I consider myself a messaging geek. I go through my life listening, watching, and feeling for communication. I roll through stories in my mind when I have down time, thinking through how they came across, why, and through what channels. I cheer for a good commercial.
But while words and their import consume much of my brain activity, a vital component sneaks its way through my circuits without notice and does its work.
I'm talking about font here.
I never think about fonts, but they shape much of how I perceive branding, they guide how I understand a message, and they adorn the pages of every book I read. In short, they are a the big deal.
And Helvetica opens wide the theoretical, marketing, messaging, artistic, and historical aspects of font design. By interspersing montages with interviews with the geeks who design and use typefaces, the film provides tangible views of its subject matter, while its subjects grapple with what we see in text and what impact it has on us.
All of which is engrossing and beautiful, but my brain is a little upset about it. Thanks a lot, Helvetica, says my brain, as if I didn't have enough to juggle while I'm walking down the street and watching movies and reading books. Now I have to obsess over font too?
To which I say, aloud, "Suck it up, brain. You're there to think, and think hard. That's what all that coffee is for."
To which my brain does not have much of a response, since it has learned to depend on coffee for much of its functioning.
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