A Blu-ray version of the Helvetivca documentary has been announced today. This limited-edition versions comes in a 12″ gatefold record cover created by amazingly talented Experimental Jetset. It contains the Blu-ray disc on one side and a fold-out poster in the other, all housed in a custom black cloth record bag. 1,500 copies have been produced and each copy is signed by director Gary Hustwit.
This thing is freakin’ gorgeous! I want one so bad but the price is a little steep, $125. You can pre-order it now and it will ship on May 6th. There’s also a standard Blu-ray version that’s only $26.
Now I have to explain to my wife why I’m spending $125 on a DVD.
First I spend $75 on a limited edition Helvetica DVD and now I’m considering spending $125 on yet another limited edition Helvetica DVD.
I’m going to go broke but it just seems so worth it for this.
wahoo! i just bought the hd dvd version of helvetica!
Sucka!
but it was 10% off!
I saw this today as well. Although I want it oh oh so badly, I doubt I will be ordering. The price is a bit steep for me. I fought to get one of the original limited edition sets (I was one of the few and proud that got one of the extra 50 in the 2 minutes it took to sell out).
I know eventually i’ll upgrade to blu-ray, but i think the price tag is just a tad high for me. Along with that fact, I don’t “need” it, but still…
Josh, I hear ya man. I don’t even own a Blu-ray player yet. I really only want it cause it’s a piece designed by my favorite studio.
holy s**t
Conceptually similar to Peter Megert’s famous Westinghouse cover: http://www.flickr.com/photos/20745656@N00/413975598/
Resisting the urge to get a Blue Ray player to have an excuse to get this.
Jesse, that Westinghouse brochure is amazingly beautiful! And we admit, the similarity to our sleeve is eery. But honestly, this is the first time we’ve seen it. We had no previous knowledge of this brochure. You just have to take our word for it.
Our starting point was the gramophone record. We divided that record into different ‘tracks’. In our first sketches, these tracks were still irregular. It was only later that we decided to make all the tracks the same length. The idea to rotate the type had to do with the idea of a spinning disc. So we do think the concept is different.
We also wanted to make the type unrecognizable; something that doesn’t happen in the Westinghouse brochure.
What makes it strangely similar are those white circle outlines. But that decision, to make the outlines white, was very logical. Without the white lines, it just becomes a mess.
So yeah, what to say?
If we had seen this Westinghouse thing before, we would have certainly changed our design for the sleeve. This really ruined our day. But thanks for pointing us to the link anyway!
Experimental Jetset.
EJ,
Of course, I never meant to accuse, there are obvious (inherent) differences in your design. It is a very sound concept following the content, sorry to dampen the day,
Jesse
Hey Jesse, no need to excuse, it’s good to know the existence of the brochure, so that we are prepared when people ask us about it. It’s a good Flickr page, actually. All the best, EJ.
I can see how the Westinghouse brochure is similar but I think the two executions are very different in my opinion. The Westinghouse brochure is easy to read and the sectioned aren’t as rotated.
The EJ version creates a lot of beautiful shapes and it becomes an nice abstract piece instead of a block of copy.
yeah, I’m still here staring at it.
Every time time I see it, I want it more.
It is a really really nice design but it is packaging for a small disc? to me it seems totally over the top. is this really setting a good example of sustainable design?
Jim if you check out the link you can read an explination by EJ on why they used a record size. This is a limited edition piece. If you need it to fit in your DVD shelf then just get the standard version.
Earlier on this blog, there is a link to MultiAdaptor. Their identity for Michael Bodiam Photography is also executed in a similar way, but is conceptually very different.
Antonio,. I think you misunderstood my point, I understand why it is made up like a record sleeve. My problem wasn’t that i wanted a case to fit on my DVD shelf, I’m just questioning the amount of packaging, relative to the product it’s housing, from a purely enviromental viewpoint. I was just throwing it out there, just becasue EJ are amazing designers doesn’t mean we can’t question the ethical nature of such a production.
Jim, I didn’t mean for my post to be an attack on you. Sorry if it came off that way. If EJ didn’t have a reason or purpose for the size of the piece then one might agree. I also think that the effects this packaging will have on the environment will be very very minimal.
Yeh I agree this single piece won’t have a big effect on the environment of course, but when you multiply it by 1000’s of limited edition packages being created across the world all using extragent amounts of packaging then it does have an effect. However, in these case as they are bought to be kept and cherished its not such a big deal i agree, but i think the principle is important. Anyway I realise this is straying from the focus of your blog which is brilliant so thanks!
I’m a bit late to this as I just saw this post. I apologize in advance because I can never keep my comments short.
In regards to the discussion about the similarities to the EJ record package to Peter Megert’s Westinghouse brochure, I think we’ve all been in the situation where you have this great idea in your head and sketch it out to find out later on your way back home that someone else already did it on a huge billboard. At least once, or perhaps you’ve never seen that other piece out there but there probably is one.
This is by no means plagiarism but simply coincidence. Sometimes you are lucky enough to see it before it hits the press and sometimes not. So is the case with this.
I was once told by an instructor that everything has already been created, but most likely not within the same context. This is where your piece could stand out. Not to say go copy everything out there but to simply see it as a coincidence. Just think about how many designers are there in the world? for how many years? and you still think you are creating everything from scratch.? You might think that way but I must say it is subconsciously in your head. As our fellow designer Paul Rand once said “Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.” Take this as a “focus on being good” rather than “focus on being original” because you might just fail. There are millions of similarities out there.
What ever the case might be. What are the possibilities of owning this Westinghouse piece? If you are bothered about this issue, just take this as a homage to Peter Megert’s design and have a chance to hold this beautifully printed design piece of work from Experimental Jetset.
The price is a bit steep but hey, so many woman spend quite some hundreds on Coach purses or what ever brand…This is my Coach purse!. Give it some years and the cost would be double so get it while they last. There’s your excuse to buy it.
Javier, well done. I totally agree.