Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2010 September 01 • Wednesday

Why isn't it Helvetica? Well, the tail on the lower-case a looks a bit shorter. But what I always look for is the lower-case e. The end of the e should come up and be parallel to the center horizontal. This I know from watching the entertaining movie Helvetica.

I look for that lower-case e whenever I'm on the subway here in New York City. Helvetica-spotting is fun.

Actually the e parallels don't look quite right there. But what about this?

As you can see, the bottom end of the e definitely does not create a parallel with the center horizontal line. It doesn't here, either.

Here are two signs from the same station.

So what's going on?

It turns out that while the movie Helvetica gives the impression that Helvetica is the font of the New York City subway, Standard was the font chosen by the design firm Unimark and the New York City Transit Authority.

I think.

You can read a long and interesting essay about it by graphic designer and historian Paul Shaw here at AIGA's site.

He also wrote a book about it, Helvetica and the New York Subway System: The True (Maybe) Story, limited to 500 copies and now sold out.

I'd like to read it. The Type Directors Club gave it a Certificate of Typographic Excellence.