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What do The Gap, American Airlines, the main titles for Little Miss Sunshine and Royal Bank of Scotland have in common? They all use the same typeface: Helvetica. Born in 1957 its clean, "neutral" look was revolutionary. 50 years later, and it's omnipresent. If you keep your eyes peeled you'll see it everywhere around you, on practically every city street, in every newspaper and magazine and, most of all, in advertising. Why? As Finlo Rohrer of the BBC writes, "Helvetica's message is this: you are going to get to your destination on time; your plane will not crash; your money is safe in our vault; we will not break the package; the paperwork has been filled in; everything is going to be OK."
Filmmaker Gary Hustwit decided to make a documentary about the font; on Friday Helvetica started a one-week run at the Siskel. We know what you're thinking. A movie about a font?! Don't laugh. Not only did it garner a four-start review in the Trib and a Critic's Choice in the Reader, but both Friday night screenings were sold out, so they added a third. Siskel programmer Barbara Scharres introduced the film by noting that it's the most-requested title in the 35-plus-year history of the organization.
Not just a film for design geeks, it's instead a fascinating examination of mass media, modern visual communication, and even a sly metaphor about the differences between "square" professionalism and "hip" amateurism. It's a beautifully shot (on hi-def video) assemblage of interviews with the likes of Matthew Carter, Massimo Vignelli (who designed the look of the NYC subway signage), David Carson and Paula Scher. It's accompanied by a soundtrack featuring great tracks by the Chicago Underground Quartet, Sam Prekop, Caribou and Four Tet among others.
Helvetica plays daily through this Thursday only. Advance tickets are recommended.
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They should follow this up with a horror film about Comic Sans.
so true! comic sans will be the font used to announce the coming of the antichrist.
It's a typeface, not a font!
http://www.will-harris.com/font_vs_typeface.html
Wow, you learn something new every day!
I always loved Helvetica because it's the font you see on generic groceries in old movies before product placement became the norm ... white box, black letters in helvetica spelling things like "cereal" and "bread" and "cola." Helvetica is the chicaken of fonts.
Back when I worked for a newspaper, I had to come up with the name of our corporate spelling bee team (some community fundraising gimik.) My name: Helvetica's Angels.
i will have to go to that link to find out the difference between a typeface and a font. i am obsessed with fonts. god, i'm obsessed with so many things -- the cta, M*A*S*H, little house on the prairie, my fear of tumbleweeds -- but, i digress.
i LOVE fonts. i can't believe there's a movie about one. YAY!
I still try to respect the typeface/font difference here at work, but no one else seems to care much. I'll ask someone what his headline font is and he'll answer "Franklin Gothic Demi" and I'll stand there waiting for the rest of the info. No luck. We're fighting a losing battle, Hascat, but keep fighting.
jocelyn, same here. what's your fave? century gothic 4 lyfe! (the messed up part, though, is that i lost that when i formatted my computer and didn't have a backup. i have brought much shame upon myself.)
Ah, geeky grammar/word love.
umm. okay? what if we're not dealing in computers, let's say? no "digital file?" pretend it's all still little letters being "typeset." there were no 'fonts' before computers?
curiously yours,
book antiqua 14
jocelyn, I think the definition above is a bit confusing, and possibly inaccurate. I've always understood a font to be a specific weight and pt. size of a typeface (e.g. 12 pt. Optima Bold).
Where's Mario Garcia when you need him?
I, for one, am totally baffled at the hatred for Comic Sans.
I fully understand it might be misused, such as the classic example of an undertaker that used it for a funeral program.
But when used for an invitation to a party, who gives a shit, after all, it's a perfectly readable typeface.
I suggest that hating it is just a measure of hipness among a small group of the tragically, terminally hip!
I hate Comic Sans because it's an ugly typeface. If that baffles you, it means you have bad taste.
Is there no love here for Futura?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futura_(typeface)