Interesting typography should be a necessity. So should a tripod.

While it was interesting to learn about the history and creation of Helvetica, I think it could have been better executed after taking an introduction to filming class. At times it was hard to focus on the actual content of this documentary because the majority of the shots were both shaky and off balance. With that being said, I think this documentary also could have gotten it’s point across in half the time that they used.

However, I did take away something positive from this documentary, the thing that I think the filmmaker wanted me to understand, that helvetica is the most widely used font in today’s world. Brands as common as Chevrolet and Target, and as fancy as FENDI utilize the font. It was fascinating to see how the font was created as a redesign of a previous font, got renamed and finally caught on in popularity. More than 50 years and it is more available and present in society than ever before. There is something to be said about it’s beautiful simplicity. Before knowing the history of its creation, you almost take that fact for granted. I can’t imagine how much of a big head I would get if I was the person who designed the most widely used font in the world (including graphic designers). I mean, there are multiple blogs that exist today that are dedicated to the love of Helvetica: including this and this.

But like I said, when a designer goes into a job, they don’t usually think that it’s going to be the one that defines their career and will change the face of typography. But it’s really cool to think that could happen, maybe I need to start thinking that way. So in short, love the font, hate the film.