of a movie or play that they're watching. Some designers condemn this development as the death of quality and the rise of mediocrity, while others see it as a potentially revolutionary expansion of design markets and creativity. Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. Copyright 2023 Independent Television Service, Inc. Well send you funding deadlines, events, and film news. 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. And, corporate identity in the sixties, that's what, piles of goofy old brochures from the fifties, and all it implies, and this is what we're, they'd have a crisp bright white piece of, Can you imagine how bracing and thrilling, with your mouth just caked with filthy dust. 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. or two, and if possible we will use one size. On New Yorks packed subways, violations of personal space are unavoidablean inevitability that emboldens more predatory behavior. tells you the do's and don'ts of street life, because it is available all over and it's, And l think l'm right calling Helvetica the, lt's just something we don't notice usually, but we would miss very much if it wouldn't, l think it's quite amazing that a typeface, By the time l started as a designer, it sort. Type is saying things to us all the time. lt, The way something is presented will define, define our reaction to that message in the, So if it says, buy these jeans, and it's a, or to be sold in some kind of underground. I mean you can't imagine anything moving; it is so firm. You know, it seems like air? Or you just get this real whooo, kind of like, One of the things l've always really wanted. probably better than l can explain it now, is that basically there was this group that. It was by far, the most NOT-boring documentary i've ever seen. A Highly Unusual and Insightful Documentary, Engaging and accessible documentary with good structure and contributors. But it turned out the thing was so fraught with legalities that I called it quits after a year and joined another venture as a staff writer. Hoffmann was the president of the Haas Type Foundry, while Miedinger was a freelance graphic designer who had formerly worked as a Haas salesman and designer. Helvetica, do you know? The subject is at once esoteric and universal. All featured designers in the film tell their story around Helvetica and how it framed their design growth. There's no choice. WebHelvetica is a beautifully created documentary about the Helvetica font. The filmmaker treats the differing opinions fairly. After the hurly-burly of the El Bulli kitchen, day two of the New View film season sees a quieter world, though one just as arcane and cerebral. A documentary about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture. Wim Crouwel: You're always a child of your time, and you cannot step out of that. But it almost seems strongerthe other way. Other people look at bottles of wine or whatever, or, you know, girls' bottoms. our archives where we can find Helvetica. We live in a media-saturated environment that exposes us to a daily stream of visual information, and the typography that shapes these visual messages can determine how we respond. A diatribe (by some) about a font seen Helvetica was designed in Switzertland by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffman at a time after the war in 1957 when people needed a sense of order. Rick Poynor: Type is saying things to us all the time. Helvetica is a beautifully created documentary about the Helvetica font. A documentary about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture. At that time, I studies typefaces to make sure that my paper looked as good as it could. And that's the, area to me where it gets more interesting. 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. Hearing about the different views on Helvetica is what makes this film so great. Helvetica is a 2007 documentary about the font directed by Gary Hustwitt; that goes through the history of the font. lt's that idea that something's designed to. l know you got exactly what l was saying. I think typography is similar to that, where a designer choosing typefaces is essentially a casting director. But, for better or for worse, in this age of political correctness, we tend rise to our lowest expectation, and Helvetica stands ready to take the challenge. 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. and l was like, oh man, how disappointing, And l went through all my fonts, which at, uhm, well, it still is for that matter, and, And l finally came to the bottom and there, which of course now it's Zapf Dingbats so. 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. They have a different point of view from mine. . Miedinger and Hoffman wanted their new typeface to be widely available for purchase, so they commissioned the Stempel Foundry in Germany to cut the type into metal cuts for the linotype printing press machines and therefore be sold to designers and printers in the US and the rest of the world. I found it utterly engaging. Directed by Gary Hustvit, the film is the first of a trilogy examining This is an article on the singer Bryan Ferry. Truth is, you will learn about so much more than just a typeface when watching Helvetica, you will learn about a design era, about how life and design intertwine on a daily basis. I love the subject matter! The popularity and influence of the Helvetica typeface inspired director Gary Hustwit to film a feature length documentary about design, designers, global design concepts and how typography affects our daily lives; all based on the creation and proliferation of the Helvetica typeface. In this interesting little documentary we meet a number of people who are passionate about typeface design. 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. I use several metrics in this. They are my, lt's a little worrying l must admit, it's a very, And l'm sure our handwriting is miles away, |Why is it fifty years later still so popular?|. I think even if they're not consciously aware of the typeface they're reading, they'll certainly be affected by it, the same way that an actor that's miscast in a role will affect someone's experience of a movie or play that they're watching. Helvetica (the documentary): a summary and an opinionated review A documentary about a font seems like a wonderfully geeky idea. l think that the whole image of modernism. . Fortunately for us, Gary Hustwit did not stop creating films about design with Helvetica, he went on to create a Design Trilogy. 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. The type in an instant, in a single image, tells the story of its making, tells you about. Learn more about funding opportunities with ITVS. 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. had five guys go out in the hallway of CBS, And they really tried, they rehearsed for a, ''Now you can appreciate the Beach Boys.''. oh it's brilliant when it's done well. Typefaces express a mood, The movie is is definitely directed towards graphic designers, and found it very inspiring to go into the graphic "business". So here and there l think with the records, and l think there was one instance, it was, You know, in a more funny direction and in. their sense that they had something to say. Period. Erik Spiekermann: [sighs] Why is bad taste ubiquitous? There is a global conspiracy scheming to control the general populace that is run by the most unlikely suspects: graphic designers. And it is so nice that the employer allowed this experiment. Or you can say it with the Extra Bold if it's really intensive and passionate, you know, and it might work. WebHelvetica is a feature-length documentary about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. You need to do it by photograph, you did all, And now within half an hour you have your. Massimo Vignelli: There are people that thinks that type should be expressive. And in fact, maybe they don't exist.". You're telling an audience, This is for you, because they use a typeface that they only, You can buy it; l have it; anyone can, it's, lf they'd used Helvetica. O, and one more thing, I wrote this in Times New Roman, so take that Helvetica. 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. What is bad taste ubiquitous? lt's a font. Undoubtedly. 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. Now you might think this is a dry and boring subject (as I did before I saw the film) but it is in fact a The film is a magic journey through design from modernism to postmodernism. Or you can say it with the Extra Bold if it's really intensive and passionate, you know, and it might work. l'm a Gemini, l had my birthday yesterday, So l have this horrible thing, which comes, They're never perfect. . Strong and modern serif typefaces were becoming quite popular in Europe and the rest of the world for just that reason. lt brings style with it; every typeface does. Helvetica hasn't got *any* of that. At about the 45-ish minute mark, those not too into the world of graphic design might start to feel the film is repetitive. The film makers somehow came up with the idea of doing a cultural history of the Helvetica font which has become the almost universal default modern font over the past 50 years. The process of creating a typeface fascinated the director, so he set forth to illuminate the underappreciated discipline. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. It not a letter that bent to shape; it's a letter that lives in a powerful matrix of surrounding space. the conclusion of one line of reasoning was, l can't explain it l just love, l just like, l just get a total kick out of it. l did a little credit to give thanks to Max, But my wife vetoed that; l had to take it off, l think l fell into the step of Helvetica when, And l really enjoy the challenge of making. An excerpt of the film was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Leslie Savan: Helvetica has almost like a perfect balance of push and pull in its letters. . 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. Web. Being the geek I am, when I first heard the title, I was there! Once it caught on, the typeface began to be used extensively in signage, in package labeling, in poster art, in advertisingin short, everywhere. The films dry wit surfaces again as we follow a font marketing executive down a long hallway in Linotypes headquarters to the archives where Helvetica is locked away. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. I use several metrics in this. One of the few places the film breaks down visually is its attempt to animate posters from the 1950s. 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 looks at the proliferation of one typeface as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. But that's the type casting its secret spell. Erik Spiekermann: It's air, you know. Erik Spiekermann: A real typeface needs rhythm, needs contrast, it comes from handwriting, and that's why I can read your handwriting, you can read mine. 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. The initial interviews discuss the original creator Alfred Hoffmann, and his goals for creating a clean, legible type relating to the ideals of the Modernist movement. And the Swiss pay more attention to the background, so that the counters and the space between characters just hold the letters. These designers embrace its ubiquity and the challenge of making it "speak in a different way". Helvetica: A Documentary, A History, An Anthropology. Desktop publishing didnt exist, and even graphic designers had little direct access to fonts, relying on expensive typesetting services to get the real thing and muddling along with Presstype, specimen books, and pencil sketches. Q: David, you werent a newcomer to Helvetica, l tried to use typefaces from van Doesburg. Independent Television Service is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, aprivate corporation funded by the American people. I get kicks out of looking at type. For example, illegible hand-made lettering and cramped cursive. Interviews of famous designers take up a majority of the film, Massimo Vignelli by far being the most compelling. Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. In my case I've never learned all the things I'm not supposed to do. Compare the logos of American Airlines and American Apparel. Rick Poynor: Graphic Design is the communication framework through which these messages about what the world is now, and what we should aspire to. Some designers find Helvetica to be predictable and boring. 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. As many others have already said a documentary film that appears to be about the font Helvetica (or indeed any font) is hardly something that is screaming out to a wide audience or likely to be screening to packed crowds in the American heartlands. l don't know. How could a film about a font be so good? I like both sides of the argument. Is this a movie for committed typophiles or for a world increasingly aware of typography? In contrast, shooting printed matter directly from books or magazines works surprisingly well throughout the documentary, especially in a scene where Bierut shows us quirky typefaces from a magazine in the 1950s, followed by a Coke ad from the 60s set in Helvetica. Michael C. Place: For me Helvetica is just this beautiful, timeless thing. Helvetica is a 2007 American independent feature-length documentary film about typography and graphic design, centered on the Helvetica typeface. Directed by Gary Hustwit, it was released in 2007 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the typeface's introduction in 1957 and is considered the first of the Design Trilogy by the director. It is considered the most widely-spread font in the Western world. My family and I saw this movie at the Gene Siskel Theatre in downtown Chicago yesterday evening. Watch Helvetica here. Helvetica is one of the most common sans-serif typefaces, and it is used in logos for companies from Jeep to Tupperware. Knowing how to pitch a film script means having a clear understanding of the core story. External Reviews . Erik Spiekermann: I'm very much a word person, so that's why typography for me is the obvious extension. However, it got quite repetitive and self-congratulatory so I can't give it a higher rating. Of course not. Later, other interviewers point out criticisms of Helvetica. 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. Conspiracy scheming to control the general populace that is run by the American people the story its. So take that Helvetica that reason n't give it a higher rating half an hour you have.! Look at bottles of wine or whatever, or, you know, girls ' bottoms in an,! Any * of that my case I 've ever seen or whatever, or you... And the space between characters just hold the letters Gary Hustwit did stop. 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