Gary Hustwit takes the stance that “if you want something,
there are probably other people who want it too”. This is apparent in his
concept and creation of the film Helvetica, he had this idea due to his love of
typography and the curiosity as to why there wasn’t already a film about such
and so he took this on as a project himself. At first the film was merely a
side project until the widespread discussion of love and hate for Helvetica
followed in the footsteps of some books, which were realised regarding such.
This then kick-started his film-making career and it is through the same
process that his later film “Objectified” came about.
However when coming up with the ideas for films such as
Helvetica and Objectified he didn’t want to go ahead and make the film straight
off, as he needed to gauge if there was a market for such a film. Due to this
concern he makes use of crowd funding platforms such as Kickstarter, both to
gauge the popularity of an idea and to raise the money to start the initial
stages off.
He advises us to not feel locked into a set path and to
think of it as a collection of experiences that is what he has found has
happened with his progression into becoming a film director. Hustwit says it’s
important to do something you love, as clique as that sounds. For example he is
now currently becoming more involved within photography and still photography. A useful word of advise which Vinelli told him is to not get
obsessed with doing something different all the time. He explained when you
create a language, or a typeface such as Helvetica, don’t be afraid to use it
with other things. How I view this is like a signature, if there is something
that works and represents your style then don’t be scared to use it in
different projects.
At the end he opened the lecture to questions and answers to
which another student asked whether Helvetica was his favourite font. In
response to this Hustwit explained that he is very much “in the sans serif camp”,
however although he uses Helvetica on occasion it isn’t his favourite font. He
understands the purpose for the font and its modern appeal at the time of its
creation though finds it to be very self-propagating in nature.
