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I’m a sucker for a good font. Typography has been a passion of mine since I became involved in publishing. Most people never give a second thought to that little piece of type urging them to make this or that decision. A lot of thought has gone into that font. Some designer had to sweat out the decision and finally choose that font. The most used font in our society is Helvetica. It has become a standard on computers everywhere.

Helvetica is a cute documentary by Gary Hustwit and introduces a lot of people that are passionate about fonts and typeface design. The film explores the font of Helvetica from social, historical and design standpoints. Hustwit gladly investigates what can be considered the worlds most ubiquitous typeface and traces the roots of Helvetica back to a small foundry names Haas, in Münchenstein, Switzerland in the 1950s. The film charts its rise as a basic of corporate logos, warning signs and other functionality. He uncovers its controversy in the graphic arts community over cultural connotations and artistic worth. One interview with German typographer and designer Erik Spiekermann even goes so far as to compare the uniform appearance of the font to Nazi soldiers marching in line.

The film is artfully photographed and sharply edited. The photography, which can be credited to Luke Geissbuhler, is sublime. The soundtrack pushes the film through strong ambient rock. The film is a study in philosophy argument rather than the forced construction of say a Michael Moore offering. The seemingly unremarkable subject matter should not keep you away from this film. Helvetica is a witty, diligently researched documentary. It is very interesting, even if you’re not a fan of the typography. Gary Hustwit has put together one of the most captivating documentaries of the year. One thing is guaranteed. After viewing this film you’ll spend some time afterward scanning all that you see for Helvetica. *

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Excellent – A Must See Film.

* The poster is really great. I love the geekiness of the poster in comparison to a page from a font book. Chances are that it takes a lover of type to spot the subtlety and nuances of both the poster and the film itself.

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Fontbook is one of the best references I have used as a designer. It is the most complete digital type reference in the world. I am proud to say that I was among the first set of designers for the book back in 1991 when I lived and breathed in New York. I had to actually convince my publisher to get involved with this project and in the end, after I had poured my design sweat into the idea, we walked away.

FontBook is the only guide that compiles original, digital typefaces from multiple manufacturers and presents them in a systematic way. FontBook is all-inclusive, with typefaces both old and new. It contains all the classics of the art of printing, insofar as they are available digitally, as well as the latest font releases and extensions.

FontBook is a type encyclopedia with an abundance of carefully researched notes on type designers, year of publication, similar fonts, and additional language versions.

This long-awaited fourth edition of FontBook is the first revision in eight years. Thanks to a streamlined design, it includes thousands of new typefaces with only a slight increase in size. I contemplated not mentioning the book and keeping this great design secret to myself. What I love is that even the book itself is artful design.

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Knowing the internet the way that I do, I know anyone out there will find the book and a place to buy it in no time. So I’ll not include that information here. I only ask that if you find this post interesting or helpful that you please leave a comment.

Most recently FSI released a new addition to the typeface library. The new group is called “Mister K.” This grouping is a typeface inspired by manuscripts of Franz Kafka and named after main characters of the novels “Das Schloß” and “Der Prozess”. Kafka’s manuscripts reveal a unique handwriting style with strong calligraphic features. Looking closer, glyph shapes derived from the Latin as well as the German script popular in Austro-Hungary at the beginning of the 20th century can be distinguished in different texts. In designing the typeface, the designers had quite a challenge with finding a balance between Kafka’s strong and partly excentric letterforms and new forms to enable a steady typographic flow. Technically, Mister K is in OpenType format and includes several hundred ligatures (2-, 3-, 4-characters), which reflect typical sequences in different languages and reduce repetitions, alternate glyphs for “high”, “medium” and “low” connections and stylistic alternates allowing for different kinds of crosshatching, underlining, etc. What all of this means is that it looks really cool.