Helveticookies

These Helvetica cookie cutters designed by Beverly Hsu make delicious, serif-free pastries. I'd like to eat a sentence-full right now.

(via Jason Fields, photographed by Drew)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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help i cant comfirm my username themelonbread

Won’t these poof up into bold?
arkizzle / Moderator

Xopher +1 insightful

Sceadugenga +1 honest
Anonymous

Actually, this was not the first time this was attempted. Bodoni was the first, but the serifs and pencil-thin ascenders kept burning in the oven. Bill Gates missed a trick when he didn’t buy off the cookie cutter maker in order for the cutters to be Arial.
Anonymous

I see serifs @,anon#22
popvoid

Finally, a good use for Cooper Black.
pjcamp

The dots on yer i’s are gonna get burnt.
Xopher

Serifs are an essential nutrient, one we web users are generally deficient in. I don’t see how “serif-free” is a benefit unless you know of a documented case of serif overdose.
- Xeni Jardin
  
  @xopher, clinical studies show that people with gluten sensitivity frequently benefit from omitting dairy, high-fructose corn syrup, and serifs from their diet.
  - Xopher
    
    But serif deficiency causes eyestrain and headaches, and when it’s internet-induced can lead to insomnia, rage, and irrational utterances.
    
    And in my experience gluten-sensitive people aren’t big on sugar cookies anyway. (Yes, there are gluten-free cookie recipes, but not AFAIK for the sort of thing you use a cookie cutter for.)
    
    Besides, the name of Helvetica is derived from the Helvetic Republic, which was a centralized authority over Switzerland imposed by the French military. That’s right: Helvetica is authoritarian and French.
    
    And by the way, ‘serifs’ is an incorrect plural for ‘serif’. The correct one is ‘serifim’. (They’re HOLY!!!)
timquinn

But wouldn’t serifs make for tasty little crunchy bits?
knijon

I would prefer to spell out Helvetica in comic sans shaped cookie cutters.
- Anonymous
  
  I would buy the shirt. Good thinking.
http://moteprime.org Sean Ellis

I mentioned to my wife that we should get some of these so we could make cookie words like “tasty” and “delicious”. But she vetoed me.

She thinks there are too many adjectives in food these days.
Anonymous

Do the cookies, like the typface, taste bland?
Caroline

I am sad I can’t actually buy these. My fiancÃ© would be a happy man if presented with a plate of Helvetica cookies.
Anonymous

The world is going to Helvetica in a hand-basket-a. ( Sorry it’s the only typeface joke I got . ) MMMMmmmmm sans sarif.
zikman

something about a hellbox. I can’t really think of a joke right now
billstewart

But the serifs are where you put the chocolate chips!
Sceadugenga

Do they come in bold?
jades

the arial ones aren’t quite as tasty
Jonathan Badger

Bah. Helvetica is just a cheap mid 20th century knock off of Akzidenz-Grotesk, a much nicer 19th century typeface.
- Anonymous
  
  McDonalds will be selling Arial cookies next week….
- freshacconci
  
  You just had to let people know that you knew this tidbit, didn’t you?
  
  But then I’ve used Akzidenz-Grotesk just so I can tell people about it. No one cared.
- Xopher
  
  If you mean that Helvetica is basically a grotesque accident, I agree.
  - doktorpaine
    
    Clearly, they should use an open-source font. Computer Modern cookies, anyone? Plus, they have 100% more serif.
  - tuckels
    
    I think you mean neogrotesque…
SamSam

Does a designer who makes and sells such a product need to pay licensing fees to Helvetica? If so, how much do you imagine such a license would cost?
RUAvina

For some reason I saw C3P0 in the picture and was somewhat disappointed that it was just a post on kooky cutter typo sans serif. Nevertheless I would like to spell my way to better health and see this as a definite path to take.
Rosscott

I was hoping for Garamond Rolls. All the serif, none of the guilt.

Then again, I’d rather be kerning.

http://www.notquitewrong.com/rosscottinc/2009/03/05/the-system-166/
Anonymous

amazing! they should make them gill sans
jimh

I kern has Futura Extra Black? Moar surface area.
Anonymous

Serif free is false advertising in this case. Maybe serif-lite is more apt. I might be a bit of a type OCD but as far as I can see there are two serifs in this very photo. Can you spot them?
- SamSam
  
  A see a serif at the end of the ‘a’, but don’t see another one. The curve at the bottom of the ‘t’ doesn’t count, does it?.
jfrancis

I’m on a diet. Do they come in Helvetica Light?
- Felton
  
  Haha! Yes, but the Helvetica Condensed are richer.
Anonymous

Hey, how much are the cutters? I’m in the biz and have been looking for lower case letters.
timebinder

Serif or sans serif cookies, my alimentary canal makes no distinction – I would say it doesn’t really give a crap but that would be a lie, for which I am truly thankful!