Hel Of A Show

Yes I am cut­ting back on Tele­vi­sion for 2009.  There is how­ever, one excep­tion and that is PBS.  Case in point is the pro­gram I caught over the week­end — Inde­pen­dent Lens, Hel­vetica.  This show is all about the story of the font Helvetica.

It seems sort of strange to think that some­one invented Hel­vetica, as it is such a ubiq­ui­tous part of our daily lives, but sure enough some­one did.  The film solic­its opin­ions from numer­ous sources on the mer­its and short-comings of the all too famil­iar type­face.  It tracks the his­tory of the font, from its incep­tion in Switzer­land to its explo­sion as a sta­ple of mod­ern design. It is fas­ci­nat­ing to lis­ten to the pas­sion­ate views peo­ple have about this font that most of us take for granted.  It is also amaz­ing to see just how many of the com­pany logos we know and love uti­lize Hel­vetica in some way.

I per­son­ally am a fan of Hel­vetica.  In fact, PBS has a quiz on the web site for the show where you can match a font to your per­son­al­ity based on your responses to a set of ques­tions.  It appears that, accord­ing to this quiz, I am Hel­vetica.  Who knew?  If you are inter­ested in graphic design or just love a good doc­u­men­tary, I would rec­om­mend watch­ing Helvetica.

Inde­pen­dent Lens . HELVETICA | PBS