Ja Gern – The Photos

© Goon

jagern.ch
myspace.com/ja_gern

HELVETICA-GA-GA

©Play

Play has uploaded some photos of the Helvetica 50 Party to her site: Helvetica-ga-ga

Nothing in the papers [edit]

Helvetica50 did not make it into the papers. At least i didn’t find anything, checked NZZ, Tagi, Blick (big surprise there…).
I guess if Küng did it, it’s considered done.
Even if what Küng did is … errm lets be very kind here … not that great.

Please if you find a review in a paper or anywhere really, blogs, forums, etc., please let us know in comments.

edit: we were clearly abit hasty. in the meantime quite a few articles have appeared in newspapers. thanx to schnitzel for adding them to the comments:

Zürichsee-Zeitung; 26.03.2007 | Kultur | Zürich Am Samstag fand die europäische Erstaufführung des Filmes «Helvetica» statt
Neue Zürcher Zeitung; 27.03.2007; Seite 55; Nummer 72 | Zürcher Kultur | Liebeserklärung an eine Schrift
Tages-Anzeiger; 29.03.2007; Seite 49 | Kultur | Die pflegeleichte Schrift für Konzerne, Sehtests und Kebab-Stände

Helvetica – a welldone film documentary

One of THE highlights of Helvetica50 was of course the screening of the film documentary Helvetica by Gary Hustwit – in a european premiere mind you. And boy are we glad, that this premiere happened in Zurich and not in … *gasp* … Berlin as was originally planned.

Now i am not sure about you, but when i first read about this documentary a few months (or was it weeks?) ago, i was pretty puzzled. A documentary film about a typeface? How the hell is that gonna work?

Gary Hustwit on CNN [image source]

But after seeing it, i am 100% convinced. Gary Hustwit uses the controversial typeface as a symbol and accross it he manages to tell the history of graphic design of the last 50 years. By chosing graphic designers from different time periods and letting them express their opinions on Helvetica, the film in a very simple way demonstrates how the discourse changes over time. While Mike Parker speaks about the typeface with extreme enthusiam, describing it almost as one would do for a lover, Paula Scher associates it with the war in vietnam and generally seems to think it’s the devil. And a next generation is in awe again with it’s simplicity and uses it in a new context.

The film documentary will be shown all around the world. The best place to keep track of the schedule is the screenings list on the official website, where it’s also worth it to have a look at the blog. Gary already says Greützi and he probably means Grüetzi …
Helvetica will screen at Riffraff, Zürich every following Sunday at noon until further notice.

Mario Frick Photos on flickr

more photos by mario frick

to add your photos please use the following email adress: held38cases@photos.flickr.com

The Helvetica should be called Teutonica

According to Erik Spiekermann’s the Helvetica typeface should be called Teutonica – an opinion he expressed during the panel discussion “Will this typeface last forever?”. In 1957 when the Helvetica font was developped the Haas Foundry was owned by a german company and even the suggestion to call the font Helvetia, please note one “c” still missing, came from the germans. I feel like grabbing Spiekermann by his shoulders and asking him with cute/strange Ricola type swiss chauvinism “Who invented it?” …

The topic of the panel suggested otherwise, but it seemed that most people on the panel wished Helvetica had never existed, leave alone should go on to live forever. It was Helvetica-Diss-time. The two most vocal persons on the panel, Spiekermann and Carson, were mostly busy trying to outdo eachother in finding derrogatory comparisons and metaphors. Spiekermann compared the font to elevator music. Carson called it a lazy font for lazy people, boring and more. It was pure snide.

Things got quite interesting when Carson said, if Erik would speak in Helvetica then maybe he could understand him … After that the barely concealed tension between the two dominated the discussion. Later i heard, that the Carson and Spiekermann have been at it for quite some time already. They often meet on panels and juries, yet they don’t find many positive things to say about eachother. More on that in the Zine. Interesting choice to invite these two together, hmmm….

All in all i found the panel discussion to be a dissapointment. The negative statements dominated the discussion, while Manuel Krebs, the one person, who was supposed to represent the newer generation of designers, those who in recent years have whole heartedly re-embraced the font, seemed to be too initimidated either by language or the personalities of the other speakers and ended up not say much. Yet the really interesting aspect of Helvetica is how much passion, positive as well as negative, it is able to conjure. This typeface leaves no one indifferent and would you not agree, that would be the worst thing that could happen in visual communication as well as all other forms of creative expression?

Albert Hoffmann was amazing, late director of the Haas foundry as well as the son of the man who commissioned the font. Through all the criticism and dissing he smiled and often outright laughed. He has seen it all, the ebb and flow of opinions about their historic font. At times it was burried, at other times totally overused. Yet Helvetica always survived, and it might well continue to do so.

The Battle of Metaphors

Helvetica is …

… like elevator music (Erik Spiekermann, during the panel)

… like Paris Hilton (Manuel Krebs, during dinner)

… a symbol for the war in Vietnam, and (jokingly) responsible for the war in Iraq (Paula Scher, in the documentary film)

… like Spaghetti. You always have them around; they are nothing exiting, yet always good and sometimes exactly right (Cornel Windlin, in the article “Wir sind Helvetia ” by Max Küng, Das Magazin Nr. 12 [translation: mine])

… a lazy font for lazy people (David Carson, during the panel)

… the best font of all times (according to a jury decision initiated by fontshop.de)

TBC (please feel free to post your favorite metaphor or comparison in comments)

Carson digs girls

This just in, according to my secret sources, David Carson was so busy trying to seduce a girl at the Helvetica50 Party, that he totally ignored the Freitag Brothers, who had kindly approached him to try and offer him one of their spectacular bags.

Now that’s dedication … As far as the girl goes, we still wonder what she saw in an aging punkrock surfer dude ???

The Freitag Brothers

HELVETICA IST UNS WURST!

My personal favorite contribution to the poster design competition.

teh caek

Party Time – Freitag-Hallen Maag-Areal.

oops, gotta go. The birthday cake is coming. No real birthday party without one.
Even if Alfred Hoffmann confessed to us, that the font was actually released in June of 1957. 3 months early? Close enough.

[edit] 5 minutes later:

We even sang “Happy Birthday” …

And in related news, i was shocked to discover, that Lars Müller, the organiser of this party and author of the book, was only wearing the “I hate Helvetica” button. i’ll leave interpretations to more awake minds.