This is exactly the kind of Wikipedia excursion I would’ve gone through. thanks for saving me the time!

I've always wondered if Ariel was named such so that it sorts at the top of the list of fonts. Thereby making it the default. Then, that brings the question -- is it default because it is the first in a sorted list? Or did they name it purposely so that it would sort to the top?

that's an interesting question, like "AAAA Plumbing" back when the physical phone book was the route for discovery. Folks would deliberately vie for position in that thing.

Same for Apple, so it would show up before Atari in the phone book.

Asus was either originally going to be or originally intended to be Pegasus, but it was changed to "Asus" to be alphabetically first. I'm sure that's also the story behind the name Abit.

Interesting, that would imply it should be pronounced uh-sis not Ay-sus.

Probably not. Here's something I read: Arial: originally called Sonoran Sans Serif, the designers changed the name to Arial because they wanted a name that would evoke a modern, industrial feel, and because it sounded similar to "aerial," as in "aerial view," which they felt captured the font's modern and futuristic qualities.

When they refer to Swisss typography, they're likely referring to the International Typographic Style, which is also known as the Swiss Style (it's on Wikipedia). It's a style of graphic design. It typically uses a Grotesque sans serif font, like Helvetica or Univers (as opposed to a humanist sans serif).

Closing the loop a bit, Helvetica is the second word of the Latin name of Switzerland (Confoederatio Helvetica). It's why the ISO 3166 code for the country is .ch.

That would be a great name for a font site, but it’s Helvetia, from the same root in the Helvetii peoples’ name.

No, it's really "Confoederatio Helvetica", as you can see e.g. on this coin: https://worldcoinsinfo.com/world_coins/swiss-5-franken-1888-...

"Helvetia" exists too, as the female national personification of Switzerland.

Both are indeed derived from the Helvetii.

That interview is a great example of fluff responses with Bierstadt being the fluffiest where the fluff starts to conflict with itself.

First:

In today’s world, I believe a grotesque typeface’s voice needs a bit of a *human touch* to be more approachable and less institutional. Bierstadt’s systematic design contains organic touches to help *humanize* digital environments and *soften the regimented order* of grid typography.

Later:

My approach was to design a sans serif that would contrast with Arial by being *far more mechanical and rationalized.*. The terminal endings are *precisely sheared at 90°* — a modern note *contrasting the softer, angled endings* in Arial — and a lack of somewhat fussy curves found in Arial’s “a,” “f,” “y,” and “r.”

Maybe Arial was too human?

Its' a better looking arial, I've long avoided the new MS core fonts and tend to stick with arial on windows documents I create.