Lauren Steinberg

SI 520
Helvetica movie notes

Helvetica. A documentary about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture.
Gary Hustwit, 2007

Informational or Promotional? At first, I thought that the documentary is informational because it tells
the audience how Helvetica is used and how often it is used. However, after watching more of the
movie, I really think that it could be considered both informative and promotional. It is telling the
audience about how important and useful Helvetica is, but it also discusses the history of Helvetica.
Helvetica is also used extremely well in promotions, so I think that adds to the reason why it could be
considered promotional as well.

Who is the audience? I think that the audience is people in advertising , to keep them informed and let
them know what the best type for advertising is. It is also for people like us, who are learning about
graphic design and how to play with font and themes. Or anyone who has a general interest in fonts
and graphic design. Helvetica is the beginning of the new generation of fonts and cleanliness, so it is
relevant to anyone who has an interest in graphic design.

Relevance to this class: Teaches us which fonts we should consider using in our homework assignments.
Also, it helps us learn what fonts to use in our professional careers after this class.

Relevance to my life: I didn’t notice how often I am surrounded by Helvetica. It is literally everywhere. I
also hadn’t thought about fonts, how they were created, and how they make a statement. Helvetica is
clean and solid, but I had never really thought about what they used beforehand.

Notes:

 They wanted to change the name because they felt they couldn’t sell it in the United States if it
didn’t have an American name
o Helvetzia is a Latin name of Switzerland. Then the name because Helvetica
 Helvetica just looks clean, and once it came to the United States, it really caught on and ran
away
 Helvetica makes a statement, and before it existed, cursive writing was used a lot.
 Helvetica is used for advertise CLEAN packaging (ex. Gap jeans)
 Helvetica was the font of the Vietnam war, but it is also the font of the Iraq war.