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. Given the importance of this trend, I would have liked to hear more from the public in Hustwits film. 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. You have to breathe, so you have to use Helvetica. 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 fascinating tale of design and it's implications. Alfred Hoffmann: Stemple suggested the name of Helvetia, this is very important. 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. Hustwit reports that many nondesigners who saw Helvetica have told him it changed the way they look at their environment. l want to go a little bit bigger scale now. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. Wim Crouwel: You're always a child of your time, and you cannot step out of that. 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. obviously. WebHelvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. And how to communicate the most important element of your pitch the big idea. On New Yorks packed subways, violations of personal space are unavoidablean inevitability that emboldens more predatory behavior. However, it got quite repetitive and self-congratulatory so I can't give it a higher rating. Massimo Vignelli: You can say, "I love you," in Helvetica. What is bad taste ubiquitous? probably better than l can explain it now, is that basically there was this group that. 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. This is surely the best documentary I have seen. It wasn't just a film about a font. It's oh, it's brilliant when it's done well. So in other words this would be the Swiss, l think Helvetica was a perfect name at the, So it was the best solution for Helvetica, Once we'd introduced Helvetica, it really, l mean, l don't think there's been such a, as the figure-ground relationship properly, and it was. Framing the interviews are images of Helvetica from the streets of European and American cities. Hello??? There's no choice. 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. 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. 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. Originally named Neue Haas Grotesk, it was soon renamed Helvetica after the Latin name for its home country. Palinopsia (Whats Up with Eagle and Serpent? Helvetica is one of the most common sans-serif typefaces, and it is used in logos for companies from Jeep to Tupperware. there to just hold and display and organize, the information. It is wonderful also that Helvetica can also be free and fun. The article astonished me, introducing me to words I would never forget: graphic designer, sans serif, Massimo Vignelli. and descenders and all that kind of thing. 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. Q: David, you werent a newcomer to Helvetica, I kept wondering as I watched how the film would speak to nondesigners. The film subsequently toured film festivals, special events, and art house cinemas worldwide, playing in over 300 cities in 40 countries. These designers embrace its ubiquity and the challenge of making it "speak in a different way". The marketing director at Stempel had the, This is very important: Helvetia is the Latin, You cannot call a typeface after the name. Underground brings these stories into the light. Show less. Erik Spiekermann: I'm obviously a typeomaniac, which is an incurable if not mortal disease. WebHelvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. 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. Hello??? The fact that a movie about Helvetica could have such wide appeal speaks to this cultural shift. For those of us who take interest in such things, of course! Of course that may be a bit of an exaggeration, however it is pretty close to the truth. The limited (1,500 copies) edition includes Gary Hustwit's autograph. A documentary about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture. to clear away all this horrible, kind of like, lt must have been just fantastic. Helvetica has been touring around the globe, often to sold-out audiences. But it almost seems strongerthe other way. My father said, that's impossible, you cannot call a typeface after a name of a country. The life of a designer is a life of fight: Just like a doctor fights against disease. 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. l wouldn't say this if l hadn't tried it. Contact us and we will be happy to assist you. The social and psychological ways in which Helvetic informs all our lives are quite fascinating. WebSur des documents fantaisistes tels que des invitations, l'utilisation d'une police de caractres script peut tre spectaculaire, mais sur des livres pour enfants, elle peut donner l'impression de ne pas tre la hauteur, et en cas de texte trop important, elle It's a documentary about the creation of the Helvetica font, sure. Certain bands l buy. 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. I just get a total kick out of it: they are my friends. 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. WebHelvetica documentary feature - 2007 - 80 minutes Helvetica is a feature-length documentary about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. 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. 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. lt brings style with it; every typeface does. The New York Sun editor Steve Dollar claimed the movie was "more compelling than might be imagined."[2]. beautiful out of something very ordinary. 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. You know, it seems like air? WebHelvetica (2007) - full transcript. 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. It really does justice to a topic that is so often overlooked. 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. 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. This movie is brilliant. our archives where we can find Helvetica. Drink Coke, That is a quality they all want to convey. trifecta of design-oriented films, the second of which was Objectified. 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. He aptly named the film HELVETICA. 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. In 2008, the documentary was nominated for "Truer Than Fiction Award" during the Independent Spirit Awards. This is surely the best documentary I have seen. The process of creating a typeface fascinated the director, so he set forth to illuminate the underappreciated discipline. Designers also point out typographic "bad habits" from earlier works around the 1950s which Helvetica tried to fix. 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. 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. Helvetica is a neo-grotesque or realist design, one influenced by the famous 19th century typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk and other German and Swiss designs. 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. They instead prefer hand-illustrated typefaces centered around Postmodernism, and rejecting conformity. Period. 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. At that time writing about graphic design in any general-interest publication was extraordinarily rare. Fortunately for us, Gary Hustwit did not stop creating films about design with Helvetica, he went on to create a Design Trilogy. 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. 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. I can't explain it. 13 minute read. 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, do you know? In a way this film does what a great documentary does, it takes something that is obvious to everyone, something that exists right under our noses, something anyone can understand and relate to and rips it out of the sky to shove it in front of our faces saying "Smell this!" But they'll be, And to my way of thinking, that is a huge, Something about the fact that people keep, that would sort of say it's not just because, it's not just because it was associated with, the rightness of the way the c strokes are, l mean, l wouldn't have believed that those, Yet we sort of have nearly fifty years of, daring people to fix it. Once it caught on, the typeface began to be used extensively in signage, in package labeling, in poster art, in advertisingin short, everywhere. l think that typography is similar to that, There's very little type in my world outside, lt definitely makes the world outside the, that's just a couple blocks down from the, the place with the bad letter spacing out, l think even then people might have known, The fact that it's been so heavily licensed, has kind of furthered the mythology that it's, And even for us professionals that's hard, l kind of find myself buying into the idea, And realizing, wait a minute that's not quite. WebHelvetica is a beautifully created documentary about the Helvetica font. 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. 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. Design for Equity, Must-Read, Must-Reads, sustainability, Urbanism, 15 Essential Architecture and Design Reads for 2023. l lived in that period. Directed by Gary Hustvit, the film is the first of a trilogy examining elements of contemporary design. Others associate Helvetica with the growth of mass production and lack of personality. or aesthetically or culturally or politically. about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. But that's the type casting its secret spell. Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will And that's the, area to me where it gets more interesting. You can watch it here, via Documentary Lovers. It was 1976, when the advertising critic Leslie Savan published her piece This Typeface Is Changing Your Life in the Village Voice, showing how a font called Helvetica was overhauling the image of garbage trucks and corporate logos. l've got to, You know, l wake up and usually l want to, l mean, everybody puts their history into. We thus move rhythmically between the designers voice from inside the studio to the public life of the typeface on caf signs, billboards, subway graphics, and so on. As a future architect, i felt close to many of what's depicted here. Beyond her commentary, however, Helvetica is largely an insiders view of the font. Awards 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. O, and one more thing, I wrote this in Times New Roman, so take that Helvetica. In a million years it would never have occurred to me to do a documentary on a type font. What are you. Below is an edited transcript of an interview by James Pallister with director Gary Hustwit at the Boundary Hotel, Shoreditch on the 17 April, the afternoon after the Nonetheless he is a lover of typography itself and thinks that Helvetica has no personality. I found it utterly engaging. Jonathan Hoefler: And it's hard to evaluate it. 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. Must watch for designer, to add a perspective about helvetica. Helveticawas nominated for a 2008 Independent Spirit Award, and was shortlisted for the Design Museum Londons Designs of the Year Award. Helvetia is the Latin name of Switzerland. 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. than any other one, and that's Helvetica. lt's been around for fifty years, coming up. Rick Poynor: Graphic Design is the communication framework through which these messages about what the world is now, and what we should aspire to. ), Tell Me Something: Documentary Filmmakers. 2023. Type is saying things to us all the time. to bring two or three layers into the work. 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. Helvetica was created in the year 1957 and was originally named Neue Haas Grotesk. 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. Both logos work and both logos are timeless. Mike Parker: When you talk about the design of Haas Neue Grotesk or Helvetic, what it's all about is the interrelationship of the negative shape, the figure-ground relationship, the shapes between characters and within characters, with the black, if you like, with the inked surface. 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. Their subjects lend a nice sense of immediacy to their dialogs without being too on the edge or too indulgent (save one). Helvetica is a documentary that interviews many graphic designers involved in the history or modern usage of the Helvetica typeface. Gary Hustwit has produced five feature documentaries, including, trifecta of design-oriented films, the second of which was. It is just something we don't notice usually but we would miss very much if it wouldn't be there. 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. It not a letter that bent to shape; it's a letter that lives in a powerful matrix of surrounding space. l've never sort of woken up with a typeface, you know, like some people . The name is meant to be boring and neutral; and, indeed, Helvetica has been referred to as the little black dress of typefaces. 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. and it's just as fresh as it was . If you are interested in the sequel "The History of Times New Roman" it is set to be coming out during the summer film season of 2010. 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. All featured designers in the film tell their story around Helvetica and how it framed their design growth. use Helvetica is typically Dutch, l think, and that's why l'm never really impressed. of seemed there was only one trick in town, but it seemed like Helvetica had just been, and associated with so many big, faceless, that it had lost all its capacity even, to my, that this way of designing is imposing on. 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. Typefaces express a mood, an atmosphere. 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. There's nothing ''extramarital'' about that. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. '', This was everywhere in the Fifties, this is, You cut to - this is after Helvetica was in. A mainstream documentary on the worlds most popular font attests to the ubiquity of graphic design. l see stuff and to me, if it makes me go. Later, other interviewers point out criticisms of Helvetica. lt's . l don't know. you know, it's just there. Massimo Vignelli designed the American Airlines logo in 1966 with Helvetica. 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. Typefaces express a mood, an atmosphere. There's no choice. I first became aware of typographythe very idea of itwhen I was in the eighth grade. Of course not. in a very elegant way, in a very fast way. Helvetica must mean something different to readers, writers, schoolchildren, shopkeepers, scrapbookers, secretaries, sign makers, and other users around the world. Typography is really white. It just makes my words visible. And in turn Stempel was also controlled by. DNA is just a couple of letterforms like that. Inclusion of the font in home computer systems, such as the Apple Macintosh in 1984, only further cemented its ubiquity. They didn't know what they were caring for. An excerpt of the film was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. This typeface can be seen all over the world. Lars M?ller: And I think I'm right calling Helvetica the perfume of the city. Or you can say it with the Extra Bold if it's really intensive and passionate, you know, and it might work. What's so important about the empty space? Because all the letters . 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 slogan underneath: lt's the Real Thing. In addition to showing at AIGA chapter events and schools of art and design, the 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. It's just there. It's the way they reach us. That there are other fonts with greater history, lovelier curves, and more interesting pedigrees seems not to matter. Metacritic Reviews. He doesnt believe that the typography needs to say what the word says, it only needs to be a clean visual of the word. It's a documentary about the creation of the Helvetica font, sure. 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. Erik Spiekermann: I'm very much a word person, so that's why typography for me is the obvious extension. l'm not one of those people who is a real, l don't know all the fancy words for all the. Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. 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. Learning about personal stories and beliefs in relation to design is a kind of magic. Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. All rights reserved. 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 in fact, maybe they don't exist.". 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. Michael C. Place: For me Helvetica is just this beautiful, timeless thing. lt's. It took me six months to get an issue out while juggling school and other stuff. Helvetica: Quick Facts. 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. It seems like gravity? A reflection about what our fonts say about us. Another set of interviews including Michael Place reveal a third stance on 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.

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