Listening to FIR #240 this morning, I learned that it is the 50th birthday of the Helvetica font. This actually struck me as a bit odd, as I personally thought the font was older than that, but no, it was created back in 1957 and is now owned by font giant Linotype. The BBC article starts out positively glowing about Helvetica and then introduces a bit of criticism… I’ll leave it to you to read it, but I did find this quote from typographer Neville Brody quite intriguing:
“Typefaces control the message. Choice of font dictates what you think about something before you even read the first word. Imagine Shakespeare in large capital drop shadow. Our response would be quite different towards the content.”
Exactly. Typefaces definitely do matter. And they definitely evoke passion… just look at the comments to the BBC article!
Personally, I can’t say I’ve ever been a “Helvetica enthusiast”. It’s a nice font, certainly, and I’ve used it in numerous documents (and continue to do so), but I don’t know that I really have any great passion about it. I do, though, recognize that it has had a tremendous influence within the computer industry as one of the dominant sans serif fonts in the electronic publishing space… and no doubt will continue to be used for quite some time. (And undoubtedly will continue to attract both supporters and detractors!)
Happy Birthday, Helvetica!
At the recent Hot Docs Festival (North America’s largest), the UK-produced film,
Helvetica (http://hotdocs.bside.com/?mediaTab=filmDetails&_view=_filmdetails&filmId=15410869) was one of the first of two docs to go to “rush seats only,” a couple of weeks before the festival even began. (The other one was Manufacturing Dissent, the expose on Michael Moore: http://hotdocs.bside.com/?_view=_filmdetails&filmId=15410892)
Ergo, Helvetica definitely has its fans, film or otherwise. (When the person at the box office said “Helvetica had gone to rush,” I misheard and thought the documentary was about heavy metal bands or something.)
Judy, Thanks for the amusing anecdote… on one level it’s pretty hilarious that a film about a typeface would attract such attention! But then again, typefaces/fonts do definitely seem to evoke passion in people. (And on another level, “Helvetica” does sound like a heavy metal band!)
Thanks.
I noticed the links are broken (they weren’t when I previewed…oh well). Anyhow, here is the film description from the website:
FILM SYNOPSIS
UK 2007 | Run time: 80 min. | Director: Gary Hustwit
If you were a font, which one would you be? In this age of visual communication, font is critical in conveying messages and identities, but font as a social-cultural index, a measure of politics and design? Who knew? In this thoroughly original and just plain cool examination of typography as social history, graphic designers from around the world weigh in on the significance of Helvetica, the world’s most used, best loved, most despised, and definitely most controversial typeface. Created 50 years ago in Switzerland, Helvetica ignited a design revolution. Carrying no meaning, only function and clarity, it embodied the idealism of post-WWII reconstruction and social democracy. But Helvetica’s ubiquity, like any cultural standard, was soon politicized. Post-modernists and grunge designers claimed corporate branding co-opted the font’s “sans serif, sans rules” ethos, and swore off the opiate design. But as with every artistic movement, the next generation is blessed with equal parts amnesia and retro tendencies, guaranteeing Helvetica’s supremacy. Immensely interesting, Helvetica satisfies an ever-growing curiosity about the way design affects how we conceive of and experience the world.
CAST & CREW
DIRECTOR: Gary Hustwit
PRODUCER: Gary Hustwit
cinematographer: Luke Geissbuhler
sound: Brian Langman
editor: Shelby Siegel
(Note: fans rated it 4 out of 5, which is a really high rating for this critical crowd. I guess it was good!)
Interesting. Of course, given some of the people who guided my early education in typography, as I read that synopsis I get caught up in the “purist” debate of the use of “font” versus “typeface”. To me Helvetica is a “typeface” of which a “font” is a particular instantiation… but that argument has undoubtedly long ago been lost in the era of computers with all of their “fonts”. Sigh…
Some discussion of the nuances at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typeface
Thanks.
OK, it sounds like you definitely need to see this film. Would you like me to ask the person who handles the PR for Hot Docs (and who happens to be a friend) if/when Helvetica (the doc, not the heavy metal band) is expected to get commercial release and/or DVD distribution?
And dontchajust love Wikipedia? I used it to look up the word “instantiation” that you used (which was new to me):
Instantiation may be
Philosophy:
A concept in Platonism, see idea
Instantiation principle – the idea that if properties exist, the essence that “has” the properties must necessarily exist
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instantiation_principle
(But now I’m going to stop looking/linking, because I could get lost all day in Wikipedia.)
Cheers,
Judy
Judy, Wow! I was not aware of that definition… I guess it was the computer geek in me using “instantiation” in the form from object-oriented languages:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instantiation_%28computer_science%29
i.e. a font being a particular “instance” or “implementation” of a typeface. The typeface, which exists more as a concept or design, is given form or given existence by the creation of the font. The font is an “instantiation” of the idea/concept of the typeface. The concept brought into reality.
Having said all that, it seems to me to be a bit nuanced and esoteric… there’s probably a better word to use out there, but it’s been admittedly interesting to briefly explore “instantiation” (being the word geek that I am).
Well, sure, if you want to ask your friend about when the film is out… but I’m not sure if I am *enough* of a Helvetica/type enthusiast that I would actually pay to see the film (or at least, not pay that much).
There’s nothing wrong with nuanced and esoteric. The word caught my attention, anyhow, enough to look it up. One of the panelists at next week’s (sold-out) mesh07 conference is Simon Pulsifer, “one of the leading contributors to Wikipedia, with some 96,000 edits to the online encyclopedia”
http://www.meshconference.com/simon-pulsifer.php
I wonder if he edited instantiation. 😉
Query sent to film PR pal, but no response as yet. (Asked if any Vermont screenings were planned as well as anticipated DVD release date.)