Spotted by Megan Whitcher, via Matt Soar.

Hi-def heads get ready: Plexifilm is currently working on a Blu-ray high definition DVD of Helvetica, which will be available May 6th. This announcement will surely push the HD debate in favor of the Blu-ray format once and for all.

Dutch design team Experimental Jetset has been commissioned to design a special edition of the Blu-ray package… all we can say is that a 12″ gatefold record cover is involved… more details soon.

Some of you may have caught the 48-hour free view of Helvetica on Google Video… uhm, that wasn’t legit. In our efforts to have Google take the video down, I got a few emails that went something like this comment, from a chap named Raymond Pirouz:

I learned about the movie through Google Video. Because of that exposure — however illegal or unauthorized — I am going to purchase it, and I suspect that others who were exposed to it thorugh Google Video may do the same. Those who were exposed to it and will not purchase it may not have ever purchased it anyway, but they had the opportunity to be exposed to information with a positive impact on their lives. How is this a bad thing? I think that movie producers (especially independent minded documentary producers whose films can actually lead to sales of associated products as you so generously offer on your web site) can only gain by increasing the exposure of your movies to as wide an audience as you possibly can. Services like Google Video should not be seen as a “place for seedy pirates” but as a venue for generating publicity and product awareness.

You are not getting a high-quality video there, but you are being exposed to videos that — if you actually like — you can purchase and/or support in other ways. I have told several people about the video because I saw it on Google Video — and I suspect others have done the same. Why would you want to lose that type of free publicity? We need to begin using the new paradigm that the internet affords us instead of sticking to the old world mentalities as promoted by the likes of Hollywood and the such. Think about it.

Well, I have thought about it. And for certain work (music videos come to mind), where it strategically makes sense to give it away free, I believe in it. But the problem with the New Paradigm is that the numbers don’t always add up. Tens of thousands of people watched the film free on Google in the past two days (it was the #1 most watched video today). Do you know how many people have emailed asking how they can support the film? Two people. There’s been no increase in traffic to this site, and no change in our normal daily mail order sales. Most of the blogs and sites that embedded the Google video window weren’t even linking to our site, they weren’t acknowledging that it was an independent film made by us. And they were even selling ads around the video (i.e., making money), some had Google text ads that were tagged for fonts, typography, etc.

And in terms of generating awareness and publicity through online video, isn’t that what all those clips we uploaded to YouTube are for? I think you can get the idea of what the film’s about from those, and decide if you’re interested.

My biggest issue is that it should be the artist’s decision whether to release their work for free. I don’t think it’s fair that someone else can decide to give my work away, and profit from it. We’ve talked about letting people stream Helvetica for free from our website, but for now we’re still focused on DVD sales, TV broadcasts, and other “old school” distribution models. I realize that this may be the last year that those old models will still even work.

The Google video has been taken down, but someone else will probably try to upload it again, and then we’ll take it down again, etc., because if we’re going to upload the film for people to watch for free, we’re going to do so on our own terms. Again, I’m ambivalent about this issue… I can see the benefits of both sides, so let me hear what all of you think about it. You might sway me.

And I’d love to hear from people who’ve already purchased the DVD… how would you feel if the film were suddenly available online for free?

The organizers of a new documentary award, The Cinema Eye Honors, announced their nominations list this week at Sundance Film Festival. We’re honored that the work of Trollbäck & Co in Helvetica was nominated in the Motion Graphics category. The awards will be given out at a ceremony on March 18 at the IFC Center in New York. Congratulations to designer Emre Veryeri, Jakob Trollbäck, and everyone at Trollbäck and Co.

The Design Museum London has announced the shortlist for their Designs of the Year Awards, and Helvetica was included. The folks over at Creative Review give a rundown of the nominees. They’ve also anointed us the frontrunner:

“It’s a strong shortlist and a quirky one. As for predictions of the winner, in terms of impact and ambition, Helvetica is going to be hard to beat…”

Which means we’re definitely not going to win!

Merch update: we are officially sold out of the limited-edition prints from David Carson… and there are less than 10 copies left of the Norm and Build prints.

More new screenings have been scheduled for: Pittsburgh, Pleasantville (with guest star Michael Bierut), Tulsa, Tallahassee, Mesa, Santa Barbara, Seattle, Edmonton, Ithaca, Rochester, and Wales. See the screening schedule. Also the San Francisco cinema run at the Roxie has been extended again, until January 16th.

But apparently he doesn’t like it when people watch his films on cell phones. I agree. And that tinkly iPhone music kills me.

The San Francisco cinema run at the Roxie has been extended until January 10th. Sure, you can watch the film on DVD now, but it doesn’t come close to seeing it on the big screen with a bunch of other font junkies!