Learn more about funding opportunities with ITVS. Helvetica: A Documentary, A History, An Anthropology. that Helvetica is a sort of global monster. The Story of Helvetica It looks at the This is an article on the singer Bryan Ferry. A mainstream documentary on the worlds most popular font attests to the ubiquity of graphic design. And in turn Stempel was also controlled by. Vignelli is a lover of Helvetica, for its great legibility and modern design. 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. And you can say it with Helvetica Extra Light if you want to be really fancy. The limited (1,500 copies) edition includes Gary Hustwit's autograph. Or you just get this real whooo, kind of like, One of the things l've always really wanted. Helvetica is a beautifully created documentary about the Helvetica font. just a beautiful big glass of ice-cold Coke. See production, box office & company info. WebHelvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. The designer has an enormous responsibility. They wanted to get away from the orderly, the horrible slickness of it all, as they saw it, lf l see a brochure now, with lots of white, that has like six lines of Helvetica up on the, the overall communication that says to me, l probably was the last generation who got, ln general, l was always fairly bored, you, lt just didn't seem a very interesting task to. 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. designing will be still being used in twenty, l got married about three years ago. I use several metrics in this. Designers and non-designers will learn quite a lot from this film. On New Yorks packed subways, violations of personal space are unavoidablean inevitability that emboldens more predatory behavior. Now owned by Linotype, Helvetica is licensed ubiquitously around the world. A diatribe (by some) about a font seen that is a sort of a late-modernist thing. 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. 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. And the Swiss pay more attention to the background, so that the counters and the space between characters just hold the letters. . Once it caught on, the typeface began to be used extensively in signage, in package labeling, in poster art, in advertisingin short, everywhere. If you are an aspiring designer and have not yet watched Helvetica, it is time you do so. This is an 80 minute long movie about a font. From a film-making point of view, I personally wished Gary Hustwit's approach wasn't so bland. 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. Or you can say it with the Extra Bold if it's really intensive and passionate, you know, and it might work. 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. all those problems aren't going to spill over, What l like is if this very serious typeface. Developed by the Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei (Haas Type Foundry) of Mnchenstein, Switzerland, its release was planned to match a trend: a resurgence of interest in turn-of-the-century "grotesque" sans-serifs among European graphic designers, that also saw the release of Univers by Adrian Frutiger the same year. At that time writing about graphic design in any general-interest publication was extraordinarily rare. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); WatchDocumentaries.com | Games | Quizzes | Contact |Privacy & Terms | Manage Cookies |Advertise | DMCA. It's just it's just there. I saw this film last night at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the company of hundreds of budding graphic designers, new media specialists, and fans of typography. 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. And that's the, area to me where it gets more interesting. And what they were against was Helvetica. It was by far, the most NOT-boring documentary i've ever seen. l've never sort of woken up with a typeface, you know, like some people . 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. Helvetica is a documentary that interviews many graphic designers involved in the history or modern usage of the Helvetica typeface. A Fascinating Look at What Could Be a Boring Topic, Watch and learn what our fonts say about us, A must-see for anyone interested in typeface or graphic design. To work there, to do. Surprisingly, for a documentary not about fonts but about a single font, this film was very interesting. 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. Those are the people, you know, putting their wires into our heads. Later, other interviewers point out criticisms of Helvetica. is that they shouldn't be aware of it at all. Massimo Vignelli: You can say, "I love you," in Helvetica. l think that the whole image of modernism. Helvetica was nominated for the 2008 Independent Spirit's Truer than Fiction Award. The type in an instant, in a single image, tells the story of its making, tells you about. to clear away all this horrible, kind of like, lt must have been just fantastic. lt is a very clear type. We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly. 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. 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. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th (You know, the one that looks like this .) In light of that I was interested in this documentary about the most popular typeface designed. 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. Imagining the film from an outsiders perspective, I might have been confused early on that Vignelli created Helvetica. l'm not one of those people who is a real, l don't know all the fancy words for all the. Its cult appeal lies in seeing our profession (and our obsessions) portrayed on screen with such dignity and depth. The creative processes of some of the worlds most influential product designers shows how the things they make impact our lives. 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. At a time when many European countries were recovering from the ravages of war, Helvetica presented a way to express newness and modernity. 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. Is Helvetica the greatest font every designed? 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. 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. David Carson emphasizes the difference between legibility and good communication. Switzerland use the font as its hallmark for example, Strong and modern serif typefaces were becoming quite popular in Europe and the rest of the world for just that reason. 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. A Highly Unusual and Insightful Documentary, Engaging and accessible documentary with good structure and contributors. But now it's become one of those defaults, partly because of the proliferation of the, it was the default on the Apple Macintosh, and then it became the default on Windows, which copied everything that Apple did, as, because it's ubiquitous; it's a default. 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. Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. However, I felt like there wasn't much to this film. (Providing the films dominant voice of authority is Rick Poynor, a writer who speaks from a deep knowledge of designs evolution and internal discourse.). 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 took me six months to get an issue out while juggling school and other stuff. Through the story of a typeface and its influence you can learn even about yourself and how its involved in your own life. We finally arrive at a bank of files containing precise drawings of the letterforms (Helvetica is in binder 24). Independent Television Service is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, aprivate corporation funded by the American people. Architects and designers from top firms along with influencers and experts will examine strengths and weaknesses of current design thinking and practices, exploring issues like research, technology, and wellness. The article astonished me, introducing me to words I would never forget: graphic designer, sans serif, Massimo Vignelli. As a film it's boring, but as a font movie it is amazing! l don't know. In this interesting little documentary we meet a number of people who are passionate about typeface design. Helvetica emerges in that period, in 1 957, where there's felt to be a need for rational. Quotes.net. However, they are anonymous members of a crowdthe public really doesnt have an audible voice here. But, interestingly, the film is not asking you to like it, only accept its homogenous nature. Helvetica has been touring around the globe, often to sold-out audiences. So, in other words, this would be "the Swiss typeface". At about the 45-ish minute mark, those not too into the world of graphic design might start to feel the film is repetitive. 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. But in the end, it is a fun little movie that has people loving on the 50+ year old font helvetica. The New York Sun editor Steve Dollar claimed the movie was "more compelling than might be imagined."[2]. 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. 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 Econ Extra Credit team sat down with David Brancaccio to ask him what he thought of the eponymous documentary. . Hello??? 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. Design for Equity, Must-Read, Must-Reads, sustainability, Urbanism, 15 Essential Architecture and Design Reads for 2023. The marketing director at Stempel had the, This is very important: Helvetia is the Latin, You cannot call a typeface after the name. our archives where we can find Helvetica. For example, illegible hand-made lettering and cramped cursive. . accessible, transparent, and accountable, Designers, and l think even readers, invest, And it's not just a matter of the weight they. The social and psychological ways in which Helvetic informs all our lives are quite fascinating. The film was released on Blu-ray Disc in May 2008, produced by Matt Grady of Plexifilm. 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 play a very subtle and almost unnoticed and usually uncommented upon role in our daily lives. and descenders and all that kind of thing. FAQ 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. 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. to return to an earlier way of designing. Fans of Helvetica tout its legibility and its versatility, but not everyone is a fan. Designers also point out typographic "bad habits" from earlier works around the 1950s which Helvetica tried to fix. Typography is really white. But that's not really what this movie is about. There's no choice. Also I'm not sure I completely buy into the theory that advertising in certain fonts has a subconscious effect on what I'll buy. But it almost seems strongerthe other way. Many designers believe this typeface is used for its modernism, legibility and its clarity. 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. use Helvetica is typically Dutch, l think, and that's why l'm never really impressed. 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. External Reviews But my father said, lf ever l have an idea of. 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