Two Favourite Fonts.

I am obsessed with information. Particularly, how information is presented and assimilated. The actual value inherent in the body of information is important, but that is only a small part of it; otherwise technical manuals and excel spreadsheet would be sufficient to present this.

Fonts are important because they say something about the content of a page or the value of a product. I'm a bit of a typophile and I absolutely love elegant, subtle fonts that say a lot with very little. It's amazing how, with fonts, small changes in a corner, variations in the weight of a stroke etc. can affect so much.

There is a documentary on the font "Helvetica".  The following is a quote from Kevin Kelly's blog.

It traces the history of how Helvetica was invented, how it became a default font on most computers, how that popularity catapulted it towards ubiquity in our environment, and what it means that we can find it everywhere, even though we aren't aware of it. Along the way, we are educated in what fonts do, and how they work. Using interviews with the most renowned typographers living today, this film illuminates the world of fonts -- a world we rely on more and more -- and the universe of typography and design.

My all time favourite is "Gotham" by Hoefler & Frere-Jones. It's the font chosen to be inscribed on the Freedom Tower, and it's the most elegant sans-serif, imho. The extra kerning (space between the letters) makes it look extra sexy. There is a good article on the NYT about it, "Chiseled with a New York Accent."

 The other one I love is Mrs. Eaves. It's 'English', 'rather posh', and 'Tea at three'. Or perhaps, 'Cake or Death".