2008 Woodie Awards
Documentary film questions visual culture
By Adriana F. De Leon
Issue date: 9/28/07 Section: Premiere
Originally published: 9/27/07 at 3:55 PM CSTLast update: 9/27/07 at 6:11 PM CST
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The director, Gary Hustwit, also will make a special appearance at the event to answer any audience questions.
"Helvetica" is a 2007 feature-length independent film that encompasses the worlds not only of typography and graphic design, but also communication, psychology and global visual culture.
The film is 80 minutes long and explores how urban and typographic designs collide and collude, while some of the most illustrious and innovative names in the design world today offer a fluid discussion about the creative process.
"Helvetica" is known as a font and it was a very common font used to design logos, art history Professor Deborah Schafter said.
"Even though the words are different, there is this uniformity of that font type and it's on everything. It's on people's little street signs. It's on subway systems. It's on the buses. It's on advertisements," she said.
The font Helvetica was developed in Switzerland 50 years ago, Schafter said. The film "Helvetica" marks Hustwit's directorial debut.
Hustwit has produced several music-themed documentaries, including "I am Trying to Break Your Heart," an award-winning film about the band Wilco; "Moog," a documentary about electronic music pioneer Robert Moog and "Drive Well, Sleep Carefully" about the band Death Cab for Cutie.
Another speaker named Alex Bitterman of the school of Design at the Rochester Institute of Technology will examine the history of branding; how brands affect the consumer frame of reference in developing countries and the societal responsibilities of designers, Schafter said.
Bitterman will be on campus at 10:50 a.m. Oct. 25 in Room 120 of the visual arts center.
"Both (speakers) are keying in on similar ideas and they both come from the world of design and speaking from a designer's perspective that in the visual environment is loaded with signs that we read all the time," she said.
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