HELVETICA sss
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That popularization of typography is what makes the British documentary Helvetica so fascinating, and not just to publishing nerds. Filmmaker Gary Hustwit takes as his starting point the 50th anniversary of the title typeface, which was created in 1957 by Swiss designer Max Miedinger and has since become ubiquitous. (If you doubt me, look around your nearest CTA station.) Hustwit’s occasional montages of Helvetica lettering in city signage, advertising, architecture, and publishing illustrate the awesome subliminal power of typography to shape the public consciousness. His interviews with prominent graphic designers in Europe and the United States reveal the ongoing tension between modernists like Miedinger and the generation that came after them. It turns out that the story of Helvetica encapsulates the postwar struggle between individuality and the common good, as a typeface created in the spirit of democracy gradually became a symbol of blind obedience.
The movie could never have opened out like this if it weren’t so firmly rooted in the aesthetics of type design–Hustwit approaches the creation of Helvetica as if it were the painting of The Last Supper. British design writer Rick Poynor explains that Swiss designers of the 50s were motivated by the chaos of World War II to “make things more open, make them run more smoothly, be more democratic. There was this real sense of social responsibility.” Miedinger set out to create a typeface that would be perfectly clear, neutral, and orderly. Modifying a 19th-century sans serif design, he decided to slice off the curved terminals of the letters along invisible horizontal lines, which has a strangely pacifying effect. And as Mike Parker, former director of typography for Mergenthaler Linotype, points out to Hustwit, the Swiss paid great attention to the space surrounding and contained by each letter, so that the black and white shapes lock into each other and give a sense of solidity. (The teardrop shape inside Helvetica’s lowercase a is a particularly elegant example.)
The potential for chaos is even greater now that anyone can open up Microsoft Word and choose from 140 different typefaces, and Hustwit chooses to end Helvetica on an ambiguous note. The computer revolution may have democratized graphic design, letting anyone decorate his own desktop or MySpace page, but a certain amount of conformity is necessary for society to function. In that respect a utilitarian typeface like Helvetica serves the greater good. Like the CTA, it may not be much fun, but it gets you where you’re going.
