I watched an excellent movie a few weeks ago; it was Helvetica by filmmaker Gary Hustwit.

I thought it was excellent because of its insights into the design field, the process of design and the thoughts of the designers themselves. I thought it was also excellent because it avoided the slanted perspective that most documentaries seem to come from.

You might ask, “Could someone really feel that strongly about a font?” to which I would reply, “Certainly.” I might not be in the ranks of people who hate particular fonts, but I have seen people who did — I didn’t realize until the other day that apparently there are plenty of schoolteachers who hate Comic Sans. It seems that the rest use it exclusively. Hustwit interviews people who think that Helvetica represents homogenization and loss of identity and also people who think of it as the height of design in the 20th century.

To all of you (read: nerds) who are interested in how “things” are designed, I would recommend this movie. You might find it as quotable as I did.