After our last IT dinner, we all watched Gary Hustwit’s documentary Helvetica. A film about a font sounds like a real snore, but it is surprisingly enjoyable, told with ease and fluid coherence. Hustwit interviewed graphic designers from around the world who tell of the font’s Swiss origins, its early implementation, the revolt again its ubiquitous conformity, and the return to its simple eloquence. It’s a fascinating history, told in an unexpectedly entertaining way.

After watching the film it’s amazing to see how pervasive Helvetica actually is. You can’t go a day — you can’t go 10 feet! — without seeing Helvetica: sale tags, parking signs, bus numbers, t-shirts…it’s everywhere! Because of the font’s omnipresence, I highly recommend the film to all.  ZCoBbers, IT has a copy of the film we’d be happy to lend out.

Helvetica A Documentary Film by Gary Hustwit

This entry was posted on Monday, December 31st, 2007 at 4:59 pm and is filed under Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.