Helvetica

Helvetica is arguably the most popular typeface in the world. As far I know, Helvetica is the only font to star in its own movie.

Clean-lined and versatile, Helvetica appears all over the place. Right here on the desk is a magazine.



The logo isn't actually Helvetica, but I wanted to show the different weights of type in the logo because this contrast gets repeated throughout the magazine.

Helvetica shows up in the headlines and subheads. The contrast between thick and thin letterforms performs the grammatical function "here is a word," and it works so well that spaces are eliminated without causing confusion:



Note that this doesn't work so well if the stroke weights are not radically different: ABirdintheHand. Bold contrasted with semi-bold is not going to do it. If you're going to use contrast, don't be a wimp! And if you're going to use contrast, Helvetica gives you lots of options, with 34 weights.