On Friday, we went to Minneapolis’ own Walker Art Center to see a screening of the film Helvetica. And yes, it really is a film about a font, timed to commemorate the font’s 50th anniversary.
It’s a documentary about one of the most ubiquitous fonts in the world. That being said, it’s far from boring, is actually very funny, and can be enjoyed even if you aren’t a design geek (graphic, web, or otherwise).
It’s not only about the history of Helvetica, it’s creation and usage, though that is in the film as well. More so, it’s about how and why Helvetica has been used since 1957, and how people have reacted to it, and continue to react to it.
The primary narrative thrust of the documentary, inasmuch as there is one, is driven by interviews with designers and typographers. It begins generally from designers of the generation who were designing in the late fifties and early sixties, and moves semi-chronologically through history from there.
It’s very interesting to see how attitudes of the design community (at least, as presented from the handful of designers interviewed for the film) changed radically through the last fifty years. When Helvetica was introduced, it was embraced very quickly as a clean, modern, all-purpose font, and was quickly adopted and used almost everywhere: headlines, advertising copy, posters, signs, logos and corporate identities… everywhere. It was adopted so wholeheartedly that it became “the” corporate font, and a next generation of designers rebelled against it, and began to try to use anything else other than Helvetica… through to the present time, where you have many people going back to embrace, again, the clean simplicity of the ubiquitous sans-serif font.
It’s about a font, but the stars of the film are the designers. You have the whole range, from those of the old school who declare firmly that there are only maybe a dozen really good fonts available, and that you probably only need three or four of them (Helvetica being one of these), to those who despise the font as being pedestrian, boring, corporate and bland. I was amazed at how funny it was to watch seemingly normal human being become worked up to a near frenzy about… a font.
Notable quotes (paraphrased from memory) ranged from the typographer who expressed relief that he had never asked to improve upon Helvetica because he wouldn’t know how to improve it in any way, to the designer who, when asked why he thought Helvetica was so popular, replied, “I don’t know. Why is bad taste so universal?”
It’s going through limited screening around the country, so you may or may not be able to catch it at a theatre, college or art gallery. The DVD is slated to be released in the fall, so if you miss the screening, I’d still highly recommend it.
