Thursday, August 12, 2010

Sometimes I wish I could turn off my Design Nerd sensibilities...

By all indications the new Irrational developed Bioshock game looks pretty great and has more potential to be great than any other game of recent memory. So it is with a heavy heart that I admit something about the announcement bothered me: I could be wrong, but I think the font they used for the word "Bioshock" in the Bioshock Infinite logo is Helvetica.



What an nerdy thing to call out. Sorry, I can't turn it off. Its not disappointing and it doesn't make me mad, I just noticed it. It stands out even more because the first Bioshock had such an incredible sense of place and time and I think they're use of period typefaces really worked (for me at least) in selling the world of Rapture.

Helvetica was developed in 1957 by the Haas Typefoundry, a full 45 years after the game in question is set. A more accurate font might have been Akzidenz Grotesk, to non-type nerds the difference is negligible. But to type-nerds like myself, it means the world.

I'm glad at least that they didn't use Arial.