Just finished watching Helvetica. Have you seen this film? Whoever thought of making a feature documentary about a font? And who knew the ubiquitousness of this font in our lives–something we just take for granted. This is a font that evokes a lot of sentimentality ("classic modernism!") on one side and disdain ("boring") on the other side. Regardless, it’s always fun to listen to designers talk about designing.
New to my bookshelf:
- Close Reading: Chuck Close and the Artist Portrait by Martin Friedman. I’ve never been interested in portraiture, per se, but I loved Strapless (about John Singer Sargent’s Portrait of Madame X) and I suppose I’m interested in the psychology of portraiture. We’ll see. Started reading last night and read more this morning.
- 30 Years Interviews and Outtakes by Michael Auping. This book of interviews comes from the curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
- A Complaint Free World: How to Stop Complaining and Start Enjoying the Life You Always Wanted by Will Bowen. Yep, I’m finally on the bandwagon. I dislike very much when other people complain, so I’d better put my money where my mouth is (or isn’t!). I started reading last night, read more this morning, put on a wrist reminder (until I get the purple bracelet) and am aiming for a complaint-free life.
5 thoughts on “Reading, watching”
Hi Alyson, I just finished reading Close Reading and did a post about it on my blog. I was very impressed with not only the information about Close, but also the other artists portrayed and the writing about their work. There was a great show of Close’s prints here at the Portland Art Museum, Oregon, recently and I became quite intrigued by the artist and the man. I liked him more than I expected. He’s like all of us in some respect, putting in his time in the studio, fairly humble about it.His perseverance is definitely worthy of respect.
Hurray for you on the purple bracelet commitment. It’s an eye opening experience.
I loved the movie Helvetica! The insight into the world of font design and the graphic designers who understand the power of the written word (visually) was fascinating.
I watched this film, then watched it again and then again etc. I too love when designers talk about designing!
I’ve got “Helvetica” in my Netflix queue; now I’m going to move it up! I had an amazing Typography professor at the School of Visual Arts who was more passionate about type than you can imagine…he was able to convey this love of type to us. But I was in the “boring!” camp when it came to Helvetica…
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