Every now and then a mainstream publication runs an article that does a great disservice to designers. Yesterday BusinessWeek went ahead and published a piece entitled “For Logo Power, Try Helvetica”. Unsurprisingly, this little number was found in the marketing section.

Don’t get me wrong; BusinessWeek has been a strong advocate for design. In the same vein, I think Helvetica is a fantastic typeface, as you may have noticed in a previous post. But just because Helvetica has been seen communicating for companies like American Airlines, Microsoft, 3M, and kor group, doesn’t necessarily make it a suitable fit for all of Corporate America.

Most business owners, marketing managers, and entrepreneurs know very little about typography. Thankfully, they don’t need to; these folks are able to solicit the services of kor group or another fine purveyor of graphic design. Admittedly, I appreciate design getting a little bit of the lime light. However, if we’re going to educate the public on matters of design, shouldn’t we start with some fundamentals? Not once is the term ’sans-serif’ mentioned. Predictably, only quotable phrases like “strong visually” and “modern” are used to describe this typeface.

So, BusinessWeek, while I know that fundamental design education doesn’t make for an eye-catching headline, you may want to stick to giving your readers valuable information as opposed to a catch-all design solution. You can have too much of a good thing.