Helvetica

In essence, type is a mode of communication - a way of displaying information and ideas in a formulaic manner for a reader to digest and ideally understand. By extension, a font is a set of type that displays itself in a particular style.

Much like a wasp has a yellow and black abdomen to caution other animals, or a woman might dress in red to display an image of lust and health, font gives text a particular fashion to provoke an emotional response to the reader. 

Helvetica is a font that is clean, easy to read and universal; it is a colourless vessel created with the intent of communicating information as efficiently as possible. Because the font itself does not come attached with an inherent character besides efficiency, sometimes the only emotion that can be derived from the font is from the words used in the text.

This is why I like this quote of David Carson's so much. It reminds us that communication is not entirely dependent on our ability to read, or even language in general. Many ideas and emotions can be conveyed in other modes such as colour, texture, sound or gesture to name a few, and though Helvetica is a stable medium for conveying a language often much of the meaning and emotion of the text could be portrayed better, maybe in another font.

- David Carson