The ubiquitous Helvetica typeface is 50 years old this year and currently being celebrated in the documentary Helvetica by Gary Hustwit. We caught it this evening at the IFC Center on 6th Avenue (you know — the site of the old Waverly Theater). I enjoyed the movie immensely. It's even laugh-out-loud funny in spots, and I think anyone with even the slightest interest in typography and graphics design will get a kick out of it. (Check the web site for details.) Helvetica was invented at the Haas type foundry in Switzerland. The original name was Neue Haas Grotesk but that was changed to a word derived from the Latin name for Switzerland. Over the 1960s, Helvetica took the advertising world by storm and was instrumental in modernizing corporate logos and advertisements. It eventually became the default font for much corporate lettering and government signage. Helvetica the documentary takes us on little tours of major cities around the world, showing us how the typeface has blanketed Read More...