You know, that's called an army. (You know, the one that looks like this .) It's just it's just there. I just did what made sense to me. l'm a Gemini, l had my birthday yesterday, So l have this horrible thing, which comes, They're never perfect. Copyright 2023 Independent Television Service, Inc. Well send you funding deadlines, events, and film news. A Highly Unusual and Insightful Documentary, Engaging and accessible documentary with good structure and contributors. Helvetica: A Documentary, A History, An Anthropology. Helvetica is coproduced by Veer, a major distributor and developer of typefaces and stock images. David Carson: Don't confuse legibility with communication. 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. Type is saying things to us all the time. I found it utterly engaging. 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. But it's also: a musing on the history of modern graphic design. Is Helvetica the greatest font every designed? And you can say it with Helvetica Extra Light if you want to be really fancy. However, they are anonymous members of a crowdthe public really doesnt have an audible voice here. 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. Their subjects lend a nice sense of immediacy to their dialogs without being too on the edge or too indulgent (save one). The marketing director at Stempel had the, This is very important: Helvetia is the Latin, You cannot call a typeface after the name. They give words a certain coloring. 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. Helvetica was Hustwits directorial debut and the first of a Show more Where and how to watch the Helvetica documentary Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. WebHelvetica (2007) - full transcript. And it is so nice that the employer allowed this experiment. 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. It not a letter that bent to shape; it's a letter that lives in a powerful matrix of surrounding space. Underground brings these stories into the light. 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. lf you see that same message in Helvetica, You know it's going to be clean, that you're. A documentary about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture. Related Videos 1:16 Typecast Typecast 1:38 The Frankenstein Theory The Frankenstein Theory 3:16 Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm Trailer use and the letter spacing and the colors. Coke. The film was released on DVD in November 2007 by Plexifilm. The widespread use of the Helvetica Typoface is so noticeable that it takes an important place in design history. Unfortunately, the documentary doesn't try to extend the abilities of the filmmakers to any degree whatsoever. 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. Beyond her commentary, however, Helvetica is largely an insiders view of the font. Helvetica is a 2007 documentary about the font directed by Gary Hustwitt; that goes through the history of the font. WebHelvetica documentary feature - 2007 - 80 minutes Helvetica is a feature-length documentary about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. 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. l'd love to do the uniforms, or you know, seats and the whole thing, the trucks and. 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. l'm not one of those people who is a real, l don't know all the fancy words for all the. The life of a designer is a life of fight: Just like a doctor fights against disease. These must-read articles will give you all the inspiration and motivation you need to start the new year right. But I don't think it's really quite as simple as that. FAQ It was by far, the most NOT-boring documentary i've ever seen. What are you talking about?" 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. 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. 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. Other designers dislike Helvetica on the grounds of ideology. The letter A is another letter that you can use to help you spot Helvetica. (We think typography is black and white, he says. 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. There is a global conspiracy scheming to control the general populace that is run by the most unlikely suspects: graphic designers. 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. lt. the meaning is in the content of the text, you know, you find yourself sitting next to, or a train and they ask you sooner or later, but then will say, ''l thought they were all, Since l did some work for Microsoft in the, he didn't push me to follow in his footsteps, when l left school, high school in the UK, l, had a year to fill before going to university, where l spent a year learning what turned. 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. 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. 2010-2023 Freepik Company S.L. An excerpt of the film was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. 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. is that they shouldn't be aware of it at all. Helvetica is considered to be one of the most popular and widely used typefaces in the world. They give words a certain coloring. 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. | 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. 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. Michael C. Place: For me Helvetica is just this beautiful, timeless thing. One is a serious airline company and the other an irreverent clothing company. 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. 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. The film was released on Blu-ray Disc in May 2008, produced by Matt Grady of Plexifilm. Tip #5: Fonzies Favorite Letter. Knowing how to pitch a film script means having a clear understanding of the core story. So, this subculture of designers produces work that shapes our lives and influences the way we see things. Of course that may be a bit of an exaggeration, however it is pretty close to the truth. 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 in the end, it is a fun little movie that has people loving on the 50+ year old font helvetica. Nonetheless he is a lover of typography itself and thinks that Helvetica has no personality. On New Yorks packed subways, violations of personal space are unavoidablean inevitability that emboldens more predatory behavior. Erik Spiekermann: Most people who use Helvetica, use it because it's ubiquitous. And that's the, area to me where it gets more interesting. that Helvetica is a sort of global monster. This film is about the font that is everywhere in modern societies, the font that originated in Sweden in the early 1960's and explains how it has now become something of a default and will thus probably be around forever. 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. 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. 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 Show less. 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 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. 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. Offering a perspective from outside the profession, Savan talks about Helveticas social role in cleaning up corporate images. External Reviews The process of creating a typeface fascinated the director, so he set forth to illuminate the underappreciated discipline. Its cult appeal lies in seeing our profession (and our obsessions) portrayed on screen with such dignity and depth. Independent Television Service is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, aprivate corporation funded by the American people. Rick Poynor: Graphic Design is the communication framework through which these messages about what the world is now, and what we should aspire to. WebHelvetica is a feature-length 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. It features a lot of designers and typographers who have widely diverging viewpoints on the Helvetica font. 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