Beautiful and functional; it's hard to find a place where it won't work. Some people love it, some hate it, and others think it's just "there". Regardless of personal perspectives, it's a heck of a nice workhorse.

Perhaps "hyped" too much for its own good, type-guru Erik Spiekermann's Meta became known as the "Helvetica of the nineties". It's a pretty amazing set of letterforms that seems to have a very distinctive feel in any materials. I wouldn't run a machine without this type family on it. (It's now available in a serif as well!)

Robert Slimbach's Minion is a beautiful and functional serif family that features swashes, small caps, extensive ligatures, and even a number of ornaments. It's accommodates a wide-number of uses, and is incredibly flexible.

I love this family; it makes me look like a better designer. So many gradual shifts in weight allow the obsessive temperament in me to select exactly the right weight for the task at hand. I've sent fan mail to Jonathan and Tobias (the fellows at Hoefler & Frere-Jones) as a result of these faces.