Hot Docs - Font Love, my dirty little nerd film

On Saturday night I saw another Hot Docs film, the film that I was the most keen to see out of everything on offer. I call it my dirty little nerd film and it more than lived up to my high expectations.

If the words Helvetica, Verdana, or Garamond mean nothing to you, nor will this post. If you can't appreciate my profound hatred of Comic Sans or my love of Trebuchet or News Gothic this post will at best seem a little eccentric, and at worst utterly nerd-like and self-indulgent. I am prepared to take that risk.

The film was Helvetica, a film devoted to the font of the same name. A film all about a font? Yes, a film all about a font, and yet so much more.

Helvetica is the most used and recognizable font in the Latin/roman alphabet world, it literally is everywhere there is signage. The font was designed almost 50 years ago in Switzerland and was originally called Neue Haas Grotesk. The name was changed for marketing reasons to appeal to the American market. The name 'Helvetica' was derived from the original suggestion of Helvetzia (which means Switzerland). As a quick tangent, my great aunt Elvetzia's name is also in homage to Switzerland, as my family is part Swiss.

The film was not only a potted history of the conception and application of Helvetica over the past fifty years but also explored the great divide amongst typographers who either love or hate the font with equal passion. As, another aside if I could have had a different life I would have loved to have been a typographer.

Is it possible to feel passionate about a font? It is indeed, and the manifestations of this adoration or loathing are both interesting and hilarious.

Pro-Helvetica typographers included Massimo Vignelli, who was responsible for designing (with the use of Helvetica) the signage for the New York City Subway and American Airlines. The comment he made that I liked best after he wax-lyricked about the elegance of Helvetica, that I will paraphrase was "that contemporary designers expect too much from their fonts, are disinterested in legibility, and too focused on emotion. They expect the word 'dog' to embody a dog and perhaps even to bark, which is impossible." (a nice little opener for those interested in semiotics there).

Another pro-Heveticer was utterly animated in his delight on how Helvica had changed the world. His enthusiastic monologue on the original excitement of how Helvetica was received when it entered the advertising market in the 1950s was both hilarious and priceless.

Those on the other side of the Helvetica divide were equally entertaining and adamant in their convictions. Typography legend of Ray Gun Magazine, David Carson's arguments against Helvetica were based in the unimaginativeness of the font, and that it conveys nothing and allows no creativity. This of course came from a man who has demonstrated incredible artistry with his manipulation of fonts, even publishing an article in his magazine in Wingdings because he thought it to be so boring, it wasn't worth being readable.

The other most ardent and perhaps hardest to sympathize with anti-Helvetica typographer was Paula Scher. Her hatred is partially based in the fact the large corporations and the government use Helvetica, so hence she associates it with her anti-establishment ideals. She went so far as to say 'Helvetica represents the Vietnam War', which I thought was pushing the envelope a little far.

Skillfully mixed into the pro/against interviews were numerous short montages of examples of the use of Helvetica out in the world at large. There was everything from people wearing sloganed t-shirts, billboards, road signs and tax forms all showing that Helvetica is so intergrated into our lives we don't even notice it.

From a personal perspective, I tend to lean a little towards the pro-Helvetica people, as I like things that are ordered, elegant and legible.

At the same time I equivocate Helvetica as being to fonts what Vanilla is to ice-cream. Vanilla is not exactly exciting or sexy, but you always know what you are getting, it's a classic that never really goes out of style and is reliable. To my mind, so is Helvetica.

After the film the director was on hand to answer questions. My favourite answer to a question as to whether he intended to make additional films about other fonts was "no, this is it - there will be no "Helvetica Two - Rise of the Serif".

BWAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAH.. yes, nerd humour I know, but I don't care!