Rocha-chatter

One may ask... does it get any nerdier than Star Wars and stamps? Well....

For my birthday I went to see a film that was all about... hold onto your hats, a typeface.

"Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives."

And Rochester was lucky enough to get a showing at RIT.

A movie centered around a typeface may sound like a snoozer, but it featured enough rabid fans of helvetica, vehement haters of helvetica and funny commentary to keep both designers and non designers engrossed the entire movie.

After the movie there was Q&A and a panel with the director Gary Hustwit and the word HELVETICA made out of rice crispy treat.

Hats off to the School of Design and Print Media.... the director wrote on his blog that...

"They put together the best collection of collateral material of any screening we've had so far... t-shirts, multiple posters, Vignelli-inspired subway signs, a musuem quality Helvetica exhibit, even a giant Helvetica rice crispy treat. RIT has officially set the bar in terms of attention to detail."

I am just glad a militant anti-Arial protest didn't break out... that would have gotten ugly.

Labels: movies