Cindy Chau | SI 520

Name of documentary, author/producer, and year.

Helvetica, Gary Hustwit, 2007

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

The film featured people with different perspectives, from those who loved the font to
those who thought it was dull and boring. Therefore, the filmed seemed more
informational rather than promotional. The film also discussed the font’s history and
prevalence in today’s society.

Who is the primary audience it aimed at?

Since the film was very informational, it seemed to target people interested in fonts and
its history but do not know a lot about it.

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

Each font gives off its own personality and mood. When designing, we should carefully
choose our fonts to make sure it fits with our concepts. For example, there was the
example of jeans. If it’s in a grungy font, we may expect ripped and/or baggy jeans or
something similar versus seeing certain types of jeans described in Helvetica, where we
may expect clean, cut jeans that fit well.

According to the film, how does type affects our lives?

Type tends to evoke feelings. As described in the film, we don’t notice the font but
would miss if it weren’t present. It has personality and can convey mood and can be its
own palette to express all sorts of things. It is also mentioned that meaning should be in
the content, not the font, which is why some love Helvetica. With the coke ad example,
images shifted from people and various fonts to Helvetica with just a glass of Coke; it
seems to just speak for itself.

Other Notes:

Font everywhere--on every corner.

Space between black that makes font.
“American Airlines” font in Helvetica
Clarity of fonts important
Font open to interpretation
Most type designers start with ‘h’—tell if sans serif or serif; then ‘o’ to look at weight of
curve and how it relates to h…