Ten years ago, Brooklyn filmmaker Gary Hustwit began filming what he described as a “geeky side project”: a documentary about typography and graphic design called Helvetica. What started as a side project soon turned into a mini-phenomenon that became the foundation for two other documentaries: Objectified, which focused on the human relationship with manufactured objects, and Urbanized, which focused on urban planning and design.
Interestingly enough, Helvetica was Hustwit’s first foray into filmmaking and he was instantly launched into cult status in design circles. Unsurprisingly, one of the most sought-after items by fans was the iconic “Meet the Cast” movie poster; a must-have for design studios and font nerds alike. But, he ran out of them pretty fast. In celebration of the 10th anniversary of Helvetica, Hustwit has turned to Kickstarter to give fans another opportunity to get in on the full-sized 27″ x 39″ theater display case-ready prints.
Says Hustwit:
“We sold the original run of posters from the film’s website and on the road at screenings. But by 2009, when my second film, Objectified, was released, we’d run out of stock, and since our attention was on the new film (and its lovely poster designed by Build) we never reprinted it. For the past seven years, people have been asking when we’d bring the Helvetica poster back. So that’s the beauty of Kickstarter, if enough of you want one of these posters, we’ll do the reprint!”
In addition to the 27″ x 39″ poster, which will be offset printed in New York in black and Pantone 032 red ink on thick matte poster stock, there is also a 16.5″ x 23″ letterpressed version of the design that comes with an actual piece of vintage Helvetica metal type.
Just $25 gets you a poster shipped anywhere in the world. Find out more over at Kickstarter. Does this mean we can expect a reprint of the sold-out Objectified poster in the near future, too?
