Helvetica: The Movie

[rug]

vimeo.com/148266054

Click the blue rectangle to see the whole movie.

[GoneOffShore]

1. I've got the DVD of this. I'm such a geek.

It's a fascinating documentary.

Helvetica is my favorite font of all time.

This summer, by happy chance, we stayed in a house with the name Helvetia, which made me absurdly happy.

[jmowreader]

2. I think I'll pass, thanks

I just find Helvetica to be excruciatingly boring as a font, largely because it's so overused. Same thing with Futura and Avant Garde. Give me Franklin Gothic, Gill Sans or Frutiger any day.

[NV Whino]

3. Saw it

Helvetia, possibly the most beautiful and useful face ever designed. There's a reason it's, in some people's opinion, "overused." It just works.

[LiberalElite]

4. Bookmarking for later Thanks!

[area51]

5. Bookmarked to watch later.

Used to work as a proofreader & have favorite typefaces such as Century Schoolbook and Garamond. Never been too fond of Helvetica.

[Yavin4]

6. Font porn n/t

[NJCher]

7. if you're interested in layout and design, watch this film

I've watched this movie about 10 times because I teach advertising, and obviously, Helvetica is very important in teaching students about fonts. What the film explains is what advertising was like before Helvetica: advertisers used all kinds of different fonts. If you think back to ads done in the 60s, you'll know what I mean.

The film was also interesting because it takes the viewer to the birthplace of Helvetica. Helvetica was actually designed by a salesman for one of the biggest font companies in Switzerland/Germany. In fact, the film features interviews with many of the famous font designers (Zapf, for example), and one learns how the Swiss and Germans seem to have specialized in this area.

It is good for students to see how type used to be produced, and if they see this, they begin to understand processes like leading and kerning.

I could say so much about this film, but this will suffice for now. I encourage anyone who is interested in design and layout to watch it. You will never look at signs and layout the same again.


Cher

[rug]

8. I agree.

I was a type director for two agencies (NW Ayer, Wunderman, Ricotta and Kline) about thirty years ago, right when the change to cold type was taking place. That job is now obsolete. It's so much easier now but knowing the history and elegance of type should not be lost just because it's easy to change.

[Throd]

11. As a designer in the sign industry I will have to find the time to watch that.

Unfortunately it seems most designers these days are content with whatever kerning their computer gives them.

I went to design school right at the transition to computer generated layouts, so I learned the old hand drawn techniques. A lot of my fellow students whined about what a waste of time this was. My instructor said the computer just allows you to do bad design faster if you don't understand typography. He was right then and he's right now.

[jakeXT]

9. I used Courier before I knew the tabulator key existed or how it worked

https://vimeo.com/77469762

[RebelOne]

10. As a former typesetter, Helvetica was my favorite font