Helvetica: The Movie

Just when you’ve gotten used to the idea of separating content from format (and realized you won’t be in charge of selecting fonts any more) comes Helvetica, a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. According to the producers, the documentary “looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.”

The Helvetica font is said to be one of the widest in use around the globe. It’s the official font of CNN International, American Airlines and the US Government. While the font first became popular in the 1950s, it was only after the release of the Apple Macintosh computers (a favorite tool of document and graphic designers) did the font become ubiquitous.

Director Gary Hustwit says he created the film because “millions of people see and use Helvetica every day, I guess I just wondered, “Why?” How did a typeface drawn by a little-known Swiss designer in 1957 become one of the most popular ways for us to communicate our words fifty years later? And what are the repercussions of that popularity, has it resulted in the globalization of our visual culture? Does a storefront today look the same in Minneapolis, Melbourne and Munich? How do we interact with type on a daily basis? And what about the effects of technology on type and graphic design, and the ways we consume it? Most of us use computers and digital fonts every day, so are we all graphic designers now, in a sense? “

Helvetica will screen at film festivals, museums, design conferences, and cinemas worldwide, followed by the DVD release this fall. You can get a preview today!

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