“It must be hard to be a cashier in a book store – oh to be surrounded by the history of your true loves…” – Jim Carroll
Is the Carroll quote appropriate? I think so because in the design world, Helvetica is practically a religion. I mean if you could get a group of people meeting sundays around noon with for a pot luck supper – it would be a religion. However right now,
Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture.
I did not know this film was even being made – I have a huge love for Helvetica the typeface in fact I use it at my daytime job all the time. The Director of “Helvetica” is Gary Hustwit who produced I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, the award-winning film about the band Wilco and Moog, the documentary about electronic music pioneer Robert Moog. Helvetica is Hustwit’s directorial debut.
The film was shot in high-definition on location in the United States, England, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France and Belgium. It is currently in post-production and is slated to begin screening at film festivals worldwide starting in early 2007. Featured in Helvetica are some big names in the design world, including Erik Spiekermann, Matthew Carter, Massimo Vignelli, Wim Crouwel, Hermann Zapf, Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Bierut, Jonathan Hoefler, Tobias Frere-Jones, Experimental Jetset, Michael C. Place, Norm, APFEL, Pierre Miedinger, Bruno Steinert, Otmar Hoefer, Rick Poynor, Lars Muller, among others.
For more information www.helveticafilm.com