
Net gezien: ‘Helvetica’ van Gary Hustwit (2007). Een documentaire over typografie, grafisch design en visuele communicatie in het algemeen en typeface Helvetica in het bijzonder.
Het is zeker een aanrader als je wat hebt met typografie, maar alleen al de mooie quotes maken ‘m de moeite waard. En natuurlijk het bijna kinderlijke enthousiasme van de volwassen designers die beginnen te stralen zodra ze praten over rondingen, schreven en witruime - I like it.
(en ik moest stiekem genant hard lachen om de trailer: “Gary Hustwit presents, a documentary film: Helvetica. Starring, in alphabetical order: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ.” … )
Een paar quotes:
I’m obviously a typeomaniac, which is an incurable if not mortal disease. I can’t explain it. I just love, I just like looking at type. I just get a total kick out of it: they are my friends. Other people look at bottles of wine or whatever, or, you know, girls’ bottoms. I get kicks out of looking at type. It’s a little worrying, I admit, but it’s a very nerdish thing to do. - Erik Spiekermann
Helvetica has almost like a perfect balance of push and pull in its letters. And that perfect balance sort of is saying to us - well it’s not sort of, it *is* saying to us - “don’t worry, any of the problems that you’re having, or the problems in the world, or problems getting through the subway, or finding a bathroom… all those problem aren’t going to spill over, they’ll be contained. And in fact, maybe they don’t exist.”. - Leslie Savan
And I think I’m right calling Helvetica the perfume of the city. It is just something we don’t notice usually but we would miss very much if it wouldn’t be there. - Lars Müller