Otmar hoefer biography channel

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture.

It was GGL who gave the laudatory speech, and he did this in an honourable way, to the delight of Hermann Zapf.

Since 2000, Hans Reichardt and I have been working together on the website for the unique digital type designer archive of the Klingspor Museum in Offenbach and have already created more than 13,600 entries as I write.

It looks at the proliferation of one typeface as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.

Helvetica is a cinematic exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type. Helvetica encompasses the worlds of design, advertising, psychology, and communication, and invites us to take a second look at the thousands of words we see every day.

Interviewees in Helvetica include some of the most illustrious and innovative names in the design world, including Erik Spiekermann, Matthew Carter, Massimo Vignelli, Wim Crouwel, Hermann Zapf, Neville Brody, Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Bierut, David Carson, Paula Scher, Jonathan Hoefler, Tobias Frere-Jones, Experimental Jetset, Michael C.

Place, Norm, Alfred Hoffmann, Mike Parker, Bruno Steinert, Otmar Hoefer, Leslie Savan, Rick Poynor, and Lars Müller.

“The real achievement of the film is the way it sharpens your eye in general and makes connections between form and content, and between art and life.” – Chicago Tribune

Helvetica had its World Premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March 2007.

I always wore it in his honour at typography events.

On the occasion of Hermann Zapf’s 80th birthday in November 1998, we organised a big celebration at the Kupferberg Terraces in Mainz. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.

I asked my teacher if he could give me leave to attend the event, and he said yes. GGL is also represented there with his fonts in a 9-page PDF.

Here is the direct link: http://www.klingspor-museum.de/KlingsporKuenstler/Schriftdesigner/Lange/GGLange.pdf

In doing this, we hope that young designers who did not know GGL will continue to become familiar with his work and his typefaces in this way.

Otmar Hoefer

HelveticaNowText-Regular Font Download is available free from 8font.com.

Interviewees in Helvetica include some of the most illustrious and innovative names in the design world, including Erik Spiekermann, Matthew Carter, Massimo Vignelli, Wim Crouwel, Hermann Zapf, Neville Brody, Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Bierut, David Carson, Paula Scher, Jonathan Hoefler, Tobias Frere-Jones, Experimental Jetset, Michael C.

Place, Norm, Alfred Hoffmann, Mike Parker, Bruno Steinert, Otmar Hoefer, Leslie Savan, Rick Poynor, Lars Muller, and many more.

documentary feature - 2007 - 80 minutes

Helvetica is a feature-length documentary about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. Helvetica encompasses the worlds of design, advertising, psychology, and communication, and invites us to take a second look at the thousands of words we see every day.

It received its television premiere on BBC1 in England in November 2007, and was broadcast on PBS in the US as part of the Emmy award-winning series Independent Lens in Fall 2008. With bated breath, I sat in the auditorium with the students at the school, eager to follow GGL’s slides and remarks.

A tall man came in, slightly askew and limping, with a war injury that was clearly visible.

What stuck with me?

An excerpt of the film was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Memories of GGL by Otmar Hoefer

In the first months of my apprenticeship as a typesetter, a lecture on typography by Günter Gerhard Lange of H. Berthold AG was to take place at what was then the Offenbach School of Applied Arts, where my father also taught typography.

The film subsequently toured film festivals, special events, and art house cinemas worldwide, playing in over 300 cities in 40 countries. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type.

What I also remember, though, is his recommendation that the best way to ensure the reader’s attention was by using black on yellow – a principle that was later used by Erik Spiekermann for the identity of his FontShop.

After I had finished my studies in Stuttgart, I went to D. Stempel AG and later to Linotype, where I was responsible for a long time for the marketing of the fonts, which means that GGL and I found ourselves to be competitors.

Together with Gerd Gruhl (my counterpart at Berthold) and Bernd Möllenstädt, we met at the ATypI congresses, and DRUPA and Imprinta in Düsseldorf, and exchanged views on the trends in typography.