A while back, I caught a documentary on PBS about the typeface (font) called Helvetica.  My roommate recently rented it, and I got to catch some things I missed the last time I saw it.  You wouldn’t think a documentary about a typeface would be very interesting (and maybe after seeing it for yourself, you still wouldn’t), but I thought it was fascinating.  It focuses on Helvetica, but it’s actually about typography in general and how we as individuals and societies are affected by what we see.  For example, from a designer’s perspective (and apparently from yours and mine, too) the balance of the content of words in an ad and the way those words look makes a world of difference in a consumer’s reaction to the ad.  This is a fundamental principle.  The way Helvetica looks and communicates, and its unprecedented, unmatched presence in ads and on the street over the last 50 years earned it the spotlight in this documentary. Continue reading →