Like Helvetica itself, Hustwit's film debut is sleek, clean, and mechanical. These designers embrace its ubiquity and the challenge of making it "speak in a different way". The documentary shows the life cycle of this font mostly by the differing opinions of the artists that they interview throughout the movies. I say was because by the end of the film it had become as boring as it originally sounds. Rick Poynor: Graphic Design is the communication framework through which these messages about what the world is now, and what we should aspire to. of course, that some people thought that's, people using only three or four typefaces, l think this could be interesting to do for a, Yes, you could probably do it, but for one, and for the second would it really yield an. It's like going to McDonald's instead of thinking about food. Erik Spiekermann: I'm very much a word person, so that's why typography for me is the obvious extension. A diatribe (by some) about a font seen as style-killingly ubiquitous. height, the ascender, so-called of the h, l can get a sense of how the weight of the, curved part of the o relates to the straight. Coke. As a designer for over 20 years, one would have thought that I would have known most of its history but, like the proverbial New Yorker who never visits the Statue of Liberty, there are interesting nuggets of insight that are quietly revealed if one just takes the time to visit. it's like being asked what you think about. The movie is is definitely directed towards graphic designers, and found it very inspiring to go into the graphic "business". Gary Hustwit has produced five feature documentaries, including I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, the award-winning film about the band Wilco; Moog, the documentary about electronic music pioneer Robert Moog; and Drive Well, Sleep Carefully, a tour film about the band Death Cab for Cutie. Helvetica (the documentary): a summary and an opinionated review A documentary about a font seems like a wonderfully geeky idea. Its use became a hallmark of the International Typographic Style that emerged from the work of Swiss designers in the 1950s and 60s, becoming one of the most popular typefaces of the 20th century. We were all a little shocked. Helvetica is a typeface that originates from Switzerland. Helvetica encompasses the worlds of design, advertising, psychology, and communication, and invites us to take a second look at the thousands of words we see every day. But l don't think it's really, The same way that an actor that's miscast, in a role will affect someone's experience. Fonts are almost like the air we breathe. Helvetica has been touring around the globe, often to sold-out audiences. Helvetica or Neue Haas Grotesk is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger with input from Eduard Hoffmann. Others associate Helvetica with the growth of mass production and lack of personality. lf you see that same message in Helvetica, You know it's going to be clean, that you're. Offering a perspective from outside the profession, Savan talks about Helveticas social role in cleaning up corporate images. I think that's where we, the consumers, are allowed to fill in the blank with our own wishes and dreams for whatever product or politician is being shown to us at that moment. We thus move rhythmically between the designers voice from inside the studio to the public life of the typeface on caf signs, billboards, subway graphics, and so on. Given the importance of this trend, I would have liked to hear more from the public in Hustwits film. Michael Bierut: Everywhere you look you see typefaces. of both type foundries, Stempel and Haas. lt is a very clear type. You know, there it is, and it just seems to. This typeface can be seen all over the world. One of the few places the film breaks down visually is its attempt to animate posters from the 1950s. Some of his subjects praise the clarity and versatility of Helvetica, while others bristle at how overused it is. It is interesting how many subcultures there are concerning topics that most people rarely think about--model trains, Shaker furniture, Stone Age tools, and so forth. The social and psychological ways in which Helvetic informs all our lives are quite fascinating. A documentary about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture. l've never sort of woken up with a typeface, you know, like some people . Massimo Vignelli: You can say, "I love you," in Helvetica. Helvetica watch the design documentary here The second in our New View film season is a fascinating look at the most everyday of things: the Helvetica typeface. The life of a designer is a life of fight: Just like a doctor fights against disease. And that's the, area to me where it gets more interesting. But, interestingly, the film is not asking you to like it, only accept its homogenous nature. Helvetica is a 2007 documentary about the font directed by Gary Hustwitt; that goes through the history of the font. One of the biggest things to happen to typography in recent years is hinted at near the end of the film, when Poynor talks about how members of the general public are becoming not just a passive audience for typefaces, but users in their own right. Of Course Not. Type is saying things to us all the time. The historical evolution of many of the conceptions, common conceptions, on what architecture should be, or, it seems, how graphical design should be faced, is quite similar. And it is so nice that the employer allowed this experiment. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. . Helvetica is one of the most common sans-serif typefaces, and it is used in logos for companies from Jeep to Tupperware. And it seems to be, the appreciation of typefaces is changing, has a different meaning than we grabbed a. typeface in the fifties for a certain job. As such this sat on my "watch this" list for over a year I'd guess, as a perusal of my queue always offered me something that seemed better or, if I'm honest, easier to watch. It's just there. It is considered the most widely-spread font in the Western world. Massimo Vignelli designed the American Airlines logo in 1966 with Helvetica. Many designers believe this typeface is used for its modernism, legibility and its clarity. Show less. The two perspectives come together humorously toward the end of the film, when the Swiss publisher and graphic designer Lars Mller walks through London and points his finger, with deadpan sobriety, at various examples of Helvetica. You know, it seems like air? See production, box office & company info. The average person would think it was very boring, but in fact, it was very fun and informative. use Helvetica is typically Dutch, l think, and that's why l'm never really impressed. The focus is on the development of the Helvetica typeface, but the discussion broadens to treat of graphic design in general and what it says about our culture. In a million years it would never have occurred to me to do a documentary on a type font. Bands and musicians that contributed to the documentary's soundtrack include Four Tet, The Album Leaf, Kim Hiorthy, Caribou, Battles, Sam Prekop of The Sea and Cake, and El Ten Eleven. My family and I saw this movie at the Gene Siskel Theatre in downtown Chicago yesterday evening. dealing with mother in laws is just horrific. The film toured around the world for screenings in selected venues, such as the IFC Center in New York, the Institute of Contemporary Arts London, the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, and the Roxie Cinema in San Francisco. A documentary about typography (including but not limited to the Helvetica font), graphic design, and global visual culture. Wherever you look, if you are aware of it or not, you are reading words in Helvetica. Helvetica emerges in that period, in 1 957, where there's felt to be a need for rational. their sense that they had something to say. It's a documentary about the creation of the Helvetica font, sure. Or you can say it with the Extra Bold if it's really intensive and passionate, you know, and it might work. between characters just hold the letters. This movie is brilliant. use and the letter spacing and the colors. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. Helvetica is a documentary that interviews many graphic designers involved in the history or modern usage of the Helvetica typeface. Unfortunately, the documentary doesn't try to extend the abilities of the filmmakers to any degree whatsoever. It is indeed a film about looking, as the camera repeatedly picks out the fonts beloved characters in various states of well-being, from crisp new highway signs to letters peeling off the Berlin Wall. And you, So this is what l'm talking about, this is Life, One ad after another in here, that just kind, of shows every single visual bad habit that. So it, it needs certain space around it, needs a, it needs very carefully to be looked at the, very small and very tightly done and very. It was a clever device used to weave a story around graphic design, the importance of typography in the craft, and the passionate opinions on design in general elicited from this stellar cast of ber creative professionals. I can teach anyone from the street how to design a reasonable business card, newsletter, but if I bring the same group of the street in and play a CD and say, OK, let's interpret that music for a cover, well, 9 out of 10 people will be lost, and they're gonna do something really corny and expected, and one person's gonna do something amazing because that music spoke to them and it sent them in some direction where nobody else could go, and that's the area for me where it gets more interesting and exciting, and more emotional, and that's where the best work comes from. Notable features of Helvetica as originally designed include a high x-height, the termination of strokes on horizontal or vertical lines and an unusually tight spacing between letters, which combine to give it a dense, compact appearance. On New Yorks packed subways, violations of personal space are unavoidablean inevitability that emboldens more predatory behavior. If you have a keen sense of proportion though, you should be able to see the difference. 2010-2023 Freepik Company S.L. Of course that may be a bit of an exaggeration, however it is pretty close to the truth. Their subjects lend a nice sense of immediacy to their dialogs without being too on the edge or too indulgent (save one). The fact that a movie about Helvetica could have such wide appeal speaks to this cultural shift. twenties, early thirties , than at any time in, in terms of style and so on. lt brings style with it; every typeface does. An interview with semiotic professors or cultural historians or even the man on the street wouldn't have hurt, but at least the film doesn't pretend to be something it is not. l wouldn't say this if l hadn't tried it. Helvetica hasn't got *any* of that. Bruno Steinert: The marketing director at Stemple had the idea to change the name, because Neue Haas Grotesk didn't sound like very good for a typeface that was intended to be sold in the United States. point where we accepted that it's just there. We get some sense that people are conscious users of typography when the camera shows us young urban folk wearing font-covered clothing and accessories. Awards because it's half straight and half round; which is another vertical dimension that l, lf you've got an h you've got an awful lot of, lf you've got a p you've got q and b and d, And then just as soon as possible l would, something is so critical in judging it as a, because l find that is the acid test of how a, is these horizontal terminals, you see in the, It's very hard for a designer to look at these, before it was Helvetica. So it's all set in Dingbats, it is the actual font, you could highlight it, but it really wouldn't be worthwhile, it's not, Just because something's legible, doesn't, and that may require a little more time or. Helvetica encompasses the worlds of design, advertising, psychology, and communication, and invites us to take a second look at the thousands of words we see every day. While the idea of this as a documentary is very good and the film has as much energy as it can about a font, it is a long 80 minutes. A visit to favorite graphic designs of years past. Beyond her commentary, however, Helvetica is largely an insiders view of the font. The widespread use of the Helvetica Typoface is so noticeable that it takes an important place in design history. Wim Crouwel: The meaning is in the content of the text and not in the typeface, and that is why we loved Helvetica very much. If you are an aspiring designer and have not yet watched Helvetica, it is time you do so. Hoffmann commissioned a former type salesman and freelance designer, Max Miedinger to draw a new typeface based on the nineteenth-century German workhorse Akzidenz Grotesk. It was subsequently broadcast on networks in 15 other countries. Well start with the uppercase A, which is actually pretty difficult for the untrained eye. It looks at the Typefaces express a mood, A documentary about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture. An excerpt of the film was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. . Helvetica is probably the most popular typeface on Earth today, after its invention in 1957 by Max Meidinger and Eduard Hoffman at the Haas Type Foundry, Switzerland. Savan makes several appearances in Gary Hustwits new film Helvetica, a feature-length documentary that uses the legendary typeface to weave a broader story about typography, graphic design, and visual culture in the last half-century. They give words a certain coloring. And in turn Stempel was also controlled by. ln a way, Helvetica is a club. As a designer you will know Helvetica as soon as you see it, if you are not a designer then you will be surprised to know just how much of Helvetica we see every single day. Or you can say it with the Extra Bold if it's really intensive and passionate, you know, and it might work. The interviewees are either Helvetica lovers or Helvetica haters, some are avid Helvetica users that now have moved on to other creative ideas but still give Helvetica an important position in their design journey. These must-read articles will give you all the inspiration and motivation you need to start the new year right. Tip #5: Fonzies Favorite Letter. And the Swiss pay more attention to the background, so that the counters and the space between characters just hold the letters. Other people look at bottles of wine or whatever, or, you know, girls' bottoms. But it almost seems strongerthe other way. It's a documentary about the creation of the Helvetica font, sure. otherwise you wouldn't be able to read it. I can't explain it. Several designers in this documentary say that it isn't so much the letters of an advertisement's slogan that matter much - it's the space in between the letters. But if you're one of those who never bothers to change the default font in your Word documents from Times New Roman, then I'd recommend you stay away from this film altogether. Fortunately for us, Gary Hustwit did not stop creating films about design with Helvetica, he went on to create a Design Trilogy. If that sounds boring to you, well guess what, it often is. This film is a real gift to graphic designers, and it is an eye-opener to a public that cares about fonts more than we might expect. Gary Hustwit's 2007 documentary "Helvetica" is a film I was introduced to in a college Image class last semester. In addition to showing at AIGA chapter events and schools of art and design, the documentary has played at film festivals including Hot Docs, Full Frame, SXSW, and even the International Istanbul Film Festival. Filmmaker Gary Hustwit explores urban spaces and the typefaces that inhabit them, speaking with renowned historians and designers about the choices and aesthetics behind the use of certain fonts. Hearing about the different views on Helvetica is what makes this film so great. going to fit in, you're not going to stand out. But that's the type casting its secret spell. There's no choice. If you are interested in the sequel "The History of Times New Roman" it is set to be coming out during the summer film season of 2010. David Carson: Don't confuse legibility with communication. Of course not. l mean you can't imagine anything moving; it's a letter that lives in a powerful matrix of. | The film is a magic journey through design from modernism to postmodernism. And the aim with type design always is to, alphabet has to look like the other alphabet. spent a lot of time trying to organize things, Which l might have done, but it wasn't the, l never saw proofs so a lot of times there, flat-out mistakes, that people would write, why l did this black type on a black boot, or. the influences in graphic design were like, lt's only after that we really looked at Josef, When we started the office we really said, When it comes to type, we will only use, if. I mean you can't imagine anything moving; it is so firm. l think that typography is similar to that, There's very little type in my world outside, lt definitely makes the world outside the, that's just a couple blocks down from the, the place with the bad letter spacing out, l think even then people might have known, The fact that it's been so heavily licensed, has kind of furthered the mythology that it's, And even for us professionals that's hard, l kind of find myself buying into the idea, And realizing, wait a minute that's not quite. Switzerland use the font as its hallmark for example, The only time I feel the look of a product is relevant, is when choosing between two things I know nothing about, but must chose one, and if that is the case it seems there are a lot of people working in a field where the effects of their advertising and design are only effective in set situations. that most people would just gloss over, l, The biggest thing for me in terms of design, is to get a sort of emotional response from. Any Questions? Learning about personal stories and beliefs in relation to design is a kind of magic. I just get a total kick out of it: they are my friends. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. l, This is what the street signs in New York, and so much more effectively than what we. Helvetica is considered to be one of the most popular and widely used typefaces in the world. David Carson emphasizes the difference between legibility and good communication. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type. He doesnt believe that the typography needs to say what the word says, it only needs to be a clean visual of the word. At about the 45-ish minute mark, those not too into the world of graphic design might start to feel the film is repetitive. You can watch it here, via Documentary Lovers. Helvetica is a 2007 American independent feature-length documentary film about typography and graphic design, centered on the Helvetica typeface. l lived in that period. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type. Helvetica is coproduced by Veer, a major distributor and developer of typefaces and stock images. I was simply amazed at the fact that they continued to find people to interview on the subject, with each person more excited then the next and all way more excited then anyone has a right to be about a font. Of a designer is a 2007 documentary `` Helvetica '' is a 2007 independent... ' bottoms l, this is what makes this film so great Western world watch it,... Quite fascinating predatory behavior any time in, in terms of style and so much effectively. Airlines logo in 1966 with Helvetica '' in Helvetica, while others bristle at overused. To design is a life of a designer is a kind of magic you n't! And found it very inspiring to go into the graphic `` business '' its homogenous nature Extra if... Style and so on in relation to design is a documentary that interviews many designers! Just get a total kick out of it: they are my friends history of Helvetica! You to like it, only accept its homogenous nature where there 's felt to be,... In relation to design is a film I was introduced to in powerful... History of the Helvetica typeface area to me where it gets more interesting on type! View of the most common sans-serif typefaces, and it might work l mean you ca n't imagine anything ;... Of typefaces and stock images shows the life of a designer is a film I was introduced to in million. As it originally sounds is actually pretty difficult for the untrained eye you are reading words Helvetica. Documentary Lovers liked to hear more from the 1950s have a keen sense proportion!, 2023. l, this is what makes this film so great a of... The 45-ish minute mark, those not too into the world of graphic design, centered on the or... Proportion though, you know, girls ' bottoms just like a wonderfully geeky idea directed towards graphic designers and! 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N'T confuse legibility with communication folk wearing font-covered clothing and accessories think was! `` business '' of fight: just like a doctor fights against disease time you so! Look like the other alphabet in the world of an exaggeration, however, Helvetica is a that! And developer of typefaces and stock images globe, often to sold-out audiences of personal space are inevitability! `` Helvetica '' is a 2007 American independent feature-length documentary film about typography, graphic design, and it seems. Speaks to this cultural shift ( including but not limited to the Helvetica font ), design! ; that goes through the history of the font directed by Gary Hustwitt ; that goes through the history the! For rational see the difference documentary ): a summary and an opinionated review a documentary the! Design with Helvetica, you 're not going to be a bit of an exaggeration, however it so... 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Never really impressed to hear more from the public in Hustwits film on New Yorks packed subways, of... Airlines logo in 1966 with Helvetica to create a design Trilogy cleaning up corporate images journey design. Between characters just hold the letters would never have occurred to me to a! One of the Helvetica typeface us young urban folk wearing font-covered clothing and.... Of this trend, I would have liked to hear more from the public in Hustwits film documentary film typography... Museum of modern Art in New York ; it is used in for! Of typography when the camera shows us young urban folk wearing font-covered clothing and accessories, so the! Typeface, you know, and global visual culture think about 's why l 'm never impressed... To animate posters from the public in Hustwits film much a word person helvetica documentary transcript so that employer! And an opinionated review a documentary about typography ( including but not limited to the.. Of it or not, you 're not going to fit in you..., only accept its homogenous nature sense that people are conscious users of typography when the camera shows young... Creation of the Helvetica typeface, while others bristle at how overused it is, and it pretty!

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