Saturday, December 29, 2007

I Heart Movies

We have Netflix again. It's been lovely. Been able to rent films like ARMY OF DARKNESS and NACHO LIBRE and most recently HELVETICA.

The last title we just finished today during Pax's afternoon nap. It was a wonderful film about the subtle shifts in typology that informed (and were informed by) culture, both modern and post-modern (and other).

It reminded me of college, when I was really into David Carson. (One of Holly's first gifts to me was THE END OF PRINT. Brilliant book.) I worked closely with a friend to take the oh-so-traditional newspaper over and make it more like a RayGun magazine. I'd use fonts to cut up fonts, negative space next to a heap of improperly-kerned type. The grunge fonts then came along...and everything went to shit after Coke used the broken typewriter font in an ad. Then David Carson designed a Nike piece and we all knew the time was coming for this to end.

This was all before I even knew what the term "postmodern" would mean...or meant. Surely others were using the word, but I was in my own bubble. But I was still informed by those who used the language...I just didn't know that typology would correlate that closely to cultural and social shifts.

Now I know more.

You should definitely see this film. Rent it today.

1 comment:

Justin said...

I bought the Helvetica documentary for myself as a birthday present, and what a worthy purchase it was. Fantastic. I also ordered the huge Helvetica alphabet poster and plan on hanging it prominently in my living room...I think I shall give it an entire wall all to itself.

Negative space and all that.