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. lt is a modern type. 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 use became a Originally named Neue Haas Grotesk (New Haas Grotesque), it was rapidly licensed by Linotype and renamed Helvetica in 1960, being similar to the Latin adjective for Switzerland, Helvetia. going to fit in, you're not going to stand out. 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. I was just experimenting, really. The social and psychological ways in which Helvetic informs all our lives are quite fascinating. Underground brings these stories into the light. In a million years it would never have occurred to me to do a documentary on a type font. Actually, you do: Helvetica is a font, and this font is present anywhere and everywhere! Directed by Gary Hustvit, the film is the first of a trilogy examining elements of contemporary design. It really does justice to a topic that is so often overlooked. 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. It is considered the most widely-spread font in the Western world. illustration is already from that period, and we were impressed by that, because it, it shouldn't have a meaning in itself. 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. you know, it's just there. that Helvetica is a sort of global monster. 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. Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. Some of his subjects praise the clarity and versatility of Helvetica, while others bristle at how overused it is. Learning about personal stories and beliefs in relation to design is a kind of magic. 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 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. 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. Erik Spiekermann: Most people who use Helvetica, use it because it's ubiquitous. What's so important about the empty space? Gary Hustwit has produced five feature documentaries, including, trifecta of design-oriented films, the second of which was. ln the beginning, if you see the sketches. our archives where we can find Helvetica. Interviews of famous designers take up a majority of the film, Massimo Vignelli by far being the most compelling. 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. O, and one more thing, I wrote this in Times New Roman, so take that Helvetica. Michael Bierut: It's The Real Thing. Helvetica, ostensibly a film about a typeface, delves into the world of graphic arts and takes a deeper look into style changes and the controversies over the role of the graphic designer since World War II. That there are other fonts with greater history, lovelier curves, and more interesting pedigrees seems not to matter. 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. 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. In light of that I was interested in this documentary about the most popular typeface designed. Where and how to watch the Helvetica documentary 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. If there is any that deserves the honour, it is definitely Helvetica. So, in other words, this would be "the Swiss typeface". Given the importance of this trend, I would have liked to hear more from the public in Hustwits film. 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. And they agreed. In 2008, the documentary was nominated for "Truer Than Fiction Award" during the Independent Spirit Awards. A visit to favorite graphic designs of years past. their sense that they had something to say. 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. A documentary about a typeface? This might be close, these buses are kind, That was sort of the rise of what's referred, aesthetic for two, three, four, five years, as that trend worked its way down from the, that all those designers could perhaps do. 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. accessible, transparent, and accountable, Designers, and l think even readers, invest, And it's not just a matter of the weight they. Erik Spiekermann: [sighs] Why is bad taste ubiquitous? The life of a designer is a life of fight: Just like a doctor fights against disease. 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. Helvetica screened this week at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX where it was very well-received. But that's not really what this movie is about. Those decisions you make become expressions of who you are.. I use several metrics in this. and it's just as fresh as it was . Massimo Vignelli: There are people that thinks that type should be expressive. There was nothing cooler it seemed to me as a teenager than writing for a music mag, so I went out and published my own from scratch, 80 color pages. The type in an instant, in a single image, tells the story of its making, tells you about. See production, box office & company info. 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. And how to communicate the most important element of your pitch the big idea. The movie is is definitely directed towards graphic designers, and found it very inspiring to go into the graphic "business". Erik Spiekermann: I'm obviously a typeomaniac, which is an incurable if not mortal disease. Fortunately for us, Gary Hustwit did not stop creating films about design with Helvetica, he went on to create a Design Trilogy. For those of us who take interest in such things, of course! 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. 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. Tip #5: Fonzies Favorite Letter. 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. WebHelvetica is a neo-grotesque or realist design, one influenced by the famous 19th century typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk and other German and Swiss designs. 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. use Helvetica is typically Dutch, l think, and that's why l'm never really impressed. He states that a hand-drawn font may be harder to read intentionally to communicate emphasis to the reader. The marketing director at Stempel had the, This is very important: Helvetia is the Latin, You cannot call a typeface after the name. | Those are the people, you know, putting their wires into our heads. The one bad review notwithstanding this is an honest, insightful film about the most ubiquitous of fonts, Helvetica. (Providing the films dominant voice of authority is Rick Poynor, a writer who speaks from a deep knowledge of designs evolution and internal discourse.). 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. WebHelvetica 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. You know, it seems like air? You know, that's called an army. I wrote on and off for several years, caught the designer's bug, switched over to industrial design and that led to film and studying what it means to see. In my case I've never learned all the things I'm not supposed to do. It was subsequently broadcast on networks in 15 other countries. 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. You know, there it is, and it seems to come from no where. Compare the logos of American Airlines and American Apparel. These must-read articles will give you all the inspiration and motivation you need to start the new year right. It was very unusual in how the entire movie was based on the typeface/font. DNA is just a couple of letterforms like that. lt's a font. Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. 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. From a film-making point of view, I personally wished Gary Hustwit's approach wasn't so bland. 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. . Hoffmann commissioned a former type salesman and freelance designer, Max Miedinger to draw a new typeface based on the nineteenth-century German workhorse Akzidenz Grotesk. 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