Helvetica, The Little Font That Could
by Caroline Okun
A few weeks ago I discovered that Helvetica was playing at the Full Frame Festival in Durham. My friend Dwight scoffed at the idea of the film, making fun of me for going to see a movie about fonts. I interrupted him, embracing my nerd status and said, “Actually, it’s about a typeface.”
But secretly, even as a designer, I doubted that a film about a font, even one as ubiquitous as Helvetica, could hold my attention for more than 20 minutes. After all it’s not exactly one of my favorites. (I can hear people taking sides already). But after an hour and 20 some minutes I was sincerely disappointed when Helvetica came to a close.
The historical aspects were fascinating. There was quite a bit of information about how Helvetica came to be, outlining the drive and precision of Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann who developed what they considered to be the perfect typeface in 1957 for the Haas Type Foundry in Münchenstein, Switzerland. The images were beautiful, even breathtaking to see. The Director of Photography Luke Geissbuhler managed to capture Helvetica in the wild in such a way that even a commonplace sign in German telling dogs to stay outside looked like a museum piece.
And who knew that the designers who were interviewed in the film were such characters? We all suspected that Stefan Sagmeister could be counted on to throw out a bizarre comment or two, but actually one of my favorites was Eric Spiekermann, one of Germany’s most respected designers. He reminded me of my seven-year-old niece when he would accentuate his outpouring of emotion about Helvetica with a loud, “Hello!?!” Pure genius.
Michael Bierut was no schlub either when it came to emotional outbursts. Did you ever imagine that designers would get so up in arms about the topic? I’d love to see the HBO version of “The Making of Helvetica” to know exact what director Gary Hustwit was saying to provoke such responses! Not that I don’t feel strongly about a font that has been used millions of times over, maybe just not THAT strongly.
Apparently at SXSW where the film premiered, audience members were given buttons that read “I love Helvetica” and “I hate Helvetica”. Some people wore both. I would have been one of them. Long live Helvetica.
Caroline Okun currently lives in Chapel Hill with her dog Albatross. She likes cheeseburgers and truffles and is still on the fence about Helvetica. You can reach her here: caroline@brainsarepretty.com
Posted by raleigh in Articles | May 14, 2007
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