Introduction
Starting class and hearing that we are watching a movie about a typeface called Helvetica definitely caught me off guard. I was very skeptical assuming that it would be a snooze fest but it was honestly quite interesting. Before this class and the movie that we watched, I had never really thought about typefaces before. Yes I always use fancy fonts when making a presentation for a class, but I have never thought about the history that may come with that particular typeface. When clicking on a fancy font you don’t think about where it originated from, or who created it, but if there is one thing that this movie taught me it is that every font has a story. With that story also comes haters and lovers as well which is also something that I had never considered before. Obviously people in my class may not like a font that I may use but I never considered the fact that there might be people out there who hate or love a typeface because of how it looks. This film really opened my eyes to the fact that even the simplest things in our day to day lives have a deeper history behind them. Helvetica showed me that we pass by things everyday without a second thought while other people stop and ponder it for hours. For instance, when driving around looking for a place to eat, I am not looking at the typeface that they used to advertise their name, I am simply looking at their name and what they serve. Somebody like Erik Spiekermann however, would notice the ups and downs of them business font right away. Overall this movie actually surprised me and pushed me to think about many more things that I would not have if I had not watched it.
Massimo Vignelli
“The life of a designer is a life of fight. Fight against the ugliness. Just like a doctor fights against disease. For us, the visual disease is what we have around, and what we try to do is cure it somehow with design.”
I chose this quote because I found the comparison that he made very interesting. He is so passionate and feels so strongly about what he does that he was able to compare it to a disease and doctors. This to me is such a drastic comparison but he said it with so much ease that you could really tell how much this style of life means to him. Him and other designers fight against the ugliness of the designs in the world similar to the way that doctors fight the viruses that corrupts the world. This quote to me just shows that if you truly love what you do, then you can feel just as empowered as those who have a different life style than you. Its just such a real quote that shows how much typography means to people out there and how passionate the are about it.
Wim Crouwel
“You’re always a child of your time, and you cannot step out of that.”
While this quote may not have much to do with what was discussed in the film, this quote just stood out to me a lot. I think that it stood out so much because when I first heard it, and looking back on it now, it is so true. Maybe I interpreted it differently than other people but I took it very literally. We, the people I grew up with, are the children of our time. From the moment we were born we were going to be the children that shaped the world as we grew and there was no getting away from that. The people who were with as as we grew old will always remember us as the children when we first came into he world. My mom says it all the time, even though I am eighteen years old, she still sees me as her little girl and that is something that I will never be able to escape. That being said, us as “children” have such hope and innocence left in us that we all need to use to make this world a better place.
Erik Spiekermann
“I can’t explain it; I just like looking at type. I just get a total kick out of it. Other people look at bottles of wine or whatever, or, you know, girls’ bottoms. I just get kicks out of looking at type. It’s a little worrying, I must admit.”
Erik saying this just shows how people can be fascinated by so many different things and we really are our own unique person. I don’t think that it is worrying at all that he enjoys looking at type. It just means that his extremely passionate about it and it is something that truly means so much to him. We may not understand why he enjoys it so much, but it doesn’t matter why. A lot of people struggle to find something that they love and care about so much and so for him to have found something that means that much to him is, in my opinion, very respectable. While other people like looking at wine or girls’ bottoms, it is just something that they get enjoyment out of in the moment. What Erik has is more than that. Erik has something that brings him enjoyment and allows him to exploring new possibilities and diving deep into his mind.
