A whole documentary about one typeface. Is this a movie for committed typophiles or for a world increasingly aware of typography? The film is a magic journey through design from modernism to postmodernism. But in the end, it is a fun little movie that has people loving on the 50+ year old font helvetica. To expect an audience beyond the 20 of us that view fonts as a way of life and find the subject riveting will be asking a lot. Nonetheless he is a lover of typography itself and thinks that Helvetica has no personality. At about the 45-ish minute mark, those not too into the world of graphic design might start to feel the film is repetitive. Any Questions? It was by far, the most NOT-boring documentary i've ever seen. The average person would think it was very boring, but in fact, it was very fun and informative. in a very elegant way, in a very fast way. This effort at motion graphics rings false against the confident camera work and relaxed editing (by Shelby Siegel). But it's also: a musing on the history of modern graphic design. Some designers find Helvetica to be predictable and boring. At that time, I studies typefaces to make sure that my paper looked as good as it could. Michael Bierut: Everywhere you look you see typefaces. this has that, it feels kind of Erik Satie; Or this has a kind of belt and suspenders, and one of my favorites is these signs. Contact us and we will be happy to assist you. Erik Spiekermann: I mean, everyone puts their history into their work. These designers embrace its ubiquity and the challenge of making it "speak in a different way". Typefaces express a mood, an atmosphere. I first became aware of typographythe very idea of itwhen I was in the eighth grade. And that's the, area to me where it gets more interesting. 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. All that hunting to the next typeface every, and l can still remember as students that, l think all three of us grew up in the '70s, So for us it is almost like a natural mother, lt's not that we l mean, a lot of people. 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. So when people started getting upset, I didn't really understand why, I said, "What's the big deal? 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. Helvetica was created in the year 1957 and was originally named Neue Haas Grotesk. In addition to showing at AIGA chapter events and schools of art and design, the All rights reserved. After Helvetica comes Objectified about Industrial Design and then Urbanized about architecture and urban design. A diatribe (by some) about a font seen there to just hold and display and organize, the information. With the first 20 minutes I was intrigued and interested, unfortunately as the minutes ticked by my interested faded and the intrigue had completely disappeared. And you can say it with Helvetica Extra Light if you want to be really fancy. but with a new set of theories to support it. lt's . Hello??? Type is saying things to us all the time. Of Course Not. There's nothing ''extramarital'' about that. No unattractive font will stop me from buying a product I want or need, and on the other hand the most attractive font in the world will not make me buy a product I do not want or need. Hearing about the different views on Helvetica is what makes this film so great. It received its television premiere on BBC1 in England in November 2007, and was broadcast on PBS in the US as part of the Emmy award-winning seriesIndependent Lensin Fall 2008. It is just something we don't notice usually but we would miss very much if it wouldn't be there. 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. What is bad taste ubiquitous? "fonts." Helvetica isnt originalits based on an it's like being asked what you think about. Underground brings these stories into the light. 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. ln the beginning, if you see the sketches. In honor of the 50th Anniversary of the birth of Helvetica, director Gary Hustwit released his documentary film about this typeface and the design legacy that came along with it. Any questions? Switzerland use the font as its hallmark for example, Designers and non-designers will learn quite a lot from this film. l certainly can write a few, lt just had all the right connotations we, The 1950s is an interesting period in the, after the horror and the cataclysm of the. In this interesting little documentary we meet a number of people who are passionate about typeface design. For those of us who take interest in such things, of course! Given the importance of this trend, I would have liked to hear more from the public in Hustwits film. lt's a font. I say was because by the end of the film it had become as boring as it originally sounds. obviously. 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. otherwise you wouldn't be able to read it. Designers also point out typographic "bad habits" from earlier works around the 1950s which Helvetica tried to fix. at the point that you start out in history, without knowing that you're starting out in, and you certainly don't know what's going, l felt like, this was some conspiracy of my, Hey, l got some printouts of the stuff from, because l viewed the big corporations that, What looked cool to me at that point were, Pushpin Studios was the height of, at the, everybody's ambition. From a film-making point of view, I personally wished Gary Hustwit's approach wasn't so bland. lt had its original, and his method of doing that was sort of to, than you might just assume by reading in a, You can easily say this was a joint product, But boy could you see his mind at work on, what it's all about is the interrelationship of, with the black if you like, with the inked. 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. The filmmaker treats the differing opinions fairly. Erik Spiekermann: Most people who use Helvetica, use it because it's ubiquitous. However, I felt like there wasn't much to this film. Interviewees in Helvetica include some of the most illustrious and innovative names in the design world, including Erik Spiekermann, Matthew Carter, Massimo Vignelli, Wim Crouwel, Hermann Zapf, Neville Brody, Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Bierut, David Carson, Paula Scher, Jonathan Hoefler, Tobias Frere-Jones, Experimental Jetset, Michael C. Place, Norm, Alfred Hoffmann, Mike Parker, Bruno Steinert, Otmar Hoefer, Leslie Savan, Rick Poynor, Lars Muller, and many more. Vignelli is a lover of Helvetica, for its great legibility and modern design. And in turn Stempel was also controlled by. . Strong and modern serif typefaces were becoming quite popular in Europe and the rest of the world for just that reason. Amazingly, most of us walked out in wonder. 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. dealing with mother in laws is just horrific. Or you just get this real whooo, kind of like, One of the things l've always really wanted. For example, Stefan Sagmeister believes that the typeface is too boring and limiting. This is an article on the singer Bryan Ferry. 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. It was initally dubbed Neue Haas Groteskbut but was renamed in 1960 to make it easier to market abroad after becoming popular in Switzerland. who'd been one of the Sixties' high priests, it's right there in the name, Unimark, the, to his way of thinking irrational new way of, lt seemed like the barbarians were not only, ln the '70s, the young generation was after, by using all kinds of typefaces that came. 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. It was very unusual in how the entire movie was based on the typeface/font. lt is a modern type. Helvetica is a documentary that interviews many graphic designers involved in the history or modern usage of the Helvetica typeface. External Reviews 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. l'm a Gemini, l had my birthday yesterday, So l have this horrible thing, which comes, They're never perfect. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. And they agreed. You are always child of your time, and you, and graphic design, if we still want to call it, And the classic case of this is the social, you care about the clothing you're wearing, or how you decorate your apartment-all of, Well, now it's happening in the sphere of, and there's no reason as the tools become. Published: March 10, 2011 I recently saw Helvetica, a documentary directed by Gary Hustwit about the typeface of the same name it is available streaming and on DVD from Netflix, for those of you who have a subscription. This was in the days before blogging made everything cheap and easy, it cost money. Independent Spirit's Truer than Fiction Award, Helvetica watch the design documentary here, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Helvetica_(film)&oldid=1142017718, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 02:27. Do Not Sell or Share my Personal Information. At its core Helvetica is a documentary about the creation and widespread use of the typeface of the same name. interesting body of work over a lifetime? 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. User Ratings The letter A is another letter that you can use to help you spot Helvetica. Coke. Of course not. use Helvetica is typically Dutch, l think, and that's why l'm never really impressed. 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. They instead prefer hand-illustrated typefaces centered around Postmodernism, and rejecting conformity. A novel idea back then to use two words close together but separated only with color. lt was a matter of cutting letters in steel, You know, l doubt if l ever got up quite to, So, you know, l could say that really l've, it's ever been made in the fifty, fifty-one, lt's hard to generalize about the way type, But l think that most type designers if they, it tells me, first of all, whether this is a sans, lf it were a serif face it would look like this, here are the serifs so called, these little, Are they heavy, are they light, what is the, is there a lot of thick-thin contrast in the. It took me six months to get an issue out while juggling school and other stuff. 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. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th 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. 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. He aptly named the film HELVETICA. In the end Helvetica is not just about Helvetica. Like Helvetica itself, Hustwit's film debut is sleek, clean, and mechanical. I love the subject matter! Type is saying things to us all the time. l tried to use typefaces from van Doesburg. Metacritic Reviews. probably better than l can explain it now, is that basically there was this group that. Interviewees inHelveticainclude some of the most illustrious and innovative names in the design world, including Erik Spiekermann, Matthew Carter, Massimo Vignelli, Wim Crouwel, Hermann Zapf, Neville Brody, Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Bierut, David Carson, Paula Scher, Jonathan Hoefler, Tobias Frere-Jones, Experimental Jetset, Michael C. Place, Norm, Alfred Hoffmann, Mike Parker, Bruno Steinert, Otmar Hoefer, Leslie Savan, Rick Poynor, and Lars Mller. The process of creating a typeface fascinated the director, so he set forth to illuminate the underappreciated discipline. (We think typography is black and white, he says. 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. . Helveticais a cinematic 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. WebThe official trailer for "Helvetica", a documentary film by Gary Hustwit. Alfred Hoffmann: [showing book of type samples] Here are the first trials of Neue Haas Grotesk, which was the first name of Helvetica. Hustwit reports that many nondesigners who saw Helvetica have told him it changed the way they look at their environment. Other designers dislike Helvetica on the grounds of ideology. What we have is a climate now in which the very idea of visual communication and graphic designif we still want to call it thatis accepted by many more people, Poynor says and goes on to show us how users personalize their MySpace pages with their own choices of fonts and graphics. Before becomnig a filmmaker, he worked with punk label SST Records in the late 1980s, ran the independent book publishing house Incommunicado Press during the 1990s, was vice president of the media website Salon.com in 2000 and started the indie DVD label Plexifilm in 2001. l've never sort of woken up with a typeface, you know, like some people . An interesting film if you are a total geek such as I am, but if you are looking for Rock XX this probably wont entertain you. 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. Helvetica: Quick Facts. Or you can say it in Extra Bold if it's really, l can write . Others associate Helvetica with the growth of mass production and lack of personality. 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. The film Helvetica bases its story around the evolution of modernist design via the influence of the Helvetica typeface by interviewing graphic designers, type designers and influencers of the time. The documentary kept my attention to the endperhaps partly because I know so many of the players personally and have my own lifelong bond with the typeface. I just love, I just like looking at type. In light of that I was interested in this documentary about the most popular typeface designed. 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. It wasn't just a film about a font. 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. l just more, sort of, react to certain things. The maker wanted to so something new, something different. WebHelvetica (2007) - full transcript. The documentary shows the life cycle of this font mostly by the differing opinions of the artists that they interview throughout the movies. A reflection about what our fonts say about us. Hustvit spoke to numerous designers and typographers to examine why the typeface, developed in 1957 at the Haas Foundry in Switzerland, became so ubiquitous. our archives where we can find Helvetica. An edited version of the film was broadcast in the UK on BBC One in November 2007, as part of Alan Yentob's Imagine series. 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