|
|
Whistle Stopper - Helvetica
|
List Price: $24.98
Our Price: $14.98
Your Save: $ 10.00 ( 40% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Plexifilm
Starring: David Carson, Erik Spiekermann, Matthew Carter, Massimo Vignelli, Wim Crouwel
Directed By: Gary Hustwit
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0082354004224
Format: Dolby
Label: Plexifilm
Manufacturer: Plexifilm
Number Of Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Plexifilm
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2007-11-20
Running Time: 80
Studio: Plexifilm
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great DVD on history of typefaces- especially Helvetica
Comment: Saw some clips form this on YouTube and decided to buy it - if you are into graphic design and marketing, this is fascinating. The authors do a very good job with the documentary style. In addition to the main program (about 90 minutes), there are supplemental outtakes with the designers who were interviewed (bonus material.) Add this DVD to your collection of you want a sold reference on how type design affects us every day - in everything we see.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Yes, a doc on a font. How can you resist?
Comment: Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RHIQ4P44KGMT
Customer Rating:
Summary: Die Neue Haas Grotesk
Comment: This is an intriguing documentary on typography, graphic design, and global visual culture. The origins and metamorphosis of the use of the type font and the people involved. We see its structure and the psychology behind the font. How it got its name. Soon we see it everywhere.
I have to admit I was more moved by the introduction of the film as they were using the lead type and setting up a proof press. I used the same equipment as a lad and always felt that something was missing when the technology changed and it was a less of hands on function.
Beside the font it is interesting to see how graphic design industry works. The people involved in it and the end results; presented by Gary Hustwit.
After waiting this documentary (which lends its self well to the Blu-ray treatment) you will want to "give them Helvetica."
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Interesting insight into a little seen world...
Comment: Even as their ideas and decisions form a big part of the visual fabric of our lives, most consumers probably don't know too much about graphic designers and the way they go about doing what they do. "Helvetica", while on the surface a documentary about the development and world domination of a particular style of lettering, was more enjoyable to me for it's glimpses into the working lives of graphic designers, some of them towering personalities in that field. Tracing the development of Helvetica from it's origins at a Swiss design firm through to it's almost universal acceptance as a typeface of choice, the film includes snippets of interviews with everyone from the most seasoned European designers who have slaved over things like typeface for 50 years to the artists at the forefront of the aptly named "grunge" design movement that was ubiquitous in magazines like Spin and Rolling Stone throughout the 1990's. The interviewees level platitudes and criticisms about aspects of style in general and typefaces in particular with ease and evident relish. A designer by the name of Beirut has a great "scenery chewing turn" where he literally lays verbal waste to the stodgy, dusty, crappy way American businesses visually marketed themselves pre-1950. Another designer lets loose a semi-bizarre rant in which she makes a connection between her distaste for the over-usage of Helvetica and the fact that she associates it with Vietnam, Republicans, People Who Voted for Reagan, Big Impersonal Corporations, and the War in Iraq. Agree with their opinions or not, I have to admit that it was great fun to see these intellectuals get their stylish spectacles all fogged up over Helvetica, which plays such a very large role in their small slice of the modern world. As an added bonus, we get to learn what "san serif" means, which is worth the price of admission.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Story of Helvetica is the Story of 50 Years of Graphic Communication.
Comment: For the 50th anniversary of its creation, director Gary Hustwit takes us on a tour of the history, ideology, culture, controversy, and success of the ubiquitous Helvetica font. Created in 1957 by Eduard Hoffman and Max Miedinger of Haas Typefoundry, taking its name from the Latin word for Switzerland (Helvetia), the land of its conception, Helvetica is the quintessential modern typeface. It turned out to be just what everyone was looking for and exploded onto graphic design in the 1960s. Now it's everywhere: billboards, subways, logos, signage, consumer products, IRS tax forms, and the default on the computer I'm using now.
Not everyone is a fan of Helvetica, or perhaps I should say that not everyone is a fan of its ubiquity. Through interviews with 3 generations of graphic designers and type designers, "Helvetica" presents both its fans and detractors, what makes it is a truly great font, what makes it controversial, and the reasons it persists. Helvetica is the font that rescued graphic design from the kitschy chaos of the 1950s. A product of post-war idealism, Helvetica was perfect for facilitating communication in an intelligible, egalitarian way, on an international scale. It is described as: modern, clear, rational, accessible, transparent, and neutral.
By the 1970s, Helvetica had earned its share of critics. What had been revolutionary to old-school modernists seemed fascistic, boring, overused, and conformist to Baby Boomers. In rebellion against Helvetica, graphic designers sought more subjective, distinctive styles of type including illustrated, hand-drawn, and grunge typefaces. By the late 1990s, Gen Xers and their European counterparts were embracing Helvetica again, though perhaps with different goals and rationale. The story of Helvetica is no less than that of how we communicate graphically. In this Internet age, when type design is everpresent, "Helvetica" helped me understand what I'm looking at. Subtitles are available in English and German.
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
