Pity the poor typeface designer, always seeing anachronisms in movies and television. Imagine how painful it must be watching a World War II movie only to see a document printed in Snell Roundhand Bold, a font invented in 1972. Here’s typeface expert Mark Simonson’s analysis of the lettering on “Mad Men.” More about the life of font designers in the new book Just My Type by Simon Garfield. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Typefaces in History”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
Sometimes watching a movie or TV drama about your own profession can get really frustrating.
You know, Grant, you and I both worked in newsrooms, and sometimes when I watch a film about journalism, I find myself saying, wait, that would never happen in a newsroom. It’s not done that way.
You know what I mean?
And they always make the radio people beautiful or dashing.
And the problem is?
Well, and I’m sure that this is true whether you work in a hospital or a courtroom, you’re in the military, you spot things on TV and in films, and you just think that is not right.
That’s not the way it’s done.
Because you have special expertise.
You do.
Right?
And you know.
You do.
You do.
Well, pity the poor folks who design fonts and typefaces.
Oh, terrible.
I mean, imagine how painful it must be to watch the movie Ed Wood, which is set in the 1950s, and then see a sign that’s printed in a font that wasn’t even invented until the 1980s.
I mean, that must hurt if you know what you’re looking at.
Or what if you’re watching a movie that’s set during World War II, and you see a document printed in Snell Roundhand Bold.
No! Not Snell Roundhand Bold!
Not the snail round and bold, which wasn’t invented until 1972.
I mean, oh, the pain.
Oh, the indignity.
Well, how many people are we talking about that notice this?
Well, maybe not that many, but there are typeface font freaks out there.
And they all know how to write very well, don’t they?
Did you see this stuff on Mark Simonson’s blog?
He’s got a couple posts about typecasting.
For example, he’s taking Mad Men to task.
Beautiful show, well-scripted, just lovely set decoration.
But they keep using fonts that were definitely not from the 1960s, not even variations.
Oh, the shame.
Sometimes a font goes from year to year, and it’s changed and modified, and it’s got a long, like the typeface Century goes back to the 1800s and was used by the Century Printing Company in New York City and has been modified and changed, new Century School Book and Century School Book, and we have it, and we know that.
But some of these fonts, they simply were brand new, and some of this stuff is less than 10 years old.
It’s crazy.
Poor guy’s tearing his hair out.
His name is Mark Simonson, right?
There’s also more about this in a new book that’s out called Just My Type.
Now, this is already a bestseller in the U.K., which often has bestsellers about nerdy language topics, you know.
But you can read excerpts about it online.
It talks about one of the rock stars of the font world who is Matthew Carter.
The New Yorker once described him as the most widely read man in the world because he invented that Verdana typeface that you see all the time in Microsoft products.
And if you want to get really hardcore about this.
Oh, please. Bring it on.
Okay. You can watch the movie Helvetica, which is an entire documentary about the Helvetica font.
A single typeface in a film. I love this stuff.
Oh, good, good. I’m glad this is a safe space to discuss this.
If you’re talking to me about X heights and descenders and ascenders, then we’re all good.
You’re going to be my best friend.
And serifs.
Please, can we talk about serifs?
Your fonts, talk, and crazy language questions to words@waywordradio.org or 877-929-9673.
We’ll link to Mark Simonson’s blog on our website, waywordradio.org.
