I would say that Helvetica is most certainly a viable choice for design. Helvetica is great for when you want to present text that appears both modern yet extre

I would say that Helvetica is most certainly a viable choice for design. Helvetica is great for when you want to present text that appears both modern yet extremely neutral. The MIT Technology [1] review uses a lot of Arial and Neue Haas Grotesk, which is the metal predecessor to Helvetica. I may have some bias since I am a fan of the Helvetica documentary. Regardless of my preferences I think designers who reject Helvetica due to its popularity value originality more than practicality. In something like an art museum, or a fast food restaurant, originality is very important—people need to know what sets you apart from the rest! For something like code documentation or a technical manual, Helvetica is a great choice. When someone is reading my documentation, they have a very specific goal in mind, and the text I'm writing needs to serve a very explicit purpose. If the reader is thinking about anything that's not the literal contents of the text, there is room for improvement in the design of the content (IMO). If you are intentional with your use of Helvetica, it can be a great choice. If it is obvious that you picked the default typeface, then your design will suffer. 1: https://www.technologyreview.com/ https://www.technologyreview.com/