Opening (with Manfred Schulz)

(dramatic music) (metal clicking) (upbeat music) - Type is saying things to us all the time. Typefaces express a mood, an atmosphere. They give words a certain coloring. - Everywhere you look you see typefaces, but there's probably one you see more than any other one and that's Helvetica. You know there it is, and it just seems to come from nowhere. You know it seems like air, it seems like gravity. - It's hard to evaluate it. It's like being asked what you think about off-white paint. It's just there, and it's hard to get your head around something that's that big. - And most people who use Helvetica use it because it's ubiquitous. It's like going to McDonald's instead of thinking about food because it's there. It's on every street corner so let's eat crap because it's on the corner. - For me Helvetica is just this beautiful, timeless thing, and certain things shouldn't be messed with, you know? - Graphic design is the communication framework through which these messages about what the world is now and what we should aspire to is the way they reach us. The designer has an enormous responsibility. Those are the people you know putting their wires into our heads.