film review: Helvetica
(the first on my new netflix account queue — I welcome suggestions!)
As a would-be graphic designer for a small literary arts house, I use Helvetica as a default: as ubiquitous as Coke, this modernist Swiss font is the face of multi-national conglomerations, street signs, countless corporate identities, and competes with Arial on your word processors. On the eve of the typeface’s 50th anniversary, this indie documentary examines not why, but how: how Helvetica was a breath of fresh air from the clunky, obtrusive design schemas of the 1950s; how Swiss design became associated with neutrality and objective Modernism. Neutral, non-threatening, and non-assuming, this font is largely assumed to be the “golden standard of graphic design.”
Like it or not, Helvetica is everywhere, heralded for its seeming one-size-fits-all quality. Yet this design feature inspires nay-sayers. Since the font is the face of so many corporations, some graphic-design circles say its represents conformity and capitalism. “It’s the font of the Vietnam war,” says one of the graphic designers interviewed for the film, “and the Iraq war, too.” Post-modern typographers after the Helvetica revolution prefer to create more subjective typefaces. One Helvetica hater espoused the virtues of more personal, specific typeface design, maintaining that “legibility is not tantamount to how communicative a font is.”
Which side is right? The documentarians don’t present an argument, and in this Michael Moore-esque landscape of opinion pollution, that’s refreshing. It’s true that typeface debate sounds about as exciting as watching C-Span, but if you’re interested in how design can shape the world — or even become the face of an ideology — you might want to give this little indie flick a watch, if only for the realization of how ever-present this font is in our daily lives. The shots of Helvetica signage around the world are beautiful. Most of us rarely realize how immersed we are in graphic design.
film review: Helvetica
(the first on my new netflix account queue — I welcome suggestions!)
As a would-be graphic designer for a small literary arts house, I use Helvetica as a default: as ubiquitous as Coke, this modernist Swiss font is the face of multi-national conglomerations, street signs, countless corporate identities, and competes with Arial on your word processors. On the eve of the typeface’s 50th anniversary, this indie documentary examines not why, but how: how Helvetica was a breath of fresh air from the clunky, obtrusive design schemas of the 1950s; how Swiss design became associated with neutrality and objective Modernism. Neutral, non-threatening, and non-assuming, this font is largely assumed to be the “golden standard of graphic design.”
Like it or not, Helvetica is everywhere, heralded for its seeming one-size-fits-all quality. Yet this design feature inspires nay-sayers. Since the font is the face of so many corporations, some graphic-design circles say its represents conformity and capitalism. “It’s the font of the Vietnam war,” says one of the graphic designers interviewed for the film, “and the Iraq war, too.” Post-modern typographers after the Helvetica revolution prefer to create more subjective typefaces. One Helvetica hater espoused the virtues of more personal, specific typeface design, maintaining that “legibility is not tantamount to how communicative a font is.”
Which side is right? The documentarians don’t present an argument, and in this Michael Moore-esque landscape of opinion pollution, that’s refreshing. It’s true that typeface debate sounds about as exciting as watching C-Span, but if you’re interested in how design can shape the world — or even become the face of an ideology — you might want to give this little indie flick a watch, if only for the realization of how ever-present this font is in our daily lives. The shots of Helvetica signage around the world are beautiful. Most of us rarely realize how immersed we are in graphic design.
