Helvetica, the movie

Don't confuse legibility with communication. Just because something is legible, doesn't mean it communicates. And, more importantly, [it] doesn't mean it communicates the right thing. ---David Carson

I finally got around to watching Gary Huswit's documentary about your favorite font and mine, Helvetica. I know I'm late. I didn't hear about the SF screening until after it was over. So sue me. Anyway. From the film's web site:

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.

Forgive this ultra-geeky episode of mine, but if you appreciate fonts at all, you'll love this movie.

Update your Netflix queues now. Trust. It's such a great discussion about this font, graphic design, and typography in general. Interview subjects include the guy who did the signs for the NYC subway, the guy who designed the fonts Georgia and Verdana, the guy who designed the Meta typeface (a font of a previous employer), the art director for the now-defunct Ray Gun magazine, and industry people with famous last names like Hoefler and Zapf.

Aww yeah. One word for font enthusiasts: Fontgasm. I'm just saying.


Photo: "Helvetica as Metallica," Yann Serandour. Lifted from here. Why not go for the obvious helvetica-font picture? Because it's a font. Someone made a movie about it. If that's not fucking hardcore, I don't know what is, man.