Saw Gary Hustwit’s marvelous film “Helvetica” this weekend. Helvetica is the universal typeface, that which it seems cannot be improved upon, both loathed for its pedestrian ubiquity and revered for its comfortable functionality.
Reminded me very much of some of the issues raised by Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker piece a few years back on ketchup.
(h/t the hypothetical wren, who loves type and told me about this movie)
Hey, I’m glad you liked it. i’ve seen it a few times now, and I still think it’s one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in a while, although the first part (when Hustwit is interviewing typographers, instead of graphic designers) is the strongest part of the movie. (The extra interviews on the DVD are pretty decent as well.) It focuses on a type of nerdiness not often seen on film, but which structures the way we process and use words and other information — not enough people think about typography, I think, and the people who do tend to go a little overboard.