“Helvetica”

Produced by Gary Hustwit

2007

The film is informational. The film does highlight the impact and importance of the Helvetica font in
modern design, but I do not think the film is intended to sell the use of the font per se. The film
presents the favorable and critical perspectives on the font and the font’s popularity. There were font
designers who praised Helvetica’s clean, elegance and others who lamented the font’s dominance and
boringness. I suppose the film was targeted at those interested in font design. The film did give sort of a
behind the scenes view of typeface design, and multiple perspectives from insiders and renowned
members of the typeface design community. However, the film was not overly technical and was
palatable and interesting for a general audience. This film highlighted how important it is to consider the
impact of typeface on design. Fonts convey meaning and evoke emotional responses. Various experts
featured in the film felt that Helvetica conveyed neutrality, efficiency, smoothness, transparency,
accountability, accessibility, conformity and dullness. Fonts should be chosen with careful consideration,
given all of the meaning ascribed to different typefaces.