Frutiger and Helvetica are solid but boring. They've been used, used and used again.

If I was in you're shoes, I'd look at Farnham as a serif, and FF Bau or FF Super Grotesk B as sans options.

Farnham, recently released from exclusivity by Font Bureau, is a lively serif that won't alarm a conservative audience, but looks like it would a lot of fun to work with. You could use it for display purposes, too.

FF Bau and FF Super Grotesk B (note the B: it's the version with the two-story a and g) offer more interest and character than Helvetica, and their liveliness, especially in the bold and black weights, would match Farnham's "exuberance," as the Font Bureau site puts it.

You might consider adding a slab serif to the mix for display purposes. Since you'd be using it sparingly, as a spice rather than a main ingredient, something a little quirky, like Oxtail (from PsyOps), might work.

http://www.fontbureau.com/fonts/Farnham

http://www.fontshop.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=catalog.fontpackage&displayfontid=FF.11312.0.0

http://www.fontshop.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=verity.search&font_categories_search=font_name_search&searchstr=super+grotesk+b&image.x=27&image.y=10

http://www.psyops.com/html/spec_oxtail.html

SOPHISTO (headlines/body copy), STALEMATE (headlines) and DELICATO (body copy/headlines) are all solid and functional typefaces living up to modern needs. Find them (and others) here: http://www.macrhino.com

PS. Thanks Marc for mentioning Oxtail

William, I'm quite fond of Helvetica Neue as well. If you decide to go with Frutiger instead, take a look at Frutiger Next, a revised version of the family released a few years ago. It includes, amoung other things, a true italic (instead of the old obliques).

http://www.linotype.com/53781/frutigernext-family.html

Another interesting headline option, if you like Frutiger's work, is the new version of Avenir that Adrian Frutiger created last year with Akira Kobayashi, Avenir Next. This version of Avenir is far superior to the original 1988 release. It has a better family system (more clear differentiation of the various weights), condensed weights, small caps, and old style as well as lining figures. Plus, it is available in OpenType format.

http://www.linotype.com/90672/avenirnext-family.html

For the body text, I recommend Sabon Next, which was designed by one of Typophile's best contributors, Jean Fran

Thank you for good suggestions, Marc, Stefan, and Dan!

Marc,
Farnham was a very good idea! So was FF Bau and FF Super Grotesk B, but after having tested, it seems to me that these two font packages don't comprise Latin-1 characters and special characters. That's really sad, because the two, the FF Super Grotesk B in particular, had that something "extra". In fact they would have been my first choice. :-(

Dan,
I must say I like the Avenir Next, too. It sails up as one of my personal favorites right now. But is the Avenir Next Italic a true italic? Sabon Next is a font that many have recommended to me. The big "risk" - to put it that way - is that it may be too similar to Garamond? Anyway, I will definately consider it!

Stefan,
as I write this, it seems to me that the Mac Rhino website is down. They had problems when I tried to access their site earlier today, too, so I have not had the oportunity to take a closer look on their fonts.

Stefan, Dan, and Marc,
Thanks again. So far.


WW

Glad the suggestions were useful, William.

I'm not sure what you mean about "Latin-1 and special characters," but before you give up, contact the folks at FontShop to see if there's a version of the font that would work.

I've spoken with people at FontShop USA and FontShop Canada and they've always been very helpful.

Will will do. :-)

Latin-1 Character set:
http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/entities/utf8.html

Special Entities:
http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/entities/special.html

William, Avenir Next's italic is an oblique, not a true italic (come to think of it, many of Frutiger's typefaces use obliques; I wonder if that is his personal preference). If you are worried about Sabon Next being too Garamondy, take a look at the original Sabon (also available through Linotype & other distributors

William

MRF is fully operational, must have been some temporary "blackout"on the www, internet supplier etc. Hope you find
the foundry apealing later on when you get access to it ;-)

Cheers/SH