Rohit

Vairamohan rovairam@umich.edu

HELVETICA (2007) Directed by Gary Hustwit Swiss Dot Production in association with Veer
Is it "informational" or "promotional"? Support your argume nt. The documentary was more informative than promotional. It tells us more about how Helvetica came into existence and also the factors that have lead to its widespread acknowledgement by people from all walks of life. It also informs us of the processes involved in generating and the importance of all typefaces in general. Who is the primary audience it aimed at? I guess the information provided needed no special level of expertize to decipher it. It was aimed at people from all walks of life as we all do use typefaces through out our life. For instance, there was a certain section in which it talks about our handwriting and why people interpret a hand written message in a certain way. Any person can relate to this example. Although there were excerpts which a graphic designer in particular would like to keep in mind and incorporate in his design work. For this I would like to give the example when the narrator says that Helvetica does not give any meaning to the text. What is the re le vance of it to spe cic are as/topics of our course ? Typography plays an important role as far as graphic design goes. Helvetica as I mentioned does not have any meaning attached to it as a mere script. Hence it can be helped to give neutral value to a certain word, where as the word itself has its meaning. In my opinion, Helvetica can be used in all spheres where you want content to give meaning to the work rather than the typeface. According to the film, how does type affect our lives? Typeface, can have a huge impact on our motions and they way we react to a certain content written in a particular type. It can invoke strong emotions as also to calm and soothing reactions. And then in 1957 came a font that was neutral; Helvetica, which did not invoke any such emotions. Will you use Helvetica for your future graphic projects? It wholly and solely depends on the project that I am working on. If the need of the hour is that I have to invoke strong, upright emotions and give the content a historic feel I would go with something like a Copperplate Gothic where as for something in which I want people to draw the meaning from the content and not the typeface I would use Helvetica.