Gill Sans, not Helvetica.

I’m a bit torn regarding the graphic style I want to use for typography, interfaces and promotion of Bientôt l’été. There’s three styles that are relevant as reference. There’s the Belle Epoque style of early coast resorts, which I guess is the continental version of Victorian, though more leaning towards Art Nouveau than Neo-Gothic. Then there’s the sparse style of Nouvelle Vague cinema. I really love the boldness and humor of Godard’s typography. And the tone of the game is very much “French art film”. And then there’s the Science Fiction aspect and the holodeck layer, which lends itself to a more “cyber” look.

I changed the typeface in the game from Helvetica Light to Gill Sans Light last week. I was tired of the blandness of Helvetica. Though Gill doesn’t transfer so well to the screen (I had to use Gill Sans Book instead of Light for the smaller texts). Futura was another option. But it’s a bit stiff. The slight curvy playfullness of Gill could perhaps add a modest touch of Belle Epoque to an otherwise very clean modern look.

For the holodeck layer, I need to resist the temptation of using one of those kitschy OCR fonts from the nineties. I need to remind myself that this is a Seriouos Project. After working on something for a while, one tends to forget what it is supposed to be about and starts seeing too many possibilities.