Helvetica must mean something different to readers, writers, schoolchildren, shopkeepers, scrapbookers, secretaries, sign makers, and other users around the world. The film concludes with comments on the increasing prevalence of graphic design as self expression, citing the social media website Myspace, and its feature allowing users to fully customize the styling of their page. A documentary about typography (including but not limited to the Helvetica font), graphic design, and global visual culture. 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. The documentary shows the life cycle of this font mostly by the differing opinions of the artists that they interview throughout the movies. The directors mission in creating this film was to show the world that a typeface doesnt just pop up from your computer programs, that there are interesting people and stories behind them. DNA is just a couple of letterforms like that. Helvetica was nominated for the 2008 Independent Spirit's Truer than Fiction Award. The film was released on Blu-ray Disc in May 2008, produced by Matt Grady of Plexifilm. 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. Designers and non-designers will learn quite a lot from this film. Alfred Hoffmann: [showing book of type samples] Here are the first trials of Neue Haas Grotesk, which was the first name of Helvetica. l don't know. lt is a very clear type. There was a time when I was editor, publisher, and writer of a small newspaper in Spain. An excerpt of the film was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Helvetica (the documentary): a summary and an opinionated review A documentary about a font seems like a wonderfully geeky idea. Over the years, a wide range of variants have been released in different weights, widths and sizes, as well as matching designs for a range of non-Latin alphabets. 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. 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. 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. and descenders and all that kind of thing. Directed by Gary Hustvit, the film is the first of a trilogy examining Interviews of famous designers take up a majority of the film, Massimo Vignelli by far being the most compelling. Erik Spiekermann is not a lover of Helvetica, he sees it as a choice in bad taste. 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. 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 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. 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. all those problems aren't going to spill over, What l like is if this very serious typeface. This is an article on the singer Bryan Ferry. A film about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture, Helvetica looks at the proliferation of a single typeface. 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. 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. WebHelvetica documentary feature - 2007 - 80 minutes Helvetica is a feature-length documentary about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. 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. 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. As someone who studies ubiquitous socio 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. Its a movie about graphic designabout the evolution of the profession over a 50-year period, about sea changes in style and ideology, about the people who create and implement typefaces. Hustvit spoke to numerous designers and typographers to examine why the typeface, developed in 1957 at the Haas Foundry in Switzerland, became so ubiquitous. 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. I love the subject matter! oh it's brilliant when it's done well. 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. lt's been around for fifty years, coming up. It's a documentary about the creation of the Helvetica font, sure. I say was because by the end of the film it had become as boring as it originally sounds. What is bad taste ubiquitous? Helvetica is a neo-grotesque or realist design, one influenced by the famous 19th century typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk and other German and Swiss designs. 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. Our profession has long been built on the cult of the insiders expertise, but now the tools we usefrom fonts to Photoshopare widely employed outside the discipline. 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. Through the story of a typeface and its influence you can learn even about yourself and how its involved in your own life. Is it the one of the most influential? just a beautiful big glass of ice-cold Coke. People talk about the font, the history, the meaning and the significance of helvetica. And you can say it with Helvetica Extra Light if you want to be really fancy. And I'm sure our handwriting is miles away from Helvetica or anything that would be considered legible, but we can read it, because there's a rhythm to it, there's a contrast to it. Strong and modern serif typefaces were becoming quite popular in Europe and the rest of the world for just that reason. This is an 80 minute long movie about a font. You know, there it is, and it just seems to. Those are the people, you know, putting their wires into our heads. But that's not really what this movie is about. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will But there's one you probably see more than any other one, and that's Helvetica. What's so important about the empty space? lt's . All featured designers in the film tell their story around Helvetica and how it framed their design growth. All rights reserved. Amazingly, most of us walked out in wonder. Compare the logos of American Airlines and American Apparel. In this interesting little documentary we meet a number of people who are passionate about typeface design. 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. "fonts." 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. User Ratings 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. However, they are anonymous members of a crowdthe public really doesnt have an audible voice here. Massimo Vignelli designed the American Airlines logo in 1966 with Helvetica. The social and psychological ways in which Helvetic informs all our lives are quite fascinating. But that's the type casting its secret spell. Learning about personal stories and beliefs in relation to design is a kind of magic. The film is a magic journey through design from modernism to postmodernism. Any Questions? I get kicks out of looking at type. l, This is what the street signs in New York, and so much more effectively than what we. Once it caught on, the typeface began to be used extensively in signage, in package labeling, in poster art, in advertisingin short, everywhere. 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. | External Reviews 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. Awards lt's very hard to do the more subjective, But if l bring the same group off the street, and say, ''Okay, now let's interpret that, that nobody else could go. Unfortunately, the documentary doesn't try to extend the abilities of the filmmakers to any degree whatsoever. Helvetica was Hustwits directorial debut and the first of a Show more The widespread use of the Helvetica Typoface is so noticeable that it takes an important place in design history. 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. l know you got exactly what l was saying. 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. A feature-length film directed by Gary Hustwit was released in 2007 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the typeface's introduction in 1957. https://www.quotes.net/movies/helvetica_125195, https://www.quotes.net/movies/helvetica_quotes_125195. 2010-2023 Freepik Company S.L. . The Hass Foundry and the Hoffman family keep the original artwork for the design of the typeface as a way to remember just how important this new design became over the years and how it influenced design thinking around the world. 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. to bring two or three layers into the work. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th lt is a modern type. I mean you can't imagine anything moving; it is so firm. 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. 13 minute read. Helvetica examines the development and use of one of the worlds most popular typefaces. that Helvetica is a sort of global monster. It aired in January 2009 as part of the Independent Lens series on PBS in the United States. So he said, why don't you call it Helvetica. Must watch for designer, to add a perspective about helvetica. 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. 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. Rick Poynor: Type is saying things to us all the time. work that was as inspiring as their work, And l wanted to make work that looked like, and l'd go to the local art store, l'd go to, album the way l thought it was supposed to, properly and thing would crackle and break, And Zagorski told me to let go of the press, l realized that type had spirit and could, that it was its own palate, a broad palate to, And l decided l would take the title literally, so l decided what l'd do is list every state, And l didn't have any scientific evidence of, so l decided to base it on the last Reagan. You know, it seems like air? (You know, the one that looks like this .) However, I felt like there wasn't much to this film. 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. The limited (1,500 copies) edition includes Gary Hustwit's autograph. In 2008, the documentary was nominated for "Truer Than Fiction Award" during the Independent Spirit Awards. The subject is at once esoteric and universal. 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. There's nothing ''extramarital'' about that. Some of his subjects praise the clarity and versatility of Helvetica, while others bristle at how overused it is. Erik Spiekermann: I mean, everyone puts their history into their work. It's like going to McDonald's instead of thinking about food. 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. 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. . We were all a little shocked. 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. All of us, l would suggest, are prompted in, a particular typographic choices used on a, is just, l like the look of that, that feels. WebHelvetica is a feature-length documentary about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. 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. The designer has an enormous responsibility. 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. The filmmaker treats the differing opinions fairly. Is Helvetica the greatest font every designed? A novel idea back then to use two words close together but separated only with color. Helvetica: Quick Facts. 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. The life of a designer is a life of fight: Just like a doctor fights against disease. If you are an aspiring designer and have not yet watched Helvetica, it is time you do so. 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. The Story of Helvetica In a million years it would never have occurred to me to do a documentary on a type font. one of the artists of the Stijl movement. 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. It looks at the Helvetica: A Documentary, A History, An Anthropology. Its use became a Underground brings these stories into the light. Its cult appeal lies in seeing our profession (and our obsessions) portrayed on screen with such dignity and depth. 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. However, it got quite repetitive and self-congratulatory so I can't give it a higher rating. 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. Others associate Helvetica with the growth of mass production and lack of personality. lt's. 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. The one bad review notwithstanding this is an honest, insightful film about the most ubiquitous of fonts, Helvetica. 2 Mar. ), Tell Me Something: Documentary Filmmakers. He aptly named the film HELVETICA. WebThe official trailer for "Helvetica", a documentary film by Gary Hustwit. 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. Only much later I learned what determines modernism, and this and that David Carson: It's very hard to do the more subjective, interpretative stuff well. Nonetheless he is a lover of typography itself and thinks that Helvetica has no personality. You can't do better design with a computer. I use several metrics in this. l wouldn't say this if l hadn't tried it. Some designers find Helvetica to be predictable and boring. Helvetica is a neo-grotesque or realist design, one influenced by the famous 19th century typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk and other German and Swiss designs. A documentary about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture. 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. use and the letter spacing and the colors. The film was released on DVD in November 2007 by Plexifilm. What are you talking about?" 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. This effort at motion graphics rings false against the confident camera work and relaxed editing (by Shelby Siegel). Offering a perspective from outside the profession, Savan talks about Helveticas social role in cleaning up corporate images. Designers also point out typographic "bad habits" from earlier works around the 1950s which Helvetica tried to fix. Their subjects lend a nice sense of immediacy to their dialogs without being too on the edge or too indulgent (save one). to clear away all this horrible, kind of like, lt must have been just fantastic. obviously. . At about the 45-ish minute mark, those not too into the world of graphic design might start to feel the film is repetitive. Helvetica screened this week at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX where it was very well-received. 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. Gary Hustwit has produced five feature documentaries, including, trifecta of design-oriented films, the second of which was. 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. David Carson: Don't confuse legibility with communication. 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. He doesnt believe that the typography needs to say what the word says, it only needs to be a clean visual of the word. They didn't know what they were caring for. Fonts are almost like the air we breathe. 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. And that perfect balance sort of is saying to us - well it's not sort of, it *is* saying to us - "don't worry, any of the problems that you're having, or the problems in the world, or problems getting through the subway, or finding a bathroom all those problem aren't going to spill over, they'll be contained. I can't explain it. There's no choice. A diatribe (by some) about a font seen This is surely the best documentary I have seen. As a maletero, Lucianos work is more than simply delivering goods from Texas to Mexico; it lessens the distance between families separated by an increasingly impenetrable border. and it's set in a boring, non-descript way. 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. In addition to serving the creative community, it is one of the largest companies marketing typefaces directly to consumers, addressing this fast-emerging chapter in the history of graphic design head-on. Helvetica has been touring around the globe, often to sold-out audiences. Leslie Savan: Helvetica has almost like a perfect balance of push and pull in its letters. it's like being asked what you think about. Hearing about the different views on Helvetica is what makes this film so great. Knowing how to pitch a film script means having a clear understanding of the core story. It was by far, the most NOT-boring documentary i've ever seen. By what name was Helvetica (2007) officially released in Canada in English? it wasn't intended to be this cool thing, Well, we are less obsessed with 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. But it's also: a musing on the history of modern graphic design. Drink Coke, That is a quality they all want to convey. Helvetia is the Latin name of Switzerland. But it's also: a musing on the history of modern graphic design. Type is saying things to us all the time. This is surely the best documentary I have seen. 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. 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 logo has stayed as the corporate identity since 1966 and has never been changed, as Massimo says why change something that is already perfect. Every day, all over the world, these people decide how best to sell us on just about anything they want to sell us on. Period. Tip #5: Fonzies Favorite Letter. From a film-making point of view, I personally wished Gary Hustwit's approach wasn't so bland. the more you appreciate it when it's terrific. Coke. 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. 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 really does justice to a topic that is so often overlooked. Of Course Not. 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. It not a letter that bent to shape; it's a letter that lives in a powerful matrix of surrounding space. 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. | Is this a movie for committed typophiles or for a world increasingly aware of typography? l've never sort of woken up with a typeface, you know, like some people . 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. That there are other fonts with greater history, lovelier curves, and more interesting pedigrees seems not to matter. Other designers dislike Helvetica on the grounds of ideology. 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. (We think typography is black and white, he says. 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. 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. Michael Bierut: Everywhere you look you see typefaces. l tried to use typefaces from van Doesburg. Helvetica hasn't got *any* of that. 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. Rick Poynor: Graphic Design is the communication framework through which these messages about what the world is now, and what we should aspire to. Erik Spiekermann: It's air, you know. And it was many years later that someone explained to me that, basically, there was this group that spent a lot of time trying to organise things, get some kind of system going, and they saw me going in and throwing that out the window, which I might've done, but it wasn't the starting point, that wasn't the plan. 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.

Difference Between True Color Composite And False Color Composite, Wildland Firefighter Ppe Checklist, How Many Of The Hamner Family Is Alive, Articles H