Marco Bruschtein

SI520
Critique/Notes on the movie Helvetica

02/04/2011

Name of documentary, author/producer, and year:

Helvetica - Directed by Gary Hustwit - 2007

Is it "informational" or "promotional"? support your argument.

The movie is actually both promotional and informational even though it comes across
as more of informational film. When you inform the public for an hour on Helvetica you
end up promoting it either way. The movie did cover the creation of the font in addition
to the environment that birthed it in 1957 Holland.

Who is the primary audience it aimed at?

The movie is aimed at both the font novice and fanatic alike given the historical nature of
the piece and various interviews with typeface specialist, of both modern and
postmodern tastes.

What is the relevance of it to specific areas/topics of our course?

According to the film, how does type affects our lives?
It is relevant to the course because it gives the viewer an insight into what goes into
designing a typeface/font and the impact it can have in real world applications i.e.
advertising, branding etc. and this relates directly to graphic design. In this sense,
typeface affects every aspect of our lives from the typeface that I am currently using for
this assignment to the typeface of my favorite band or companies that I see everyday,
really any product that I may use let alone anything that I read. In short it affects
everything. Now how this interpreted is quite subjective.