OPTIMA:  It’s a font.  It’s kinda everywhere.  And it’s quite possibly my favorite typeface.  Gasp!  I’m a graphic designer and Helvetica isn’t my favorite font?!  Don’t get me wrong.  Helvetica is great and all that jazz, and it’s in my Top 5, but Optima is my numero uno.  My Optimus Prime if you will.

Here are some places you may have seen Optima without realizing it:

Aston Martin (try not to drool)

Clinique cosmetics

Estee Lauder cosmetics

Freedom Bank of Virginia (actually, I might be wrong about this one.  Here the “G” is wrong — refer to Jaguar.  I could’ve sworn it looked right on the building…)

Jaguar (eat your heart out)

2008 McCain-Palin campaign (III know, I know.)

Peugeot

Slim-Fast

Washington SPACES Magazine (except they don’t use it on their website…?)

Brenneman & Pagenstecher website

Versace is sooo close but is not Optima — according to MyFont.coms it’s Peignot Demi.  Others look like they have been tinkered with, but I assume they are still from the Optima family.  And that is one good looking family, if I do say so myself.

It’s hard to say why I like this particular font the best other than “I just like it.”  I think it’s because when you first see it, it has a very rigid, plain, serious appearance, but then you see its subtleties and change your mind.  It’s all in the details — it’s thoughtful and refined.  It has quiet elegance, prestige, authority…  it seems trustworthy (if a font can be trusted?)  And it’s just straight up classy and confident.  Basically, it has all the characteristics I wish I had.  Guess that explains why I used it for my main website!

Is it weird that I just personified a font?  Becase it seems like second nature to me.  You know how they say that pets look like their owners?  Same rule applies to typography.

—UPDATE 1/20/10—
Found two more examples:

2010 Golden Globes font

DRY IDEA Deoderant (works very well, btw); they made a few tweaks on the Y and E, but othwise pretty identifiable as Optima.