Would you pay $20 for a strawberry?
Helvetica, train sets and free food.
Hello,
If I said ‘Neue Haas Grotesk’ to you, what would you say? Probably ‘What did you call me?’ or ‘ please leave me alone’. Well the correct response would be ‘ah yes, the original Swiss name of the ubiquitous sans-serif typeface, Helvetica’.
Helvetica became popular in the 60s when lots of companies still had dorky logos with swirly writing so were in dire need of something a bit cleaner and Swiss. Minimalism was all the rage and Helvetica caught on everywhere. Nearly 70 years on and you still can’t move for the tightly-spaced font.
Helvetica goes in and out of fashion, there was an initial post-modern backlash at its uniformity, but that just resulted in people writing poems in Dingbats and no one needs that. Subsequently it has become a bit subversive, helped by its use in the Trainspotting poster. There is something powerful in the mundane and ordinary. And at least it’s not Times New Roman.
Anyway if you would like to know more about Helvetica and fonts in general, I thoroughly recommend this documentary.
Choose Helvetica,
Hugo
Chief Lettershape Officer
The Business of Stuff
The Stuff
Man United are building a new stadium 🏟️ - urgh, the bloody red team is at it again. They’ve done a thing. After much consultation Jim Ratcliffe and Co. have decided it’s time to build a 100,000 seater £2bn stadium which will be cracking news for Keir Build-Stuff Starmer. The development will be the UK’s biggest single site infrastructure project build since the 2012 Olympics.
PeakAI has been snapped up by UiPath 🪙 - what does this acronym soup actually mean? Another big American company has bought a promising young contender from the UK. Great because it shows there is some entrepreneurial spark here, not so good as it is another example of a successful UK startup getting eaten before it has the chance to reach any scale. Peak builds decision-making AI that can set things like pricing and inventory levels.
Hornby is going to leave the London Stock Exchange 🚂 - the model train set specialists have decided that their home bourse is no longer good enough for them and they’d be better off just going private. Although this seems like a damning indictment of the LSE, two shareholders own 91% of the company so the overhead of being a listed company is just not worth it.
Consultants warned Aberdeen about becoming Abrdn 🛑 - once again it’s been proven that you should always listen to consultants. Wolff Olins told the CEO in 2021 not to remove all their vowels and even asked to take their name of any marketing material so as not to associate themselves with the decision. The financial services has now rowed back on its decisions and become ‘aberdeen’ without a capital ‘a’. Riveting.
We’re all paying for airport lounges 💳 - getting an Amex Amex Gold Card for a year when you get your first proper job is a right of passage for many and soon enough you find yourself in some some dodgy lounge pretending to be an international jetsetter. These credit card providers are spending a huge amount on the lounges to make their customer feel special and as a result the lounges are getting much more fancy. Is it all worth it?
Tesco is going to trial giving away food 🍞 - the supermarket is looking to cut food waste and one of the biggest levers is just giving people stuff that’s going to expire. In selected stores some yellow-stickered stuff will be given away for free after 9.30pm. I once found a loaf outside Gail’s, that was a good day.
Bakkavor rejects takeover bid from Greencore 🛒 - the supplier of ready meals was offered £1.1bn to merge and form a massive food giant. It’s been good news for Bakkavor shares as they’ve jumped 18.4% which has made it easier for them to come out and say that the offer has “significantly undervalued the company.” All your curries are the same.
DeepSeek is focussing on research 🤖 - whilst Sam Altman is pissing everyone off by trying to maximise revenue AI, their Chinese counterparts are pumping all their money into finding out new stuff. The founder is a successful hedge fund type and seems weirdly nonplussed about making money. Scary when people don’t play along with capitalism.
Loads of rides are closed at DisneyWorld - between a third and a quarter of all rides are closed this year (due to the expense of repairs and running the things) which has tipped the balance of how people spend their time in Orlando. People are starting to view Universal as the more innovative and exciting theme park as Disney struggles under the massive weight of being Disney.
There’s a strawberry selling for $20 in LA 🍓 - they are flown in especially from Japan and getting them there while they’re still fresh is half the cost. They’re 200 times more expensive than your average Californian strawberry but are they 200x more delicious? Turns out they are, but eating them is a bit depressing as you have to think about all the overbreeding that got them there.
Quote of the week
There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full - Henry Kissinger