Helvetica and Fairchild Semiconductor

This is from another poster we're printing for the Helvetica screening. It's by Fairchild Semiconductor. I don't know Mr Semiconductor, or at least I don't think I do, and don't know his work intimately but I really like this poster. I think it's really interesting.

I like it because it's for the screening that we're very excited about and I actually like the look of it. And I like the idea. The message is coded. It's literally coded and it's conceptionally coded in that you have to work out what the hell it's all about and I like that. But it is all there if you look hard enough. It's cunning too but I won't say why, I'll let you work that out (you'll have to download the pdf to see it properly). It's its cunningness that I really like.

Download fairchild_semiconductor.pdf

I should actually say a big public THANK YOU to Northside, our digital printer, for sponsoring the event by taking care of the posters for us. Specifically to Maria for looking after it.

Thanks Maria.

If anyone's interesting in coming to see the film, you can register and buy tickets here.

Comments

[Ulysses or a newspaper]

Ha ha ha, invalid code! This Helvetica promotion is all wrong!!

[Richard]

Are your sure? It works perfectly for me.

[Ulysses or a newspaper]

It working in browser (designed to correct such errors) and the code being correct are two different things. It raises a warning over the supporters section.

It is quite clever, but if you are going for clever, you have to be correct in what you do. I'd like to think this error is implicit.

[davidthedesigner]

Here's what you get if you set the code: http://celsius.co.uk/helvetica/

Looks OK to me.

[Richard]

Funnily enough David, when I go to your link it looks a little wrong to me. I'll take it up with Fairchild when I meet him. If indeed, he actually exists.

[davidthedesigner]

Well, admitted there's a funny indent on the sub-head and the £ sign's been replaced with a ?, and goodness knows what's going on with the supporters. But you can read the important bits, which is the important bit.

I can't believe I'm sat here debating code - I think I need to get out more (Belfast for a movie, maybe).

[ManxStef]

He’s right: “Line 133 column 93” is a terminating p tag that’s not been opened. Doesn’t really matter, that’s not exactly a catastrophic markup error, but hey.

davethedesigner: your site’s appended a whole load of extra markup at the end there, think that’s why it looks funky.

Here’s how it looks clean:
http://stefpause.com/temp/acejet_helvetica/

Escaping some of the entities, such as middot in the supporters section and the umlaut, would’ve been an idea, these may not display correctly across browsers & OSes. I’d also use typographers’ quotes, otherwise the typophiles might complain!

If I was being super–picky, I’d argue that suffixing “Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif”, while standard practice in CSS styling, shouldn’t have been applied here as it’ll mean that, should the user not have Helvetica Neue or Helvetica installed, they’ll see it in — gasp! — Arial. Sacrilege! ;)

I do think it’s a clever idea, I’d certainly stop and parse through the poster if I saw it. Definitely appeals to a certain geek subset of designers, such as myself. Good job!

[Richard]

Fun with code! How winter night's just fly by!

Thanks Stef. Good point about those other fonts. Very good point actually.

David, we've got an air bed you can sleep on if you can make it; you'll have missed the last bus home.

[davidthedesigner]

Unfortunately Belfast is a long, long way from my patch, but thanks for the offer. I guess I'll just have to hold on until it comes over to this side of the water.

[Tyson]

I'm somewhat disappointed he didn't include the IE hacks he has in the rendered version* of the poster. Such a thing is so near and dear to a webdesigner's heart. Plus, any chance to poke fun at IE's inadequacies should be exploited to the fullest extent =)

Fantasic work none-the-less =) Reminds me of a less intense version of a piece EA did in Vancouver for hiring: http://www.scaryideas.com/print/96/

* http://www.fairchildsemiconductor.org/works/helvetica/

[Mr. One-Hundred]

ummm... How about the last half of the last line of code which reads

Render: http://www.fairchildsemiconductor.org/works/helvetica/

Much quicker this way.

[Christopher Murphy]

Goodness, I must pass on the link to these comments to Fairchild Semiconductor (they will, I'm sure appreciate the nerd focus of this discussion!).

I don't know who they are (I think there are two or three people involved). They got in touch a while back and we recently published a collaboration between themselves and Fallt designers Fehler:

http://www.fallt.com/offset/one_hundred_days

It's a piece visualising the daily civilian casualty toll in Iraq that we've published in a number of newspapers and magazines.

Anyway, really looking forward to meeting Mr Hustwit himself tomorrow and the ensuing screening. With the week we're having a glass of wine after the film won't go amiss either.

Can I just add my thanks, along with Richard's to Northside, specifically Maria, their support has been invaluable.