Helvetica and captions

This is a creative idea: guy draws a picture every week and you write a caption for the picture. if your caption wins, you get published in a book. fun.

Geoffrey and I finally watched the movie about Helvetica this weekend. Geoffrey really enjoyed the movie, which kind of surprised me. I definitely recommend it. The movie is very informational about the typeface Helvetica as well as design in general. I especially enjoyed Paula Scher (her maps are super-cool, click on her name to see) talking about how she isn't that crazy about Helvetica. I like Helvetica in the American Apparel logo (or American Airlines...basically the same thing, one word different). In the American Apparel logo, Helvetica has a trendier quality to it (that's in a big nutshell) than the more corporate feel of AA. But that's mostly about their surroundings. And that's what Helvetica does--it says what it needs to and lets the content do the talking. Target (look at the scrolling graphics) uses the whole family...light, bold, black, etc...in different ways. I also like this coffee mug (and I plan to buy it at some point). I think the reason I'm not drawn to using Helvetica a lot is that I like to be more expressive with the type. Lately I've been more drawn to hand-lettering. I keep looking for a good excuse to use it in something at work... When you're in Mexico, you can't help but notice all of the hand-lettered signs in fonts of all kinds. I took this one in Guanajuato, Mexico a couple of years ago:

I especially like the R.

Of course, everything cannot be hand-lettered. Like the Global Business Connections logo that I am working on. It needs to have a more "corporate" feel. Maybe I'll use Helvetica...