Helvetica

I finally got to see the full length film of Helvetica which has been showing in cinemas and on TV over the last few months. It’s fundamentally a documentary about the typeface Helvetica, which celebrates its 50^th birthday this year, but expands upon this to look at the way type is used in our everyday lives.

The computer now forms a part of everyday life, and most people who use them do not have an understanding of the most basic typographic principles. Films such as Helvetica can help educate the masses, promoting understanding and the case for good design. In fact there’s been very few films or programmes about typography. One that springs to mind is A to Z by Max Whitby, who with Ian Duncan, produced an entertaining documentary for Channel 4’s Signals series around 1987 – when the rest of the world thought typography was something to do with maps.

The Helevtica DVD is released on 20 November and is surely the perfect Christmas present for all those typophiles out there? Or perhaps they would prefer something with serifs?

This entry was posted on November 21st, 2007 and is filed under Events, Typography, Design. 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.