Friday Five: Pomp and Circumstance edition

mortarboard.gifIt’s Commencement Weekend for our university, as it is for many others. What better time to wax nostalgic about my own graduation, 24 years ago, from the storied Missouri School of Journalism? Here are five things I remember about that time in my life.

  1. Linda Ellerbee delivered the commencement address. At that time, she anchored an innovative late-night news program, NBC News Overnight, and she had attracted quite a cult following among us young J-schoolers. We thought it was pretty cool to have such a hip news anchor speak to us about the future of news, the state of the world, and such. But all I remember from her speech was that she told us something along the lines of, “You don’t need a journalism degree to work in the news business. I don’t have a journalism degree, and I’m doing just fine.” So much for five years of college.
  2. Commencement was held in a Methodist church that was off campus. My grandmother was unable to find the church and so missed the big event. From seventh grade until I went off to college, I lived with my grandmother. She had to drop out of school after eighth grade to raise her five younger siblings after her own mother died. She valued education, even though hers was limited, and she was looking forward to watching me, the youngest of five, become the first in my family to receive a college diploma. To this day, i regret that she missed out.
  3. My classmates from 1983 include a guy who went on to work for the Wall Street Journal and write a book about one of the major corporate business scandals of the 1980s, a guy who does PR for the 2006 World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals, and a slew of lesser lights who have since moved on to a variety of jobs in PR, marketing, corporate communications, law, and even the news business.
  4. Popular dance club music, circa May 1983: David bowie’s “Let’s Dance” (the single and the album), Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me With Science” and “Hungry Like the Wolf,” by Duran Duran.
  5. After the post-graduation celebrations of Commencement Weekend, I returned to my part-time job as a waiter at a Columbia, Mo., restaurant. I didn’t get a real journalism job until almost a year later.

Happy birthday to cool, calm Helvetica

The font Helvetica is celebrating its 50th birthday. The BBC celebrates the font’s staying power as “the butter on the bread.”

The BBC - Helvetica at 50.We live in a world where we are surrounded 24 hours a day by adverts and corporate communications, many in typefaces chosen to subliminally complement the message.

Helvetica’s message is this: you are going to get to your destination on time; your plane will not crash; your money is safe in our vault; we will not break the package; the paperwork has been filled in; everything is going to be OK.

It is sans serif. There are no wiggly bits at the end of the letters. It has smooth, clean lines, and an unobtrusive geometry that almost suggests it was designed not to stand out.

Lars Mueller is a Helvetica devotee. He has published a book, Helvetica: Homage to a Typeface, and recently donated an original set of lead lettering to a Helvetica exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

“It has a modern attitude which lines up with the aesthetic premises of the 1950s and 60s. Helvetica is a corporate typeface, but on the other hand it’s the favourite of hairdressers and kebab shops. It is the butter on the bread.”

Hat tip: Crazy Monkey.