Helvetica

Objectified, a film about industrial design

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Objectified, a film about industrial design, is a new movie by Gary Hustwit. It’s his followup to Helvetica, which was totally awesome. The film should be released in March, 2009.

Here’s a list of designers that were interviewed for the film:

Paola Antonelli (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
Chris Bangle (BMW Group, Munich)
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec (Paris)
Andrew Blauvelt (Walker Art Center, Minneapolis)
Anthony Dunne (London)
Naoto Fukasawa (Tokyo)
IDEO (Palo Alto)
Jonathan Ive (Apple, California)
Hella Jongerius (Rotterdam)
Marc Newson (London/Paris)
Fiona Raby (London)
Dieter Rams (Kronberg, Germany)
Karim Rashid (New York)
Alice Rawsthorn (International Herald Tribune)
Smart Design (New York)
Rob Walker (New York Times Magazine)
and more participants TBA

Now that’s a big freakin calendar

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Stendig 2009 Wall Calendar in our kitchen

For 2009 Anne Marie and I decided to dress up our kitchen with a little classic design… or should I say, a BIG classic design. It’s the Stendig 2009 Wall Calendar, available from Crate & Barrel.

This 4’x3′ calendar is based on a 1966 design by Massimo Vignelli, which is on permanent display in New York’s Museum of Modern Art. It alternates every other month from black text on white to white text on black. It really is beautiful.

Helvetica: A film about a font

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Helvetica documentary film

5 Stars

A while back there was a lot of buzz about a documentary film called, Helvetica. As the name implies, it’s all about a font…

“We use it every day on our computers, we see it on street signs — and we take it for granted. Now, Gary Hustwit’s unique documentary introduces us to Helvetica, whose readability has made it the most popular font in the world. Interviews with designers and artists offer insight into the development, use and universal acceptance of Helvetica as the typeface of choice for everything from writing letters to creating corporate logos.”

I actually didn’t pay a tremendous amount of attention when it first came out. I missed it when it was in theaters. But, when the film became available on Netflix I thought I would give it a shot.

I’m really glad I did. It’s actually an excellent film. As a designer I probably have more interest than most, but I think even non-designers will find Helvetica interesting. I may have to buy this film.