscomm @ uni of ulster belfast), and I’m absolutely loving working intimately with type.

We watched the Helvetica film last week as well—great/funny quote from self confessed typomaniac Erik Spiekermann —”They are my friends (type), some people like looking at bottles of wine or girls bottoms, I get a kick out of looking at type”

Just to quote Adrian Frutiger:
” If you remember the shape of your spoon at lunch,
it has to be the wrong shape.
The spoon and the letter are tools;
one to take food from the bowl,
the other to take information off the page…
When it is a good design, the reader has to feel comfortable
because the letter is both banal and beautiful. ”

Btw, just noticed on your body ‘font family list’, you have “Helvetica,Verdana,Georgia,Sans-serif”. If Helvetica is the look you’re going for, might it be worthwhile actually having Arial in the list after Helvetica, instead of Verdana, as Arial shares the same proportions as Helvetica, being effectively a ripoff. I know Arial is a scourge of the design world, but it is basically Windows ‘default version’ of Helvetica, rather than Verdana (which is ok, but changes the look of your site significantly).

Burak Önal’s last blog post…Google’dan Wikipedia’ya rakip

I laughed when I read Papyrus! Papyrus and Comic Sans are very over used. Luckily I don’t see it often coming from professionals. Just the self-proclaimed designers with MS Publisher at their fingertips. =).

Yes, I am aware of what the question was. I was merely pointing out the difference as some were taking this post in another direction. The third comment read:

“Speaking as a long-time typeface designer, the one thing I’ll say about typography is that it takes a great deal of practice - particularly when creating your own styles from scratch.”

A “typographic tip” is a bit different than designing a type style from scratch. That’s all.

I didn’t ask ‘what advice can you give a type designer?’. Thanks for leaving your thoughts though. Helvetica was an interesting watch.

For the first question, I see so many design students try to mutilate type and call it design. Learn the basics first, what makes type elegant, powerful or legible, or simple type combinations that work together. And just because you have thousands of faces at your disposal, doesn’t mean you should use them all. Most designers are challenged enough trying to find 3 that work together.

Go watch the movie “Helvetica” for inspiration.

Indeed simplicity is what I aim for. I want my designs to look so simple that the guy next to me thinks he can achieve it too.