| Sep. 12, 2007 | Posted by: Marc |
My Type of Movie…
Run, don’t walk to catch director Gary Hustwit’s brilliant documentary of the world’s most ubiquitous typeface, Helvetica. Having already seen the movie, I can fully recommend it to anyone — not only designers. For info on tickets click here.
Yes, a documentary about a typeface CAN be entertaining, even for people, who are not designers. I saw the movie and was excited to see how charismatic and witty the interviewed designers expressed their passion and opinion – a brilliant homage to a true milestone of Swiss design!
I agree. Even as a non-designer it is still interesting. My only critque/question is this: both the advocates and detractors of Helvetica mentioned its ubiquity (and that was either seen as a pro- or con- depending on which side of the typeface you fell). However, the documentary only interviewed designers in North America (US & Canada) and western Europe. There were a few shots of Helvetica in action in Asia, but again mostly North America & western Europe. So I wonder if Helvetica really has permeated all regions of the globe as the film implies—is it as prevelent in Sao Paulo, Johannesburg, or Moscow, for example?
While I found “Helvetica”, the documentary, amusing in a
kind of woof, woof way, I’m really tired of seeing that old Swiss
font everywhere I stick my bloody nose, from my dry food
packaging to the tags I wear on my neck chocker to the word “dog”
printed on the too cutsie winter sweater that my owner tries
to foster on me at the first sign of winter.
And what’s with the claim that Helvetica is “modern”?
How can anything that we’ve seen for at least 50 years possibly still be considered modern?!?
If we’re talking simple san-serif, hey, how’s about “Frankfutter.”
As for my favorite font, well, I’m a hound, and you needn’t
be Sherlock Holmes to figure out it’s Baskerville all the way.
Woof, woof, woof.
Design dog, Augustus Dog aka Auggie Doggie on “Helvetica”.
Jonester: Good point. I have actually seen the equivalent versions in Cyrillic, Hebrew, and Sanskrit, but it never really works out too well.
[...] the ubiquitous and easily adaptable Helvetica, Futura can often be challenging to use. It was one of the first sans-serif fonts developed, and it [...]
[...] most influential designers, Massimo Vignelli and Wim Crouwel (both were featured in the film Helvetica.) It’s always inspiring to hear design practitioners who have more enthusiasm than people one [...]