In response to the insane amount of demand in the city by the bay, we’ve added a second screening in SF, a 10pm screening at the Embarcadero. Tickets are only available here, so get on it.

The German screening tour last week was fantastisch: great cities, great people, and great events. The day after the Typo event, we had a matinee screening at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Berlin. I was a little blurry from the Typo afterparty (which went till like 6am) but had a great time with a full room of students who’d turned out. The best (or worst) part was that midway through the screening, one of the component video extension cables on the video projector stopped working and everything in the film turned pink. Severin Wucher, a professor at the school and organizer of the event, discovered that if you held the two ends of the cables together and squeezed, the picture went back to normal. So for the last 40 minutes of the film, Severin valiantly held the two ends of the cables together, squeezed hard, and Helvetica played on…

I decided to rent a car in Berlin and drive to the next four German screenings, and then on to Paris. Everyone I met in Germany seemed surprised by this (train travel between cities is the norm there) but I think it makes all the difference. And driving in Europe was a cinch with Sabine along for the trip. “Sabine” is now the official name for the female voice in those satellite navigation systems, coined by Jesse Epstein on the road trip back from the Full Frame festival. I think Jesse was sitting in the back seat, and somehow read “Garmin”, the brand name of the navigation system, as “Sabine”. Jesse proceeded to ask Sabine for advice about the guy she was dating. Sabine responded by telling her to turn left in 500 feet.

Handmade posters from HBK Braunschweig. 10 euro for the series of 3, email jpetri(at)macnews.de

The trip started at the beautiful campus of the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, where the students made a series of one-of-a-kind letterpressed posters. The screening was lovely, with professor Jörg Petri opening the evening with a powerpoint on why he hated Helvetica. The after-screening dinner and subsequent dance party strecthed far into the wee hours, and at some stage I found myself behind the turntables spinning Grandmaster Flash and Abba. To the crew at the Silverstube… light another sparkler for me.

Then it was on to Bad Homburg for an afternoon screening for the employees at Linotype and a few special guests, including Manfred Schulz, the gentleman who we featured in the opening title sequence of the film setting all that old metal type Helvetica. Manfred used to work for the German type foundry Stempel, one of the licensors of Helvetica and the company responsible for the typeface’s name change in 1961. Also present were Otmar Hoefer and Bruno Steinert, who both appear in the film. Otmar brought a crate of special Bavarian beer from his hometown, so the German revelry continued.

The students in Mainz working the merch

But later that evening I crowned a new champion in the ongoing informal “which school can make the best Helvetica promotional items” battle: the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz, Germany. They had the great concept of making a 3-D paper mobile of Helvetica letters and filming the mobile moving and rotating. The video was shown on screen as the crowds came in prior to the film, and an image of the mobile became the theme for their postcards, posters, and t-shirts.

The screening room at KUZ, Mainz

The mobile image was also printed on popcorn bags! And there were people walking the line outside, selling freshly baked Helvetica pretzels! All that, and an amazing venue: the Kuz, a huge converted factory that hosts touring bands and big events. During the screening (I don’t stay and watch the film anymore… let’s just say I’ve seen it a few times already. I usually head to a bar during the screening and come back for the Q&A!) I walked down to the Rhine, where people were hanging out by the riverside as the sun set. Germany in the springtime is amazing. Thanks to Boris Markic and everyone in Mainz for hosting.

The next day I drove to Saarbrücken for a screening the Hochschule für Bildende Künste there. I was pretty excited that there was a laundromat near the school… after two weeks on the road I needed to wash some socks! Saarbrücken is yet another incredibly beautiful German city, nestled into hillsides of trees. After the screening we were treated to some traditional Saarland bar-b-que, prepared on a huge circular rotating grill (I don’t have any pix of this, but it was pretty impressive), and some excellent DJing. Thanks to Soenke, Indra, and everyone at HBK Saar for rocking it.

The next morning I arose at 6am, and Sabine and I started the drive to Paris…

Tickets for the Washington DC-area premiere at the AFI Silverdocs Festival on June 16 are now on sale. Go get ‘em.

Update: Advance tickets for this event are now sold out. There should be rush tickets available at the door, check Silverdoc’s site for details on how to rush, and get there early.

Berlin was the center of the design world last week, with the latest edition of FontShop’s annual Typo event. Although the event centers around type, each year features a theme, and this year’s was music. The curators stayed on-target with three days of music and type-themed panels and presentations. Who knew there were so many type designers that are also musicians? (Hans Reichel, Wolframm, The House Industries guys, Rob Meek). Obviously graphic design plays a huge role in album cover art, and there were several presentations on the subject, including one from Kim Hiorthoy, who also contributed music to Helvetica.

I also (reluctantly) got into the act, by doing a panel about the making of the film in which I focused on the soundtrack. What does Helvetica sound like? I also talked a little about my background in music, punk rock, DIY creative action, surfing, and other miscellaneous topics. I’d never done one of these Powerpoint-style presentations, and hopefully won’t have to again. But it was pretty hilarious looking out from the stage at 300 people while I blasted Black Flag’s “Rise Above” at full volume, followed by Sonic Youth’s “Catholic Block”. I’m not sure what that had to do with the making of the film, but it sure was fun.

The closing event of Typo was the German Premiere of Helvetica. 1,000 people descended on the Cinestar Cubix theaters for the event, which was sponsored by Linotype. That’s a new attendance record for the film! Although we couldn’t fit everyone in one room… 750 were in the main theater, and 250 in a second overflow screen. Verdammnt!

Thanks to Viktor Nuebel and the team at FontShop for organizing a great weekend.

FontShop’s Stephen Coles and Yves Peters at the premiere

1,000 people + free Proseco (thanks Linotype!) + a small foyer

The series of Helvetica-themed food items continues with this delicious letterform at the sold-out Philadelphia screening at Westphal College at Drexel last week. (And of course, it’s Swiss cheese.) Thanks Westphal!

Tickets for the Chicago Premiere event June 15th at the Siskel Center are now on sale. I’ll be there to introduce the 6pm and 8:15pm screenings on the 15th, and do Q&A’s after. These will go quick, get on it.

Another week, another slew of great cities and shows. It started with a sold-out Kansas City screening organized by AIGA KC. No, I didn’t get to eat any BBQ, but I did have a great time, culminating with a late-night surprise gig by the band Aqualung. The KC crew also made very nice “What the Helvetica?” shirts. Special thanks to Christine Taylor and everyone in Kansas City for inviting me.

Then it was off to the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, for another sold-out screening. Dave Filipi, film curator at the center, told the audience that only Martin Scorcese and Jim Jarmusch’s appearances had sold-out faster. But were those guys out in the lobby selling t-shirts after their screenings? No way. Gotta keep it real. And when in Columbus, eat at Surly Girl Saloon, an excellent cafe in town (owned by one of the members of Ohio indie legends Scrawl) that serves a mean spaghetti with chili.

Dave Filipi intros the Wexner screening

Next stop: north to Montreal. I’d never been to Montreal before, and I really enjoyed my weekend there hosted by Matt Soar and the Logo Cities symposium at Concordia University. Our screening there was the biggest single-room crowd we’ve had, over 550 people. And more custom Helvetica-related shirts! Merci Montreal!

Concordia volunteers with their donation boxes

Then I headed west to lovely Calgary for a private screening for the employees at Veer, and a public screening at the Uptown Stage & Screen, a fantastic cinema/lounge from the ’50s. HBO happened to be holding a cast and crew screening for a film they’d shot in Calgary, and had brought in some insane HD projection system, which we got to piggyback on. The result was the best quality projection I’ve seen of the film so far. Special thanks to Tanis Shortt at Veer and Gwen Hetherington of GDC Alberta South for organizing this great evening.

I awoke at 5am the next morning and flew to Western New York for two screenings as part of Typo Fest, organized by Hallwalls, WNY Book Arts Collective, AIGA Upstate NY, P22 Type Foundry, and others. The Buffalo and Rochester screenings were both great, but I’ve got to hand it to the students at RIT. They put together the best collection of collateral material of any screening we’ve had so far… t-shirts, multiple posters, Vignelli-inspired subway signs, a musuem quality Helvetica exhibit, even a giant Helvetica rice crispy treat. RIT has officially set the bar in terms of attention to detail. Thanks everyone!

As an added treat at the Rochester event, RIT brought Hermann Zapf over from Germany! Talk about a special guest. RIT had recently collaborated with Zapf on the limited-edition book Alphabet Stories, and he was signing copies at the RIT library for five hours. Because when Hermann Zapf signs a book for you, he doesn’t just scribble “Best Wishes”. He executes a beautiful calligraphic rendering of your initials, which took around five minutes per person. While he signed my book, I thanked him for appearing in the film (albeit briefly). He responded by telling me to get my hand off the table, I was moving it and he couldn’t concentrate on the calligraphy…

PDX Fest in Portland is a documentary and experimental film festival started by Matt McCormick, filmmaker and founder of DVD label Peripheral Produce. In its 11th year, the festival showcased a deep range of shorts and features, including a tribute to the late filmmaker Helen Hill.

The Helvetica screening was sold out and we had our biggest single room ever, 475 people. A bunch of my old friends from the San Diego days came out as well. Props to Bill, Saul, and Greg O’Dell, and sorry you couldn’t make it Dede! More props to AIGA Portland and Extensis for helping fill the seats.

The closing party at the Moon and Sixpence was good fun, with David Carson making another rare appearance to join in the debauchery. PDX Fest head honchos Gretchen and Matt were exhausted but happy to hoist a few pints in celebration:

Thanks to everyone who came out to the show, eveyone at the festival, and to Cat Tyc and the boathouse crew.

With all the time I’m spending waiting around in airports lately, you’d think I’d at least be up to date with my blogging. Alas, ’tis not to be. So here’s a few catch-up posts from the past week of the tour:

We had two packed screenings at the old Main Beach Theater in Laguna Beach… a place where I used to take dates in high school! And we even shared a marquee with (and out-grossed) Blades of Glory. Nice. Thanks to everyone at LCAD and AIGA OC for organizing the event.

We also screened at USC the following night, where they had what has now become somewhat of a tradition: the Helveticake. Instead of adhering to Modernist cake design principles, the bakers boldly chose to decorate the letters with Postmodern sugar swirls, polka dots, and other ornamentation banned in Basel. Somehow I managed to blow out the candles on all 9 letters…

Matthew Carter and I participated in a very nice discussion the following day. It was supposed to be about Helvetica, but as I’m a little bored discussing it, we turned it into a more of a Matthew Carter interview, with me doing my best Charlie Rose impression. Here’s Matthew getting stalked for an autograph afterwards:

Special thanks to the USC Design Department for hosting. No thanks to the USC AV department though (long story)…