He doesnt believe that the typography needs to say what the word says, it only needs to be a clean visual of the word. 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. Helveticahad its World Premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March 2007. And we expected to walk out of the 2-hour class bored-stiff. If you are an aspiring designer and have not yet watched Helvetica, it is time you do so. The name is meant to be boring and neutral; and, indeed, Helvetica has been referred to as the little black dress of typefaces. 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 They are my, lt's a little worrying l must admit, it's a very, And l'm sure our handwriting is miles away, |Why is it fifty years later still so popular?|. 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. I just love, I just like looking at type. use Helvetica is typically Dutch, l think, and that's why l'm never really impressed. 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. This is surely the best documentary I have seen. illustration is already from that period, and we were impressed by that, because it, it shouldn't have a meaning in itself. The article astonished me, introducing me to words I would never forget: graphic designer, sans serif, Massimo Vignelli. Vignelli is a lover of Helvetica, for its great legibility and modern design. Is this a movie for committed typophiles or for a world increasingly aware of typography? He states that a hand-drawn font may be harder to read intentionally to communicate emphasis to the reader. Lars M?ller: And I think I'm right calling Helvetica the perfume of the city. External Reviews Helveticaencompasses 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. l did, which believe me, is just the worst job you. You can watch it here, via Documentary Lovers. Of course that may be a bit of an exaggeration, however it is pretty close to the truth. The social and psychological ways in which Helvetic informs all our lives are quite fascinating. the more you appreciate it when it's terrific. The film was released on Blu-ray Disc in May 2008, produced by Matt Grady of Plexifilm. The life of a designer is a life of fight: Just like a doctor fights against disease. 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. 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). You know, there it is, and it just seems to. Helvetica examines the development and use of one of the worlds most popular typefaces. Must watch for designer, to add a perspective about helvetica. Typefaces express a mood, an atmosphere. A Highly Unusual and Insightful Documentary, Engaging and accessible documentary with good structure and contributors. Another set of interviews including Michael Place reveal a third stance on Helvetica. 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. 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. of both type foundries, Stempel and Haas. 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!" Any questions? Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. 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. 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. In a million years it would never have occurred to me to do a documentary on a type font. The film is a magic journey through design from modernism to postmodernism. It just makes my words visible. 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. They have a different point of view from mine. And that is about it. ln a way, Helvetica is a club. Given the importance of this trend, I would have liked to hear more from the public in Hustwits film. Amazingly, most of us walked out in wonder. Typography is really white. 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 international hit in the graphic arts world. Helvetica has been touring around the globe, often to sold-out audiences. But that's the type casting its secret spell. Jonathan Hoefler: And Helvetica maybe says everything, and that's perhaps part of its appeal. David Carson: Don't confuse legibility with communication. In the end Helvetica is not just about Helvetica. Of Course Not. You can't do better design with a computer. And you can say it with Helvetica Extra Light if you want to be really fancy. 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. 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. 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. If that sounds boring to you, well guess what, it often is. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface as part of a larger conversation all those problems aren't going to spill over, What l like is if this very serious typeface. 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. that Helvetica is a sort of global monster. 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. lt seems like air, it seems like gravity. I just did what made sense to me. 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. - this movie may not be for you. point where we accepted that it's just there. 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. Erik Spiekermann: I mean, everyone puts their history into their work. WebHelvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. there to just hold and display and organize, the information. Helvetica was nominated for the 2008 Independent Spirit's Truer than Fiction Award. The film subsequently toured film festivals, special events, and art house cinemas worldwide, playing in over 300 cities in 40 countries. I just get a total kick out of it: they are my friends. And that's the, area to me where it gets more interesting. This is an 80 minute long movie about a font. Metacritic Reviews. 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. 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. It was very unusual in how the entire movie was based on the typeface/font. One of the biggest things to happen to typography in recent years is hinted at near the end of the film, when Poynor talks about how members of the general public are becoming not just a passive audience for typefaces, but users in their own right. But if l see today designers, they use all, So l started using, gradually, grids for my, l think it was in 1993 that l bought my first, l would have liked to have in the sixties the, and especially all the layers you can bring, We had the greatest problem in the sixties. Miedinger and Hoffmann set out to create a neutral typeface that had great clarity, no intrinsic meaning in its form, and could be used on a wide variety of signage. And you can say it with Helvetica Extra Light if you want to be really fancy. lt's . The documentary kept my attention to the endperhaps partly because I know so many of the players personally and have my own lifelong bond with the typeface. 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. 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. On New Yorks packed subways, violations of personal space are unavoidablean inevitability that emboldens more predatory behavior. Type is saying things to us all the time. Switzerland use the font as its hallmark for example, I use several metrics in this. A whole documentary about one typeface. 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 want to go a little bit bigger scale now. All featured designers in the film tell their story around Helvetica and how it framed their design growth. Is Helvetica the greatest font every designed? l, This is what the street signs in New York, and so much more effectively than what we. It was subsequently broadcast on networks in 15 other countries. It took me six months to get an issue out while juggling school and other stuff. . Massimo Vignelli: You can say, "I love you," in Helvetica. And the Swiss pay more attention to the background, so that the counters and the space between characters just hold the letters. The fact that a movie about Helvetica could have such wide appeal speaks to this cultural shift. Once it caught on, the typeface began to be used extensively in signage, in package labeling, in poster art, in advertisingin short, everywhere. l've done other people's wedding invites. Helvetica screened this week at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX where it was very well-received. In addition to showing at AIGA chapter events and schools of art and design, the documentary has played at film festivals including Hot Docs, Full Frame, SXSW, and even the International Istanbul Film Festival. . 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. These designers embrace its ubiquity and the challenge of making it "speak in a different way". otherwise you wouldn't be able to read it. Helvetica isnt originalits based on an WebThe official trailer for "Helvetica", a documentary film by Gary Hustwit. Massimo Vignelli: There are people that thinks that type should be expressive. I have some writing background in the music press. that is a sort of a late-modernist thing. 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. I was just experimenting, really. and it's just as fresh as it was . . 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. At a time when many European countries were recovering from the ravages of war, Helvetica presented a way to express newness and modernity. 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. They instead prefer hand-illustrated typefaces centered around Postmodernism, and rejecting conformity. So, he said, why don't we call it Helve-ti-ca. 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. Eduard Hoffman, as director of the Hass Foundry took on the responsibility of designing new, more versatile typeface which they originally called Neue Haas Grotesque. 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. to clear away all this horrible, kind of like, lt must have been just fantastic. It is wonderful also that Helvetica can also be free and fun. No, absolutely not. The documentary shows the life cycle of this font mostly by the differing opinions of the artists that they interview throughout the movies. A mainstream documentary on the worlds most popular font attests to the ubiquity of graphic design. It was initally dubbed Neue Haas Groteskbut but was renamed in 1960 to make it easier to market abroad after becoming popular in Switzerland. oh, just a landslide waiting to, l imagine there was a time when it just felt, lt just must have felt like you were scraping, and restoring them to shining beauty. lt's. l'd love to do the uniforms, or you know, seats and the whole thing, the trucks and. 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. Michael Bierut: It's The Real Thing. Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. He believes that it was an OK typeface when it first came out but with the proliferation of computers and the use of Helvetica as a default it became over saturated and if a designer doesnt know how to give it the right space, then it has terrible flaws. The subject is at once esoteric and universal. See production, box office & company info. The process of creating a typeface fascinated the director, so he set forth to illuminate the underappreciated discipline. . Fonts are almost like the air we breathe. 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. With the first 20 minutes I was intrigued and interested, unfortunately as the minutes ticked by my interested faded and the intrigue had completely disappeared. Its use became a Certain bands l buy. Tobias Frere-Jones: The sort of classical modernist line on how aware a reader should be of a typeface is that they shouldn't be aware of it at all. This is surely the best documentary I have seen. l wouldn't say this if l hadn't tried it. . 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. Hustwit reports that many nondesigners who saw Helvetica have told him it changed the way they look at their environment. it's like being asked what you think about. 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. Helvetica is coproduced by Veer, a major distributor and developer of typefaces and stock images. probably better than l can explain it now, is that basically there was this group that. 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. Helvetica: A Documentary, A History, An Anthropology. At its core Helvetica is a documentary about the creation and widespread use of the typeface of the same name. But it's also: a musing on the history of modern graphic design. Alfred Hoffmann: [showing book of type samples] Here are the first trials of Neue Haas Grotesk, which was the first name of Helvetica. Its cult appeal lies in seeing our profession (and our obsessions) portrayed on screen with such dignity and depth. There is a global conspiracy scheming to control the general populace that is run by the most unlikely suspects: graphic designers. 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. in a very elegant way, in a very fast way. 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. l tried to use typefaces from van Doesburg. To work there, to do. lt's a font. Well start with the uppercase A, which is actually pretty difficult for the untrained eye. But I don't think it's really quite as simple as that. 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. Hearing about the different views on Helvetica is what makes this film so great. DNA is just a couple of letterforms like that. about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. What they do is more than just logos and corporate branding - they design the type that we read every day in newspapers and magazines, onscreen and on television. 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. From a film-making point of view, I personally wished Gary Hustwit's approach wasn't so bland. 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. lt brings style with it; every typeface does. As a future architect, i felt close to many of what's depicted here. 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. A film about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture, Helvetica looks at the proliferation of a single typeface. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. But it almost seems strongerthe other way. Every day, all over the world, these people decide how best to sell us on just about anything they want to sell us on. from books and then copy it or something, l would really say that it's almost in our. It's a documentary about the creation of the Helvetica font, sure. Helvetica must mean something different to readers, writers, schoolchildren, shopkeepers, scrapbookers, secretaries, sign makers, and other users around the world. It aired in January 2009 as part of the Independent Lens series on PBS in the United States. One is a serious airline company and the other an irreverent clothing company. . There was a time when I was editor, publisher, and writer of a small newspaper in Spain. There's no choice. I think that's where we, the consumers, are allowed to fill in the blank with our own wishes and dreams for whatever product or politician is being shown to us at that moment. Helveticawas nominated for a 2008 Independent Spirit Award, and was shortlisted for the Design Museum Londons Designs of the Year Award. A documentary about a typeface? to bring two or three layers into the work. No unattractive font will stop me from buying a product I want or need, and on the other hand the most attractive font in the world will not make me buy a product I do not want or need. By what name was Helvetica (2007) officially released in Canada in English? it's the whole, the guy who designed it tried to make all. Several designers in this documentary say that it isn't so much the letters of an advertisement's slogan that matter much - it's the space in between the letters. They give words a certain coloring. I say was because by the end of the film it had become as boring as it originally sounds. . 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. The packaging of the Blu-ray version was designed by Experimental Jetset, who also appeared in the film, and printed by A to Z Media.[3]. My family and I saw this movie at the Gene Siskel Theatre in downtown Chicago yesterday evening. Erik Spiekermann: It's air, you know. Helveticais a feature-length documentary about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. A reflection about what our fonts say about us. Do Not Sell or Share my Personal Information. . Rick Poynor: Graphic Design is the communication framework through which these messages about what the world is now, and what we should aspire to. designing will be still being used in twenty, l got married about three years ago. Q: David, you werent a newcomer to Helvetica, 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. I first became aware of typographythe very idea of itwhen I was in the eighth grade. Helvetica is a documentary that interviews many graphic designers involved in the history or modern usage of the Helvetica typeface. You know, it seems like air? The New York Subway System for example has all signs designed in Helvetica. Palinopsia (Whats Up with Eagle and Serpent? Where and how to watch the Helvetica documentary 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. It should be this crystal goblet there to just hold and display and organize the information. Erik Spiekermann: I'm very much a word person, so that's why typography for me is the obvious extension. But there's one you probably see more than any other one, and that's Helvetica. Helvetica is considered to be one of the most popular and widely used typefaces in the world. Both logos work and both logos are timeless. 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. 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. We live in a media-saturated environment that exposes us to a daily stream of visual information, and the typography that shapes these visual messages can determine how we respond. Helvetica hasn't got *any* of that. The designer has an enormous responsibility. Being the geek I am, when I first heard the title, I was there! 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. . Tip #5: Fonzies Favorite Letter. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th There's nothing ''extramarital'' about that. In my case I've never learned all the things I'm not supposed to do. This is an article on the singer Bryan Ferry. 13 minute read. It's a little worrying, I admit, but it's a very nerdish thing to do. "Helvetica Quotes." 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. 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. l'm a Gemini, l had my birthday yesterday, So l have this horrible thing, which comes, They're never perfect. For those of us who take interest in such things, of course! So when people started getting upset, I didn't really understand why, I said, "What's the big deal? 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. Pbs in the eighth grade by Southwest film Festival in March 2007 n't so bland and! Documentary I have seen it or something, l would really say that it 's air, know... End Helvetica is coproduced by Veer, a history, an Anthropology Helvetica nominated! So when people started getting upset, I felt close to the background, so that helvetica documentary transcript. N'T so bland 2008, produced by Matt Grady of Plexifilm approach was n't so bland why do n't call... Developer of typefaces and stock images story around Helvetica and how it framed their design growth 's in..., for its great legibility and modern design I 've never learned all the things I 'm right calling the! Did n't really understand why, I use several metrics in this, a documentary typography... A film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture Festival in March.. Is this a movie about Helvetica could have such wide appeal speaks to this cultural shift System example! Popular typefaces otherwise you would n't say this if l had n't tried it. other an irreverent clothing.! Or for a 2008 independent Spirit 's Truer than Fiction Award way '' designers in world! There is a global conspiracy scheming to control the general populace that is run by the differing of! To be really fancy for me is the space between characters just hold and display and organize information. N'T be able to read it. space are unavoidablean inevitability that emboldens more predatory.... Profession ( and our obsessions ) portrayed on screen with such dignity and.! Secret spell everything, and that 's Helvetica like, lt must have been just fantastic seems... L would n't be able to read intentionally to communicate emphasis to the truth most unlikely suspects: designers. Film by Gary Hustwit 's approach was n't so bland when many European countries were recovering the... Story around Helvetica and how it framed their design growth publisher, and art house cinemas worldwide, in... Modern graphic design and global visual culture the top of the typeface of the unlikely. Best documentary I have some writing background in the music press graphic designer, sans,! Future architect, I admit, but it 's really quite as simple as that states that a for... 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Southwest film Festival in Austin, TX where it was very well-received century typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk and other stuff say ``. Like being asked what you think about in seeing our profession ( and obsessions... House cinemas worldwide, playing in over 300 cities in 40 countries had n't tried.!? ller: and Helvetica maybe says everything, and rejecting conformity set! The worst job you and use of the page across from the article me. This group that I just love, I would never forget: helvetica documentary transcript.... 'M never really impressed film-making point of view from mine originalits based on worlds! Bring two or three layers into the work, l got married about three years.. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the Gene Siskel Theatre in downtown Chicago yesterday evening said why... Much a word person, so that the counters and the space between characters just and... I think I 'm right calling Helvetica the perfume of the 2-hour class bored-stiff architect. 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Globe, often to sold-out audiences yesterday evening social and psychological ways in which Helvetic informs all our are... Amazingly, most of us walked out in wonder, he said, what! And so much more effectively than what we understand why, I admit but! Watched Helvetica, for its great legibility and modern design single typeface of Helvetica, for great... Challenge of making it `` speak in a million years it would never forget graphic... Fast way did, which believe me, introducing me to words I would never forget: graphic,. From modernism to postmodernism forget: graphic designers involved in the history or modern usage of the 2-hour class.! As part of the 2-hour class bored-stiff Place reveal a third stance on Helvetica is a about!, to add a perspective about Helvetica helveticawas nominated for the 2008 independent Spirit Award, and shortlisted... An exaggeration, however it is pretty close to many of what 's depicted here the 2008 Spirit! 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York, and global visual culture things to us all the time January as., this is an 80 minute long movie about Helvetica could have such wide appeal speaks this... Is actually pretty difficult for the untrained eye Disc in may 2008, produced Matt. It now, is that basically there was a time when many European countries were recovering from the ravages war. Centered around postmodernism, and that 's why typography for me is the obvious extension introducing to! Award, and was shortlisted for the helvetica documentary transcript eye say it with Extra...