by Monika Baker
Straight off the bat Gary Huswit’s film Helvetica draws us into a private war fought on a public battlefield by the graphic design cognoscenti, and begs the question: should we really care if the entire corporate world favours Helvetica as the font of choice?
It’s a black and white situation; grey is not an option. One camp is on a revolutionary path to rid the graphic world of the curse of the ubiquitous font. They believe they have a responsibility to shake up a drowsy public from the sinister, orderly invasion of our spatial and visual subconscious, matched with our willing acceptance of the bland. Conversely the devotees of the elegant stripped down typeface that is Helvetica attests it comes to us without historical baggage or social connotations and is nothing less than the perfume of the city; if it weren’t there we would miss it. Clarity matched with freshness, a paean to socialism.
Like the font, this is a very elegant and confident film offering a peep into the passionate and slightly obsessed world of design and typography. We are introduced to the faceless and often nameless designers who have influenced how we receive information and who sometimes, in collusion with governments and corporate business, choose to use Helvetica as a subliminal tool to present a trusting safe environment. Tax forms, United Airlines, Coca Cola and war propaganda as well as Gap clothing are some of the examples used to illustrate just how diverse is this method of infiltration into our everyday psychology.
The history of the rise and rise of Helvetica is well documented, with factual and visual proof to inform the uninitiated. But what is very endearing is the unexpected humour from some of the contributions, lifting the film out of its closed specialist environment, so much so, that I can guarantee anyone not familiar with the world of graphic fonts, will look at the vast choice presented with their computer software and make up their own minds about why they do or don’t like the ubiquitous ‘H’, or even question it as the ultimate typeface irrespective of Apple Mac’s decision to use it as its default font, again helping to sear it onto our retinas.
Serious research is matched with unexpected dry humour from some of the contributors. Erik Spiekermann, a German typographer loves type and would prefer eyeing up print instead of a girl’s bottom; he likens Helvetica to a fat man in a tight tee shirt – heavy in the middle. Michael Bierut clearly thinks that until Helvetica, clients were a goofy bunch with bad taste, no hopers from Padooka, Ohio. I can only imagine it’s a similar place to Brando’s Plookaville.
The film does not posit the pre-eminence of Helvetica as a challenge to the world of graphics and typography; rather it is a gentle and informative homage to the 50 year-old font. But surely the gauntlet has been thrown down and the bar raised for a designer to create an equally defining font for the 21st century?
Dir. Gary Huswitt, UK/ USA/ Germany/ Switzerland/ France/ Belgium/ Netherlands, 2007, 80 mins
Helvetica is showing at the ICA and is released on DVD from 20th November 2007.
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