I heart Helvetica

Continuing in this vein ...

In yesterday's Guardian, AndrewDickinson interviewed Helvetica documentary maker Gary Hustwit. Some interesting facts:

• A huge H made out of Swiss cheese was created for a showing of the film in Philadelphia
• Helvetica is the font of the United Nations
• A Cyrillic variant of the font has been created.

My favourite quote so far, from Massimo Vignelli, the designer who used Helvetica to create the American airlines logo in 1966:

The life of a designer is a life of fight, fight against ugliness, just like a doctor fights against disease.

Helvetica screens in Wellington on 27 and 29 July , as part of the International Film Festival.

Image: still from Helvetica, directed by Gary Hustwit.

Type cast

Gwynneth Porter and Warren Olds (of Clouds) have apparently taken Over the net to task for daring to suggest that the Venice un-publication might use Helvetica.

To my mind, Helvetica is one of typeface's silver foxes (alongside Gill Sans). The Swiss font is 50 this year, and still proudly utilised by brands ranging from Gap to Tupperware. MoMA saw fit to throw it an exhibition to mark its half-century (Helvetica, by the by, was the first typeface the Museum acquired). These people baked it a birthday cake. Lars Muller's written a book about it (he calls it the 'perfume of the city'). Gary Hustwit made a film.

But I guess there's always Comic Sans.

Designer joke: Two fonts walk into the bar and the barman says "sorry lads, we don't serve your type".