Misstrusting authorities
Euroface? Better than Helvetica? The few characters I have seen look pretty much like Helvetica. And the perceptions at various speeds show that prof. Bügleichenhaus’ windscreen wipers weren’t functioning during testing.
It so happened that when the specimens of Euroface arrived in the mail I was talking to Dr. Alfons Bilaars, the Belgian expert on motorway typography. I showed him the specimens. ‘Did you know about this project?’, I asked him. ‘Yes’, he answered with a dismissive gesture, ‘I know colleague Bügleichenhaus, but we strongly disagree. We do not need a Euroface. The Belgian solution is good enough—not only for us, but for the whole of Europe.’ I wondered why the German Professor had never got in touch with me about the project. Bilaars answered: ‘I told him to leave you out of it, as it is clear that you would have promoted your design for the ANWB. That would have complicated the research. ‘What about France,’ I asked. ‘Don’t you see? The French would have put forward their type face as the proper solution, as would have the Swiss or the Italians—with the names of their cities entirely in capitals! No! As it is a Belgian who has designed the Euro-sign, it is just as well that Europe should accept our motorway type face too.’

Gerard Unger
ungerard@wxs.nl
type designer
Bussum, NL

Read other expert's responses:
David Berlow
dr. Rüdiger Metzker
prof. dr. Ernst Krefeld Hansen
Gerard Unger
Gert Dumbar