Review of Helvetica (2007) by Hector B — 20 Feb 2012

Some people really like fonts. I am not one who is interested in this much detail about typography. For a doc about graphic design and advertising, Art & Copy is slightly better. I thought this would at least be about fonts in general, but it really is almost exclusively about one font, Helvetica, the "Swiss" typeface.

Here we are presented with three schools of thought about Helvetica. There are people who think Helvetica is the only appropriate, legible, modern font for all advertising. There are others who rebel against this notion and use fonts that are themselves graphical, funky and postmodern.

Then there are also a few who try to use the standard shape of Helvetica letters in new, fractured, post-postmodern ways. Again it is a mixed bag with some of the interviewees being more entertaining than others.