Aardvarks

Time for a post on the age-old battle between Helvetica and Arial! As you may know, Arial is a rip-off typeface developed by Microsoft that is based very closely on Helvetica. Sadly, Arial has become the standard desktop typeface. Designers who wish to champion Helvetica will enjoy these items. The first is a role-play game in which you are the Helvetica letter and are trying to crush the Arial letter. Hours of fun! Here is the link: Helvetica vs. Arial, and I’ve also included a screen shot. The second set of images are information graphics from the article “How to Spot Arial” by Mark Simonson Studio. They show the key characteristics that distinguish Helvetica from Arial. When you are done with this, you might want to take this quiz to test your knowledge. The third set of images are stills from the movie Helvetica, which we also posted about in December 2007.