Has a book (or an article) ever been written about “neutrality” in typeface design? Am I forgetting something that has already been published? 🤔

Neutrality seems doomed to failure, yet consistently remains an ideal, it seems to me.

I just find that interesting and would not mind reading something that traced the history and lines of development of this concept.

@litherland https://www.typotheque.com/articles/an-idea-of-a-typeface (also the specimen book, which I can't find on the Typotheque site, so it must be gone)

@litherland @benkiel I was thinking of this, and also Kris on his Untitled types https://klim.co.nz/retail-fonts/untitled-sans/

@litherland @kai wrote about it a while ago.

@benkiel Yes, thank you, Ben 😊

@letterror @kai Yes, yes, I knew it! I read it at the time, will read it again. My brain is a sieve 🤦‍♀️

@litherland there’s an old errol morris piece on the nyt about a vermeer forgery that i always think about neutrality or timeless design which calls out how much anonymity is influenced by the norms and invisible themes of a time. because morris is so concerned with Truth as a concept its an interesting series to read because it’s so much about how we project ourselves onto these concepts than any objective qualities.

https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/bamboozling-ourselves-part-3/

@nsfmc Oh that’s right, yep. Thank you.