3 ms·

I find Arial slightly discomforting, because the kerning is not as nice as with Helvetica. Helvetica feels "denser". But more to the point, for a corporate lo

by bb88 4y ago

I find Arial slightly discomforting, because the kerning is not as nice as with Helvetica. Helvetica feels "denser". But more to the point, for a corporate logo, Arial feels like a cheap knock off to the more polished Helvetica. You can see this yourself, by looking at corporate existing corporate logos designed in helvetica and then redesigned in Arial. https://www.ironicsans.com/helvarialquiz/ https://www.ironicsans.com/helvarialquiz/ Admittedly this is personal preference in the end, but I feel like if HR is going to give someone bad news, they're going to do it in Arial. If Apple is going to release a life changing technology, they're going to do it in Helvetica.

bee_rider 4y ago
I should have thought more about the experiment. I was trying to identify the helvetica ones, looking for example for logos that looked slightly unusual or janky. I guess it would fit your point a little more if I just looked for whichever I thought was more aesthetically pleasing. Anyway, I got about 50% (accidentally closed the window, I think it may have been 51%?) so at least if I was the customer, the company would not seem to gain any advantage from licensing the superior font.
- bb88 4y ago
  The "R", "r", and "t" characters are the way you can tell between the two fonts. I think an example of a bad logo is Arial is this one: https://www.designworkplan.com/wp-content/font-arial-everywhere-005.jpg https://www.designworkplan.com/wp-content/font-arial-everywh... The A has too much space around it and it looks "uneven". The bottom one of this one is Helvetica. https://cdn0.tnwcdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2009/10/Picture-5-300x159.jpg https://cdn0.tnwcdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2009/10... It looks "fuller", "denser" to me. And leaves me with an impression of a "sturdy" company. Finally, here's Neue Helvetica 75 and Arial Pro Bold pages from Linotype. I just open them up in a new tab each and switch tabs to get a better idea for things. https://www.linotype.com/1264130/neue-helvetica-75-bold-product.html https://www.linotype.com/1264130/neue-helvetica-75-bold-prod... https://www.linotype.com/716034/arial-bold-product.html https://www.linotype.com/716034/arial-bold-product.html
  - bee_rider 4y ago
    I’m not sure I see a huge quality difference in the second example, but the A in the first example definitely looks awful.
    - bb88 4y ago
      You can type "MIRABEAU" in Arial and Helvetica in the forms above, and you should see a definite improvement by using Helvetica.

by bb88 4y ago

bee_rider 4y ago

I should have thought more about the experiment. I was trying to identify the helvetica ones, looking for example for logos that looked slightly unusual or janky. I guess it would fit your point a little more if I just looked for whichever I thought was more aesthetically pleasing. Anyway, I got about 50% (accidentally closed the window, I think it may have been 51%?) so at least if I was the customer, the company would not seem to gain any advantage from licensing the superior font.

bb88 4y ago
The "R", "r", and "t" characters are the way you can tell between the two fonts. I think an example of a bad logo is Arial is this one: https://www.designworkplan.com/wp-content/font-arial-everywhere-005.jpg https://www.designworkplan.com/wp-content/font-arial-everywh... The A has too much space around it and it looks "uneven". The bottom one of this one is Helvetica. https://cdn0.tnwcdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2009/10/Picture-5-300x159.jpg https://cdn0.tnwcdn.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2009/10... It looks "fuller", "denser" to me. And leaves me with an impression of a "sturdy" company. Finally, here's Neue Helvetica 75 and Arial Pro Bold pages from Linotype. I just open them up in a new tab each and switch tabs to get a better idea for things. https://www.linotype.com/1264130/neue-helvetica-75-bold-product.html https://www.linotype.com/1264130/neue-helvetica-75-bold-prod... https://www.linotype.com/716034/arial-bold-product.html https://www.linotype.com/716034/arial-bold-product.html
- bee_rider 4y ago
  I’m not sure I see a huge quality difference in the second example, but the A in the first example definitely looks awful.
  - bb88 4y ago
    You can type "MIRABEAU" in Arial and Helvetica in the forms above, and you should see a definite improvement by using Helvetica.