In addition to showing at AIGA chapter events and schools of art and design, the that Helvetica is a sort of global monster. And it is so nice that the employer allowed this experiment. Michael Bierut: Everywhere you look you see typefaces. one of the artists of the Stijl movement. 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 to just hold and display and organize, the information. And we expected to walk out of the 2-hour class bored-stiff. 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 New York Subway System for example has all signs designed in Helvetica. A Highly Unusual and Insightful Documentary, Engaging and accessible documentary with good structure and contributors. and it's set in a boring, non-descript way. I'm not entirely sure of anyone except maybe the people involved in making this film or in a related field need 80 minutes worth of information on Helvetica. Or you can say it with the Extra Bold if it's really intensive and passionate, you know, and it might work. 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. Some of his subjects praise the clarity and versatility of Helvetica, while others bristle at how overused it is. And certain things shouldn't be messed with, you know? It's the way they reach us. Helveticahad its World Premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March 2007. The creative processes of some of the worlds most influential product designers shows how the things they make impact our lives. WebHelvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. But it's also: a musing on the history of modern graphic design. l've got to, You know, l wake up and usually l want to, l mean, everybody puts their history into. 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. But that's the type casting its secret spell. It is wonderful also that Helvetica can also be free and fun. Massimo Vignelli: You can say, "I love you," in Helvetica. As many others have already said a documentary film that appears to be about the font Helvetica (or indeed any font) is hardly something that is screaming out to a wide audience or likely to be screening to packed crowds in the American heartlands. The movie is is definitely directed towards graphic designers, and found it very inspiring to go into the graphic "business". Helvetica examines the development and use of one of the worlds most popular typefaces. This is surely the best documentary I have seen. Learning about personal stories and beliefs in relation to design is a kind of magic. Switzerland use the font as its hallmark for example, 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 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. . Hello??? WebHelvetica is a feature-length documentary about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. 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. 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. Massimo Vignelli: There are people that thinks that type should be expressive. But my father said, lf ever l have an idea of. You can't do better design with a computer. or two, and if possible we will use one size. I just did what made sense to me. You've got zany hand lettering everywhere, ''Almost everyone appreciates the best. Fans of Helvetica tout its legibility and its versatility, but not everyone is a fan. DNA is just a couple of letterforms like that. 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. It's just there. Later, other interviewers point out criticisms of Helvetica. trifecta of design-oriented films, the second of which was Objectified. Wim Crouwel: You're always a child of your time, and you cannot step out of that. At that time, I studies typefaces to make sure that my paper looked as good as it could. The Story of Helvetica Or you can say it with the Extra Bold if it's really intensive and passionate, you know, and it might work. 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. He states that a hand-drawn font may be harder to read intentionally to communicate emphasis to the reader. Helvetica was created in the year 1957 and was originally named Neue Haas Grotesk. Massimo Vignelli designed the American Airlines logo in 1966 with Helvetica. Period. Rick Poynor: Type is saying things to us all the time. Coke. Beyond her commentary, however, Helvetica is largely an insiders view of the font. 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. 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. 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 this interesting little documentary we meet a number of people who are passionate about typeface design. With its clean, smooth lines, it reflected a modern look that many designers were seeking. The social and psychological ways in which Helvetic informs all our lives are quite fascinating. It looks at the l tried to use typefaces from van Doesburg. l mean you can't imagine anything moving; it's a letter that lives in a powerful matrix of. 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. People talk about the font, the history, the meaning and the significance of helvetica. l know you got exactly what l was saying. . Undoubtedly. Helveticais a feature-length documentary about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. our archives where we can find Helvetica. At a time when many European countries were recovering from the ravages of war, Helvetica presented a way to express newness and modernity. There's nothing ''extramarital'' about that. in a very elegant way, in a very fast way. 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. 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. The film was released on DVD in November 2007 by Plexifilm. . at the point that you start out in history, without knowing that you're starting out in, and you certainly don't know what's going, l felt like, this was some conspiracy of my, Hey, l got some printouts of the stuff from, because l viewed the big corporations that, What looked cool to me at that point were, Pushpin Studios was the height of, at the, everybody's ambition. 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. Framing the interviews are images of Helvetica from the streets of European and American cities. Is Helvetica the greatest font every designed? 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. lt seems like air, it seems like gravity. and it's just as fresh as it was . Typography is really white. 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. Designers and non-designers will learn quite a lot from this film. The documentary shows the life cycle of this font mostly by the differing opinions of the artists that they interview throughout the movies. 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. 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 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. 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. Compare the logos of American Airlines and American Apparel. I say was because by the end of the film it had become as boring as it originally sounds. The film was released on Blu-ray Disc in May 2008, produced by Matt Grady of Plexifilm. 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. His is the first full-fledged interview, and as we see him sketch letters in pencil and talk about the importance of spacing, it is easy to think that the characters are his own invention. And that is about it. No, absolutely not. They have a different point of view from mine. It features a lot of designers and typographers who have widely diverging viewpoints on the Helvetica font. 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. 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. How much success this font would have continued to have had the computer revolution not occurred is a matter of some debate. Others associate Helvetica with the growth of mass production and lack of personality. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. well, it's like a person, if you are slightly, you're not going to walk around in tight T-, And Helvetica is heavy in the middle. 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. What are you. At about the 45-ish minute mark, those not too into the world of graphic design might start to feel the film is repetitive. It's a documentary about the creation of the Helvetica font, sure. Alfred Hoffmann: [showing book of type samples] Here are the first trials of Neue Haas Grotesk, which was the first name of Helvetica. A documentary about a 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. Helvetica is a documentary that interviews many graphic designers involved in the history or modern usage of the Helvetica typeface. 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. l'm not one of those people who is a real, l don't know all the fancy words for all the. Typefaces express a mood, an atmosphere. 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. 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