Typophiles aren't fans, they're people who mostly work with type for a living.
TypeCon (where he previewed the Helvetica flick) is a trade conference, not a StarWars convention.
He's leveraging professional organizations, not "monetizing fanbases".
But that that sounds cooler, ennit.

The term 'fans' is used in the context of social media. You can 'fan' an entity on facebook. You can 'follow' an entity on twitter. Etc.

So the point is completely valid. It's niche marketing made easier with technology.

Darrel, I don't buy that. At least for Helvetica the buzz was not built on facebook and twitter. It was built on the typophiles, and the fan-base term (in the way the writer uses it) puts us in the same bucket as these guys... http://www.film.com/features/story/the-five-most-rabid-fanbases/22494925

While Twitter, itself, may not have been the primary channel for promoting Helvetica, it's hard to deny that Gary having 18 thousand followers is not an effective way to market to a niche base of people: http://twitter.com/gary_hustwit

Helvetica the typeface had decades of overexposure before social networking.

Just another example of the bastardization of English by a field, in this case, marketing.

Monetize originally meant turning metal into money. Minting coins. I guess having 18,000 followers is pretty close to that concept.

pbc

The language may be awkward, but I admire what Gary Hustwit has done, and his insight in figuring how to get his work before the public and make it pay.

"And harder still to deny you didn't mean what you just said."

doh! Er...yea, omit the double negative in my last comment. ;)