Welcome to

I don’t recall how I came across this film, but Helvetica is a documentary about — what else? — the Helvetica font. On first blush this may sound not only boring, but somewhat of an insane venture. After all, someone made a documentary about a font? Or, as we learn in the film, a typeface. After watching this film with some trepidation, I can say that yes, thankfully, someone made a documentary about a typeface.

In 2007, Helvetica, a typeface created by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann for the Swiss-based Hass Type Foundry, celebrated its 50th anniversary. As part of this celebration, director and producer Gary Hustwit traveled the world to make this film. According to Hustwit on the film’s website, he created it to find out why the font had become so popular. What he ended up with was a phenomenal film that encompassed not just the typeface and its history, but the interesting and often overlooked work and lives of graphic designers.

One of the aspects of the film’s marketing that intrigued me was that so many of the review snippets mentioned the beautiful cinematography. I couldn’t help but to think that this was marketing hype at its best. Beautiful cinematography in a documentary about a font? I assumed that must be some oxymoron code for “the interviews suck, but there were some pretty trees and hills to look at.” Within the first ten minutes I realized how wrong that assumption was. Not only were the interviews engaging and relevant, but the interior backdrops to the interviews, which mostly consisted of graphic design offices, and the exterior shots of German, Swiss, Belgium, French, and United States storefronts, signage, vehicle lettering, etc. was nothing less than artfully executed.

Another aspect of this film that intrigued me was that this is not a Helvetica love fest as one would imagine it may be. In fact, there are several interviewees that not only bash the typeface, but declare outright hatred for it and anyone who uses it. In the end, one comes away from a viewing of this documentary with a better understanding of the graphic design world, the history of the Helvetica typeface, and some insight into the unconscious human acceptance of a typeface that is clean, easy to read, and universal. While this film may not be for everyone, I do not hesitate to highly recommend it to anyone that has even the most remote interest in graphic design.

Related Links:
Helvetica on DVD (Amazon)
Helvetica on Blu-Ray (Amazon)
Helvetica Movie Web Site