Helvetica The Movie

My husband thinks I'm such a geek for actually watching a movie about a font but the documentary about the modern font Helvetica presented the overall topic of typography and design quite well. Below is the theme I took from the movie.

"Typography is really white, it’s not even black. It’s the space between the blacks that really makes it. It’s just like music. It’s the space between the notes that make the music.”

~Massimo Vignelli

There was criticism of Helvetica as a boring and corporate typeface that even gave negative connotations because of the government's use of it but current designers The Experimental Jetset echoes Massimo's statement in saying it's not so much the font but the way in which you space the fonts and use it to construct an overall design.

Not unlike graphic design, architecture is also about the negative space, the spaces in between. Also, great architecture has come out of the use of new and innovative materials but it's the architecture that uses the simplest building block in a fresh modern way that is most innovative and impressive. Architects like Nader Tehrani and Monica Ponce de Leon of Office DA uses brick, a building block used for centuries, in the most experimental ways. That's innovation.

Tongxian Gate House by Office DA

Tongxian Art Center {model} by Office DA

Helvetica is out on dvd and is available on i-tunes and for instant play on Netflix.