SKAGGS Blog

Type dorks unite.

That’s what I felt the theme of this weekend was, well for me at least. I traveled up to my alma mater, RIT, for a screening of Helvetica this weekend, but this weekend was about more than just Helvetica, it was about appreciating typography in general and I loved every second of it.

The screening of Helvetica was part of Typo Fest, organized by Hallwalls, WNY Book Arts Collective, AIGA Upstate NY, P22 Type Foundry, and others. RIT dedicated the Alexander Lawson Publishing Center (complete with glass enclosure designed by Herman Zapf), and celebrated the release of Alphabet Stories, an amazing book that chronicles Herman Zapf’s life and his typefaces.

Oh and the film, it was fantastic. Its really great. Seeing designers speak about this one typeface is just really cool. I mean just a movie about graphic design is mind-blowing. What is truly amazing about it is that everyone’s design philosophy comes out in what they think of this typeface that is “just like air.” From one of my hero’s Massimo Vignelli who says there are “maybe five good typefaces, and I’m being generous,” to David Carson who looks at a wall of different words written in Helvetica and says “well ‘Greyhound’ works because their busses are boring.” All-in-all the film has some great segments, mainly some hilarious parts with Eric Spiekerman and Michael Bierut (who posted a great blog about typography today), but you have to see the film. It will be out on DVD soon.

So much type-dorkdom went on that the blog post would be far too long, so I’ll recap with some highlights:
1. Meeting Herman Zapf and having him sign my book.
2. Seeing my professors “geek out” as much as I was while talking about type.
3. Dinner conversations about what kind of beer a typeface would drink.
4. Oh and this film I think it was called Helvetica or something….