Font-focused feature film

After seeing the Hot Docs film Helvetica, I now notice how frequently this font is used around the city, like subway signs. It's so common, it's like air, says one of the graphic aesigners interviewed in the documentary. Throughout the film, city montages of street signs illustrate how so many companies use Helvetica.



In this 90-minute documentary, the film traces the origin (birthplace, if you will) and development the font Helvetica. Graphic designers who have designed other fonts are featured in this film, with their take on the featured font and the impact of Helvetica in the graphic design world and their explanation of why this font is so popular. The documentary was a delight to watch. It was definitely worth standing in line for more than an hour in the rush lineup. Ironically, a person was handing out flyers about a book that was "anti-Helvetica" or "pro-indie" fonts about to be released to people in the line for this film.



After the film was completed, the filmmaker made an appearance to answer questions. He also said the movie will be in Toronto theatres sometime in the future (before fall) for about a week. Also, there will be a DVD available of the film possibly in the fall.



Note: Ironically, I don't have Helvetica font on my computer at all! So I've used arial, which is a copycat font.