Comments on: So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?

By: mb21

mb21 — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:20:52 +0000

why is this not in the category typography?
(i use categories a lot on your blog to find inspiration on specific topics.. – thx!)

By: Konkretmusik

Konkretmusik — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:19:22 +0000

19/20 MATTEL got me too….

By: J

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:55:57 +0000

Never would have thougth to get 20 out of 20….
Mattel was a really difficult one.

Great quiz!

By: joqui

joqui — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:14:04 +0000

19/20… mattel…..

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 12:02:28 +0000

20/20 … he he…. Mattel gave me a really hard time. sort of luck there. Really fun …. looking for an update

By: Bess

Bess — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:55:10 +0000

I just watched the documentary “Helvetica” last night so this was a great challenge! Only one wrong (Mattel) – woohoo!

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:20:30 +0000

That was fun! The r is such a give away in Arial.
I actually preferred the CVS pharmacy logo and Staples logo in Arial

By: Faramarz

Faramarz — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:53:52 +0000

19/20!

Mattel screwed me too! :(

By: Marie

Marie — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 23:44:07 +0000

Agh Mattel!

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:23:46 +0000

The TOYOTA one i missed. It’s pretty easy, looking at the ends: square or on a slight angle… ( For the difficult ones: look for the artifacts in the original ;-)

By: cagraphico

cagraphico — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:54:17 +0000

18 out of 20 questions correctly I missed the stupid STAPLES and MATTEL but, i got all the rest correct.

By: Chella

Chella — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:33:43 +0000

The superimposed tutorial Tina posted the other day helped this non-designer do well. But darn you, Mattel!

By: Amalala

Amalala — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:20:38 +0000

I have no idea how it happened…but I missed National…I rocked MATTEL but missed National…how could this be?

This was super amusing though. great way to start the day!

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:51:45 +0000

look for the horizontal/vertical terminals

By: kvh

kvh — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:40:36 +0000

“…“t” and “a” … has the slanty swager”

HA!

By: page

page — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:44:16 +0000

its all about the “t” and “a” one just has the slanty swager..

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:38:40 +0000

great quiz. Sadly 19/20 though. I got mattel but Toyota got me…

By: dave

dave — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:02:17 +0000

20 / 20

By: Kyleigh

Kyleigh — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:52:28 +0000

19 out of 20… Mattel caught me out! doh!

By: Alberto

Alberto — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:23:04 +0000

18/20, missed Mattel and Toyota.. didn’t recognized the rounder “O” arrr :)
As Simone said, it would have been harder without comparison specially on all uppercase logotypes missing letters “C” “G” “R” “S”

By: Auror

Auror — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:53:10 +0000

17/20 …. MATTEL … really? ;)

By: Simone Scarduzio

Simone Scarduzio — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:30:03 +0000

19/20 (MATTEL was tricky)
But the real question is : “Would you be able to recognize Arial without Helvetica version to compare it with?”

PS: I suppose Tina made 20/20 without thinking, didn’t she? :)

By: kas

kas — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:22:44 +0000

19/20 as well… damn you MATTEL! They’re basically identical when they’re all caps with just those letters. Only a slight difference in the thickness on the M.

If I were setting up a test/quiz like this I’d probably put one in where the two answers are actually the same font, and make it so that they’re both wrong – just to mess with people.

By: Anthony Martino

Anthony Martino — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:14:02 +0000

The only way I got mattel and toyota was by which one looked better. Checked out the kerning mostly to see which looked the most even. Barely got 20/20, almost got 18/20. Mostly easy because of the horizontal caps (think thats what they’re called) in helvetica.

By: danielmichael

danielmichael — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:34:02 +0000

Glad to know I wasn’t the only one that had a hard time with Mattel. I think the slightly heavier weight is what threw us off.
I’d like to see this same quiz aimed at non-professionals with the query changed changed to picking the font that looks better.

By: Paula Mendes

Paula Mendes — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:52:37 +0000

You answered 20 out of 20 questions correctly.
Wow! I know more Helvetica than i thought so.
I waste almost 2 minutes looking Mattel logo.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:49:33 +0000

20/20

Mattel was sort of luck, but since I couldn’t go with which letters had straight strokes, I went with which looked “rounder”. As in, which one fit better with the nice round Helvetic “O”.

By: Ingo Oszkinat

Ingo Oszkinat — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:10:30 +0000

You answered 20 out of 20 questions correctly. Woehoe!

By: Philip Karpiak

Philip Karpiak — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:52:00 +0000

19/20. Mattel kicked my ass.

But what I found most interesting about the quiz was the scores coming from non-creatives. Almost all of my friends scored 20/20. They only knew enough to tell that Helvetica “looked better”, so they would select the logos that looked better.

Even with being analytical I couldn’t get a perfect…

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:41:09 +0000

20 out of 20, and I haven’t done design work in years. Just a fan.

By: cempson

cempson — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:39:48 +0000

19 out of 20

missed mattel. =(

By: Kim Tackett

Kim Tackett — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:38:29 +0000

whoops, well, I am a non designer who loves design and I made it 11 out of 20. I even missed on Target (a little humiliating). I went back and tried it a second time, and wasn’t any more successful….just goes to show that the real designers really know their stuff, and pay attention to the details that no one else sees. At least the details the rest of us don’t think we see. But the details are what makes the difference between functional and good and functional and elegant.

By: Stefan

Stefan — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:01:27 +0000

Yeah, lots of fun ;). Was it only my version that showed Helvetica always the second option? That made it extremely easy after a while… :))

By: Marc

Marc — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:51:42 +0000

19/20. Missed Toyota.

and Moeed is right – the first thing I look for is the terminals, and 99% of the time that settles it. Rs are obvious give aways too.

still fun, I wonder how non-designers do. :)

By: Alan McD

Alan McD — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:50:39 +0000

20/20
Great fun to go through… but I’m sure I would know a few people who wouldn’t see the difference no matter how many times you showed them. At least he didn’t go “Verdana” on the logos!

By: Moeed

Moeed — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:36:10 +0000

20/20!

Too easy though. Theres a few letters that just give it away.

By: AdamW

AdamW — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:29:45 +0000

That was more fun then I expected.

The only one I couldn’t get was Mattel, the all caps and conjoined T’s made it come down to slight weight differences.

an easy trick is just look at the end of strokes, Helvetica always ends horizontal or vertical never at an angle.

By: Tanner Christensen

Tanner Christensen — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:29:19 +0000

10 out of 10. Though I think I got lucky on the Matel logo.