Felix brought this poster back from the RCA show, with Jaques Tati and his bike on the back.

Platform Six, Design Products, Royal College of Art

Shortly after Typo Berlin, ‘Helvetica the Movie‘ by Gary Hustwit was screened (with Q&A afterwards) at the UDK Berlin.

Huswitt originally produced music videos and his intitial idea for this movie was conceived whilst walking around New York with his headphones on; visualising a film about type and the city.

However, through his first interviews with Massimo Vignelli, he quickly realised that he potentially had access to an enormous amount of knowledge and talent, which nobody had yet documented on film. He subsequently also realised that Helvetica was about to celebrate its 50th Birthday; his vision for the film narrowed to focus on the proliferation of this typeface; its history, and those designers who in some way or other felt strongly about it.

What results is a very interesting film, weaving together, city shots, street signage, municpal signage, shop frontings, advertising hoardings, from all over the world and the works, thoughts and anecdotes of various designers who created much of the typographic landscape we were being shown.

He originally interviewed over 100 designers each talking on average for 2hrs! This has been whittled down to a handful of designers from New York, Zurich, Berlin and London talking for a few minutes. There are some great interviews, most notably from Wim Crouwel, Experimental Jetset, Lars Müller, who perhaps gave the most interesting thoughts. There were also interesting anecdotes from Paula Scher and Michael Bierut.

If you didn’t manage to see it in Berlin this time round, or are unable to see it London (dates are not yet set for screenings), Hustwitt mentions that a dvd should be out in the autumn with enough added extras and further interviews for any ‘type maniac’ (a Spiekermann expression) to get their fix.

… and if you continue you are surely gonna get trashed …

Poster at the Deutsche Historische Museum.

The British Museum in London is one of the biggest tourist attractions as well as a popular destination for school trips. At the rear entrance, where most busses arrive and park, two giant lions provide a great climbing opportunity for waiting children.

I am not aware of any accidents, but not wanting to take any chances, the management has recently put up signs warning climbers of a deep drop behind the lions. The signs come twofold: one is fixed to the stone wall, simply warning of the deep drop, the other is a non-permanent notice placed closer to the entrance, specifically mentioning the lions. My guess is that the permanent signs were not very successful, and thus the larger, mobile signs were added.

The permanent signs are indeed quite tame; small, dark green plaques, neatly placed along the wall in regular intervals. They feature white type set in a clean sans serif, using line breaks to replace punctuation. The interesting bit is the illustration of an adult male stumbling over what looks like those reversed u-shaped metal stands where you chain your bicycle to. Although it tries to imitate the cross-sectional shape of the wall, it is much too small and does not appear solid. Furthermore, the most important bit, the deep drop, is not pictured. Instead, the baseline of the last line of the warning text creates an invisible horizontal line to the wall section, suggesting a maximum drop of about a foot in relation to the stumbling man.

In the end, we have a polite, dark green sign, kindly reminding adults not to stumble over small boulders. No wonder the kids ignored it.

The mobile signs improved the situation only slightly: the wall section is now solid, but has not increased in size. The stumbling figure is still an adult and not a child, and both hover in white space, no deep drop in sight. The warning text includes the climbing the lions part, but now has a massive leading and appears too small. A further addition is the French translation. Apparently, only English and French people are climbing the lions. German, Spanish, and Japanese tourists are welcome to fall and break their necks.

Warning signs and politeness don’t go together. Avoiding injuries or a pretty facade? Make a decision. A better illustration would not need any translation.