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1. HELVETICA FONT DOCUMENTARY MOVIE
2. HELVETICA FONT DOCUMENTARY TV

They keep trying to improve on bicycles, but there’s not much more they can do because they’re kind of perfect.

HELVETICA FONT DOCUMENTARY MOVIE

Q: Why is it OK that Helvetica is everywhere, that nobody seems to care?īrancaccio: The movie makes a point: Maybe it’s that Helvetica is perfect, or close to perfect, and can’t be improved upon- sort of like a bicycle has two wheels. And you can imagine that when you’re talking to investors with your startup, you want to sort of get them in the head space of another successful startup.

I know a composer in Hollywood and, very often, the director says: “I want music like this other film that was successful, but not so close that I get sued.” And the guy’s job is to make a knockoff score that’s close enough. It’s become kind of a joke among graphic designers, this style.īrancaccio: Right. It’s like this very ubiquitous style - Helvetica-y, pastel-y style that kind of nicens up a lot of tech products. You see it in text and in illustrations, renderings of people or other icons that are really common in user interfaces.

Q: I was reminded of the concept of Corporate Memphis, coined to describe the ubiquitous look of startups these days. The idea being conveyed by the typeface may be inaccurate. Maybe the most important part of the film is that typeface choice is spin, and that it may not be true. It says to me, even if it’s not true, that oh, this must be an enlightened sanitation department. Now when I see it in Helvetica, not in some more ponderous official, refuse-department font, I’m slightly delighted. And here’s the specific example: In the film they remind us that New York City Sanitation Department trucks, big, old garbage trucks, the logo for the Sanitation Department is the word “sanitation” in Helvetica. But I gotta say, the emotional response provoked in me by seeing “Helvetica” is generally pretty positive.

HELVETICA FONT DOCUMENTARY TV

Like the TV show that has the highest ratings may not appeal to me directly. I understand the problem: Something that’s so part of the tapestry of pop culture that appeals to everybody, that it’s not interesting. It’s the corporate, inoffensive typeface, right? And so Scher wants something more interesting. Paula Scher, a famous designer who’s in the film, says that she’s “morally opposed” to Helvetica because she says big corporations are slathered in it. Q: “Helvetica,” which riffs on its history and the corporatization of the typeface in the 1960s, brings up a lot of the questions we ask ourselves today: Why does every brand look the same? Why does every millennial startup look the same? Why have many of the major internet names taken away all their serifs, their bubbles, their colors? They now look like cousins, and they look like Helvetica in most cases.īrancaccio: In the movie people take sides on this font, Helvetica, that is ubiquitous. Or, more specifically, that typeface is a whole hidden language we speak a language that we are not always aware we are speaking. I didn’t understand Helvetica’s role in nearly everything. Q: David, you weren’t a newcomer to “Helvetica,” which left a lasting impression on you.ĭavid Brancaccio: I’d seen “Helvetica” some years ago and remember being floored, delighted by how this opened up a whole new world for me. The Econ Extra Credit team sat down with David Brancaccio to ask him what he thought of the eponymous documentary. Our April documentary selection delves deep into the history of a typeface that, wittingly or not, we all know very, very well: Helvetica.