I have to admit that I never payed much attention to the typefaces around me and the subtle differences between them before I saw the film "Helvetica". Type was just there to be read. However, since I saw the film, I started to intensely stare at all types of signs, asking myself: Is this Helvetica?
Below I gathered some examples, where I think I spotted Helvetica on my way from Germany to Dublin airport:
It is very interesting to see how widely it is used, probably because of the good legibility and the clarity of the characters. However, I have to agree with what Erik Spiekermann said in the film that Helvetica needs a lot of white space to really look good, as it is very "round in the middle". Considering this, I think that the typeface also dictates a certain style/design and just using Helvetica or a few similar fonts would be very restrictive to the creativity. On the other hand, if designers restrict themselves in this way and just use a few fonts it saves them from looking at hundreds of fonts to find "the right one", which can be very tedious.
Personally, I would not limit myself to Helvetica, but there is definitely a time and place for this typeface.
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