More than 50 years have passed, and its use is not only more current than ever, but it has become a symbol for a whole current of the graphic design. After developing it in different weights and functions, he got a fresh new shape, versatile and tremendously suitable for all types of sizes and functions. But regardless of where you as the viewer end up siding, of this debate one thing is certain - you will see Helvetica everywhere.It was 1956, when the Swiss typographer Edouard hoffman, from the foundry hate, was commissioned to modernize one of the firm's fonts, La Haas Grotesque.
Lively, eloquent arguments and opinions are given by all of the interviewees in Helvetica, and valid points are presented as to why each notorious typographer or graphic designer feels the way they do about the font. When Helvetica emerged it was assigned as a presentation of legibility and rationality.Ī comic moment comes in Michael Bierut’s critique of a Coca-Cola advertisement in Life magazine in 1953, shortly after the introduction of the typeface: “It’s the real thing. Designers felt as though there was a need to reconstruct and present things in a smoother, more democratic manner after the war. Helvetica is ubiquitous in everyday life and apparently was born of the social responsibility felt after the Second World War.
You begin to understand why Helvetica is so omnipresent in our lives. Signs which are merely indicators and notes of conduct for street life suddenly become exhibitions of art, which lends itself to both sides of the font argument. Designers felt as though there was a need to reconstruct and present things in a smoother, more democratic manner after the Second World War. The opinions presented in the documentary - obligatory talking head interviews - are proven wordlessly by the vignettes spliced throughout the film which showcase Helvetica’s universality, accompanied by an appropriate soundtrack featuring The Album Leaf, Caribou and Sam Prekop, which gives us a sense that the font is building in the narrative and the world within the documentary. A majority of the interviews have a stark opinion as to what exactly Helvetica communicates and why it is used in the way it is. Typographers and graphic designers either have extremely high praise for Helvetica - declaring it the be-all end-all of typefaces - detest Helvetica, or they acknowledge the font’s use and influence but choose to use it sparingly. It’s difficult to imagine that people are even capable of some of the esoteric opinions on typeface expressed in this documentary. Concerning this revolutionary font, the main debate coming from graphic and type designers is between modernists and postmodernists. Helvetica appeals to those outside of the world of graphic design and typography in that the subject matter is highly visible inside and outside of the film, in addition to having a population of passionate opinions and arguments possessed by those engrossed in the culture.
While 80 minutes may seem strenuous for a film about a font, Helvetica somehow squeezes an abundance of interesting content from such a narrow topic.įrom the typeface’s birth at the Haas Foundry in Muchenstein, Switzerland in 1957 (50 years since the typefaces conception) to its current every day use and heavily-debated connotations, the film Helvetica is as versatile as the font itself. The film revolves around the life of the Swiss born typeface, Helvetica. Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica is a documentary about typography. Helvetica, the Robin Hood of fonts COLE HOGAN