A dad and his daughters, loving life in New York City

Tuesday, September 18

Helvetica: A Documentary Film


Just a quick post to get the word out as best I can about Gary Hustwit's totally engaging, funny, inspiring, all-around extraordinary documentary about that most ubiquitous of fonts, the much loved, much hated, Helvetica.


Seriously: if you have any interest at all in typography, or graphic design, or advertising, or, as Hustwit puts it, "global visual culture," then this really is a must-see, both for its thoughtful historical perspective on how and why this font conquered the world, and for its stellar line-up of designers—both pro- and anti-Helvetica—including Massimo Vignelli, Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Bierut (who gets in some of the best lines), David Carson (also very entertaining ), Paula Scher, Experimental Jetset (who, I discovered, did that Beatles shirt you see everywhere, pictured below), Eric Spiekermann, Jonathan Hoefler and Bruno Steinert, all of whom speak with wonderful eloquence, wit and passion about their craft and aesthetic beliefs.

I had such a big smile on my face for the entire 80 minutes. In fact, my only regret about the film was that I didn't take my daughters... though it's already on our Netflix "saved " list.

It's unclear how long Helvetica will playing here in New York—it's now exclusively at the IFC Center—but I wouldn't count on it being around for more than another couple of weeks. The website has a complete list of upcoming screenings in cities around the world. And for my favorite use of Helvetica, by one of the best designers in town, please see here.

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dude, your blog has really blossomed. Had no idea it would become your personal Time Out. What happened to that little box that was on the first page that featured near-hourly posts? That was a cool feature - it had a name; was it the techology's? I've told a few people of this blog and described it as covering all the things I want to do but never do. You're more mobile than I am now. Also, I'm working at One Penn Plaza now. What's new--I mean that's not posted?
--Montauk Man

12:14 PM, September 19, 2007

 
Blogger bellj said...

Scott, I hope that movie comes to Calgary!

7:21 PM, September 19, 2007

 

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