Movie Review – Helvetica

Photo Credit, Google Images. Helvetica is a documentary about the type font that has taken the world by storm.

Helvetica is a film that should be watched more than once. The reason for this is not because it is just dreadfully boring at first. I had to watch it twice because I couldn’t get through it once. I had to force myself to sit and stare at the screen, headphones on to block out the rest of the world. Then I realized something. Helvetica is not a half bad film. I didn’t give it a chance. I was letting other people’s opinions rule my view. The movie itself was long and tiresome and, yes, boring. However, the enthusiasm of the cast was brilliant, if not over-the-top.

As a documentary, Helvetica was well done. As a documentary about type, it was good. I had no idea that the Helvetica typeface was so important. In school, we are taught to use Times New Roman for all essays and homework assignments. It is the only type I have ever consistently and constantly used. It came to the point that I always believed it to be that way for everyone for everything. I experimented with other fonts growing up for various projects for school, but I have never actually used Helvetica.

The history that encompasses the Helvetica typeface is quite rich and interesting. It was a font invented for the purpose of updating an old German sans-serif typeface. It is a polished, clean, and versatile type, one that can be (and is) used for many purposes. What I find fascinating is that Helvetica is not even found on my Microsoft Word application. For such a well-known and well-used type, shouldn’t it be accessible to everyone?

The movie certainly opened my eyes about the use of type and typography. It is a form of art that so few can master. From the documentary, I believe only a select few have the right eye for creating font over the years. I would like to thank them, for without font, I would not be able to do this assignment on the computer. I would not be able to read books. Without font, the world would be so dull and slow and not efficient in any way.