So everyone bad mouths Arial as a cheap knockoff of Helvetica. Actually Arial was derived from MonoType Groteque, whilst Helvetica was an updated version of Akzidenz Grotesk. But can you actually know a cad when you see one?

Take the Arial or Helvetica quiz. Be sure to brush up on the differences first.

Slate’s Mia Fineman puts together a slideshow on everyone’s favorite overused font, Helvetica asking the question, ‘So, why is this 50-year-old font still so successful?’

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the most overused typeface in the history of man, director, Gary Hustwit has filmed a documentary about Helvetica to capture the cultural impact of our venerable san serif. Shot in locations around the world, the film interviews Erik Spiekermann, Matthew Carter, Massimo Vignelli, Wim Crouwel, Hermann Zapf {yes that Zapf), Neville Brody, Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Bierut, David Carson(!) to name a few.

Keep an eye out for a screening coming to a film festival near you or watch the trailers. May Helvetica destroy Arial and reign over all that is decent and good on Earth.

[Helvetica - a Documentary]

Funny discussion on Metafilter a few days about about Kai Krause, 90’s digital media ’star’, UI developer and master of the German shag mustache. Everyone got a copy of Bryce or Kai Power Tools (KPT), played with it for hours on end, trying to figure out how this Play-Doh interface actually worked. You could make wonderful…uh..spheres…and shiny objects..and..er..fractals.

Essential all you can do is make album covers for Yes or speed up the workflow in making new, exciting Trapper Keepers for Mead. The software was over-priced eye candy, not to be confused Alien Skin’s Eye Candy which was actually a productive plug-in at the time.

Most note that Kai cashed out of MetaCreations when it became obvious to the press that the company was becoming a bit of a scam with its “e-commerce visualization solutions” using a pseudo-VRML software.

We miss you Kai, your bean bag interface, generated jagged mountains and most of all your mighty lip rug.

Tonight Were Gonna Design Like its 1999 [Metafilter]