l just more, sort of, react to certain things. The film subsequently toured film festivals, special events, and art house cinemas worldwide, playing in over 300 cities in 40 countries. It asks easy answers and delivers easy homilies, much like its subject matter safe and accepted and common. 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. Helvetica is one of the most common sans-serif typefaces, and it is used in logos for companies from Jeep to Tupperware. In a million years it would never have occurred to me to do a documentary on a type font. 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. WebHelvetica is a neo-grotesque or realist design, one influenced by the famous 19th century typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk and other German and Swiss designs. dealing with mother in laws is just horrific. There's nothing ''extramarital'' about that. Helvetica is a typeface that originates from Switzerland. I eventually got round to watching Objectified which is a similar documentary about design and, without realising that the two films were from the same director, it motivated me to get on and watch Helvetica. 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. Of course that may be a bit of an exaggeration, however it is pretty close to the truth. It features a lot of designers and typographers who have widely diverging viewpoints on the Helvetica font. Jonathan Hoefler: And it's hard to evaluate it. to bring two or three layers into the work. l lived in that period. So, in other words, this would be "the Swiss typeface". Helvetica was Hustwits directorial debut and the first of a Show more (We think typography is black and white, he says. 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 documentary shows the life cycle of this font mostly by the differing opinions of the artists that they interview throughout the movies. They give words a certain coloring. 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. The maker wanted to so something new, something different. The Helvetica font was developed by Max Miedinger with Edard Hoffmann in 1957 for the Haas Type Foundry in Mnchenstein, Switzerland and quickly became an 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. Erik Spiekermann: I'm obviously a typeomaniac, which is an incurable if not mortal disease. After Helvetica comes Objectified about Industrial Design and then Urbanized about architecture and urban design. So, he said, why don't we call it Helve-ti-ca. 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. For us, the visual disease is what we have, A good typographer always has sensitivity, Typography is really white, it's not even, it's not the notes, it's the space you put, and the novelty at the time was the fact of, lt's the only airline in the last forty years, changing American Airlines is still the, l can write the word 'dog' with any typeface, But there are people that think when they, What Helvetica is: it's a typeface that was. All featured designers in the film tell their story around Helvetica and how it framed their design growth. going to fit in, you're not going to stand out. our archives where we can find Helvetica. Helveticahad its World Premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March 2007. A diatribe (by some) about a font seen Helvetica, do you know? I found it utterly engaging. | As a future architect, i felt close to many of what's depicted here. l've never sort of woken up with a typeface, you know, like some people . There was a time when I was editor, publisher, and writer of a small newspaper in Spain. l want to go a little bit bigger scale now. And we expected to walk out of the 2-hour class bored-stiff. l know you got exactly what l was saying. We finally arrive at a bank of files containing precise drawings of the letterforms (Helvetica is in binder 24). l suppose you could say the typefaces are, those that are fully open to interpretation, or merely have one association attached to, A typeface made of icicles or candy canes, Typography has this real poverty of terms, Beyond x height and cap height and weight, l find when Tobias and l work on projects, we tend to use a lot of qualitative terms, Working on the typeface for Esquire years, lt needs to have that orange plastic Olivetti. Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. 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. Michael Bierut: It's The Real Thing. it's the whole, the guy who designed it tried to make all. 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. DNA is just a couple of letterforms like that. Massimo Vignelli: There are people that thinks that type should be expressive. 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. 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 l'm a Gemini, l had my birthday yesterday, So l have this horrible thing, which comes, They're never perfect. Type is saying things to us all the time. Interviewees in Helvetica include some of the most illustrious and innovative names in the design world, such as Erik Spiekermann, Matthew Carter, Massimo Vignelli, Wim Crouwel, Hermann Zapf, Neville Brody, Michael Bierut, Paula Scher, Tobias Frere-Jones, Bruno Steinert, Leslie Savan, Rick Poynor, and Lars Mller. 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. | Hustwit on his inspiration for the film: "When I started this project, I couldn't believe that a film like this didn't exist already, because these people are gods and goddesses. 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. Elegantly shot by Luke Geissbuhler, the film presents interviews with prominent designers spanning three generations, from old-guard heroes Vignelli, Matthew Carter, and Wim Crouwel, to mid-career pros Michael Bierut and David Carson, and young hipsters Danny van den Dungen (from Experimental Jetset) and Michael C. Place (formerly with the Designers Republic). 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. lt's a mark of, it's a badge that says we're part of modern, Helvetica has almost like a perfect balance, and that perfect balance sort of is saying to, or problems getting through the subway or. Erik Spiekermann: I mean, everyone puts their history into their work. 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. Wherever you look, if you are aware of it or not, you are reading words in Helvetica. So l get obsessed about things, l collect, you know, l've got so many bits and scraps. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. But that's the type casting its secret spell. one of the artists of the Stijl movement. Helvetica is a documentary that interviews many graphic designers involved in the history or modern usage of the Helvetica typeface. My father said, that's impossible, you cannot call a typeface after a name of a country. Now owned by Linotype, Helvetica is licensed ubiquitously around the world. Q: David, you werent a newcomer to Helvetica, 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 is the space between the blacks that really makes it.) Later we learn about Helveticas birth in 1957 as the brainchild of Eduard Hoffmann, director of the Haas Type Foundry, in Mnchenstein, Switzerland. (Providing the films dominant voice of authority is Rick Poynor, a writer who speaks from a deep knowledge of designs evolution and internal discourse.). From a film-making point of view, I personally wished Gary Hustwit's approach wasn't so bland. As someone who studies ubiquitous socio Helvetica was nominated for the 2008 Independent Spirit's Truer than Fiction Award. And you can say it with Helvetica Extra Light if you want to be really fancy. So when people started getting upset, I didn't really understand why, I said, "What's the big deal? The life of a designer is a life of fight: Just like a doctor fights against disease. 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. Directed by Gary Hustvit, the film is the first of a trilogy examining 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. Through the story of a typeface and its influence you can learn even about yourself and how its involved in your own life. Of Course Not. otherwise you wouldn't be able to read it. Another set of interviews including Michael Place reveal a third stance on Helvetica. . Both logos work and both logos are timeless. Because it's there, it's on every street corner, so let's eat crap because it's on the corner. Michael C. Place: For me Helvetica is just this beautiful, timeless thing. that design is part of that need to rebuild, And it's Swiss designers in the 1950s who. Palinopsia (Whats Up with Eagle and Serpent? In addition to showing at AIGA chapter events and schools of art and design, the But that's not really what this movie is about. 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. The widespread use of the Helvetica Typoface is so noticeable that it takes an important place in design history. 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. However, it got quite repetitive and self-congratulatory so I can't give it a higher rating. A documentary about a typeface? Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. Or you just get this real whooo, kind of like, One of the things l've always really wanted. ln my case l never learned all the things l, l'd say, ''What's the big deal? He aptly named the film HELVETICA. Later, other interviewers point out criticisms of Helvetica. It was subsequently broadcast on networks in 15 other countries. Helvetica is a documentary that interviews many graphic designers involved in the history or modern usage of the Helvetica typeface. and descenders and all that kind of thing. Jonathan Hoefler: And Helvetica maybe says everything, and that's perhaps part of its appeal. It took me six months to get an issue out while juggling school and other stuff. And you can say it with Helvetica Extra Light if you want to be really fancy. This is surely the best documentary I have seen. 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. It looks at the This is an article on the singer Bryan Ferry. you know, it's just there. that Helvetica is a sort of global monster. . They instead prefer hand-illustrated typefaces centered around Postmodernism, and rejecting conformity. 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. Of course not. 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. It wasn't just a film about a font. 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. 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. One is a serious airline company and the other an irreverent clothing company. interesting body of work over a lifetime? The average person would think it was very boring, but in fact, it was very fun and informative. So, we have design, here shown through type fonts as an answer to a need, as the representation of a certain moment in time, or as the icon for certain political/life postures. And they agreed. The filmmaker treats the differing opinions fairly. An excerpt of the film was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Helveticawas nominated for a 2008 Independent Spirit Award, and was shortlisted for the Design Museum Londons Designs of the Year Award. 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