McCain’s Typeface
After looking at the Obama brand, the NYT gets around to the McCain brand. Best comment about the use of Optima comes from Seymour Chwast of Pushpin Studio:
Optima is one of the worst pre-computer typefaces ever designed. It was created to satisfy everybody’s needs. A straightforward, no-nonsense, no-embellishment face, it comes in regular and bold but little character can be found in either weight.
Optima is not inappropriate for use by Senator McCain.
Reminds me of the voice-over at the beginning of the movie Helvetica that goes something like: “Helvetica is the McDonalds of typefaces. It’s what you have when you don’t care what you’re eating, so you just eat crap.”
Wow – 15 people opining on a typeface. To us non-design types, the news here is that there are 15 people who actually have expertise on such matters.
(Then again, I have always been partial to Arial. I suppose it would be too wimpy for a Presidential candidate to use Arial.)